THE PRPS NOIR COLLECTION | VINTAGE REINTERPRETED, WORLD CLASS DENIM

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The PRPS NOIR Collection is not about black denim. Noir utilizes the best selvedge denim fabrics available anywhere in the world– with incredibly extensive washes and old school wear, tear & repair details that are authentic to genuine vintage jeans painstakingly collected over the years worn by real miners, mechanics, and laborers alike. Each jean is handmade and can take up to a week to produce. No one is doing denim at this same level. Noir represents the best of PRPS– true collector’s items.

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My Friend Donwan Harrell of PRPS gave me a preview of his yet to be released denim line–Noir. Almost 10 years later, PRPS continues to innovate and evolve denim like no one else. In fact, you can thank Donwan in large part for the Japanese denim phenomenon that we have today– he was the the first American to manufacture jeans in Japan, using Japanese fabric and Japanese construction. No one else was doing it. In the founding days of PRPS, Donwan set out to find the best quality selvedge denim in the world, and it wasn’t at Cone Mills— it was Okayama, Japan. (Back then Cone was really struggling just to stay alive, facing stiff pricing competition from Turkey, India, China– and the whole “Americana, US heritage brands, made in USA” menswear movement hadn’t happened yet, so there wasn’t the appetite like we have today for American selvedge denim from all the denim brands that have cropped-up in recent years…) In search of the old vintage looms, Donwan found a family there that for generations had been keeping the quality and heritage of old school selvedge denim alive. One thing that many don’t realize is that Japanese weaving technology has long been light-years ahead of much of the world. The old Toyoda and Sakamoto shuttle looms dating back many decades were much more advanced than the Draper looms that Cone Mills utilized for Levi’s.

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PRPS Noir jean above features great handworked touches like the distressing, staining, and even the separate leg panel in a different denim fabrication that is expertly joined below the knee by old school back-and-forth stitching. A lot of the hardware is soaked in paint thinner and otherwise abused to  prematurely age it, and the result is a one-of-a-kind pair of jeans that look and feel like they’re straight out of the 1800s – early 1900s. 

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It’s interesting to note, and not well known by all, that PRPS first launched in the European and UK market before they were released in the US, and was carried in iconic shops like Harvey Nichols, and The Duffer of St. George. Donwan explained that back in the day pre-dating the Japanese / selvedge denim phenomenon, The Duffer of St. George was the first shop to bring Japanese denim over to Europe and UK. Prendergast would go himself to Japan and buy Evisu  jeans, paying full retail– then bring them back to his shop, cut-off the Evisu red tab (due to the Levi’s copyright infringement) and resell them. Hearing this, PRPS had found their first customer and launched their line. They were the first American brand to make in Japan, use the world’s best Japanese selvedge denim, and offer it in Europe, the UK, and the USA. PRPS now offers 3 product lines– PRPS Goods (denim & sportswear), PRPS Japan (very clean, straight-forward Japanese selvedge denim and make), and PRPS Noir (Japanese denim and make with incredible vintage washes and distress details). To me, a denim-head, what Donwan is doing at PRPS is really cool stuff and I wanted to give you all an up-close look at it that not everyone has.

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PRPS Noir also has some very cool woven sportshirts, a denim chore coat like the one above, and other tops in the collection, with each piece being very unique in its make, model, fabrication, and treatment. Look closely and you’ll see that the chore coat above utilizes several different fabrics.

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PRPS Goods is their sportswear collection– and updated outdoors / utility inspired line, great quality.

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You can visit the PRPS site here

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