A Visit to G-Star Raw HQ

Most of us have a one or two, or twenty pairs of jeans in our closet. A fixture in modern life, in the past thirty years designer denim has become a fashion institution. Which is why I found it so fascinating that G-Star’s headquarters in Amsterdam employed several hundred people to launch their collections and create not just jeans, but a world of denim. They gave me the grand tour, staring in the canteen ( a girl’s gotta eat!) and then showed the meeting rooms where they map out their campaigns which are often quite complex. Last season’s NYFW show had pianist and Benicio Del Torro reciting poetry during the catwalk show.

I also got to see the Atelier, which was my favorite part, as I’ve never seen what ‘denim couture’ looks like.. and it’s not your $25 jeans. I really loved seeing up close and personal the level of quality and care that goes into the denim couture. Since we’re only a month and half away from NYFW, I got to see the collection in the works… and all I can say, it’s going to be a nice show (believe me, I’m dying not to tell/show you the details!). Lastly, they showed me the PR room where stylists come to pull items for photo shoots. There I found a lovely wool jacket with ‘denim fur‘ which is hand frayed denim that looks like fur… really quite an exciting feat for those of us who don’t like fur because we want to be nice to animals, and don’t like fake fur because of the synthetic fibers. I instantly fell in love with the zipper fringe necklace, which I really tried to get a good photo of, but my camera wouldn’t cooperate. Here I’m trying on a tuxedo dress, which I found to be quite lovely I liked the narrow shoulders and the low waist. All in all, after the HQ visit, I can truly say that I won’t ever look at a pair of jeans quite the same.