Stevenson Overall Co is the equivalent to BAE for us here at The Shop Vancouver. Stevenson is a perfect example of the kinds of people we want to work with, meeting Atsu, his wife and most of the people that work for their company in Japan, only solidified my love for this brand. Not only do they make some of the very best products, but they are great people. Last week I reached out to Atsu and he asked Co-Owner Zip Stevenson to fill me in on 5 things that we may not know about the brand... So here it is, 5 things you need to know about Stevenson Overall Co.
1. Stevenson Overalls was an actual brand that existed in Portland, IN in the 1920s and like so many businesses closed down during the Great Depression and we found the brand by chance and revived it so my last name and the name of the brand it's just a coincidence.
2. At the time that we started the brand there was a culture in Japan of making exact replica's of clothing (especially Levi's) and we wanted to develop something that was inspired by original vintage garments but still had our own identity. We have updated the fits of the clothing but we still like to use original construction techniques and details
3. When we started the brand it was based on a receipt/invoice that we found on eBay and for four years we looked and looked and looked to try to find original old Stevenson overall garments but we never found any so we just assumed that the brand was very very small and they only made paper tags on their garments and so when the garments got washed the paper tags would disintegrate and so there would be no way to identify the clothes.
Finally we found an original pair of trousers that had logo'd buttons so our current hypothesis is that they came out with their own buttons just before they went out of business and so that's why it's so hard to find the original clothing.
4. We often use mercerized cotton thread because it was how jeans were sewn in the 1800's to 1930's and it's a way to differentiate ourselves from the other folks that are making great jeans
5. The Smile pocket. We often get asked how we came up with the "smile" back and coin pockets. We noticed that Jeans after having been worn for a long time the top of the back pocket tends to sag (also the front pockets are also curving) so we thought we could incorporate that detail in our jeans as a way to differentiate ourselves from the other great brands and not just do a copy of Levi's or Lee or the other brands.
You can check out the line of Stevenson Overalls that can be found at The Shop Vancouver Here. Book your private appointment Monday - Friday by emailing VIP@TheShopVancouver.com or Via DM on Instagram.com/TheShopVancouver
Images are from ClutchMagazineJapan.com and Heddles