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The menswear giant has spent five years sharpening its business post-bankruptcy and is ready for the bright lights of Wall Street again.

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15 Years in a Timeline, a Guilty Confession, and Finally Creating My “New to Raw Denim” Series

“How did you start your journey with Denimhunters?” That’s not a made-up hypothetical question; someone actually asked me this recently.

If one person asks it, there are probably a thousand others who’ve wondered the same thing and never bothered. I decided it was time to finally write down the answer.

Denimhunters turns fifteen this year. And I have a big birthday coming up—one that ends with a zero (and begins with a four). It felt like a good moment to share the full story.

Fifteen years is a long time to do anything. Long enough to make plenty of mistakes, rebuild more than once, and eventually—finally—get to a place where the site is actually the thing, not the side thing.

In This Issue of the DH Weekly

This issue is about the origin story of Denimhunters—fifteen years told through a set of “why” questions, part of the New to Raw Denim series. Plus a full timeline of the site, the guilty-side-project years, and some of what led me to even start the site.

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The DH Weekly is my Friday column on raw denim and heritage menswear. If you found this through the New to Raw Denim series, this is where the conversation continues.

Denimhunters Timeline: Fifteen Years, In Order

This issue is about the story behind the site. What follows is the full timeline, with the parts that didn’t make it into the origin story in the series.

2011 (January 30) – Denimhunters launches in Danish, because there’s nowhere in Danish for people who want to understand raw denim.

2012 – The site grows from a personal project into something bigger, with contributors and the first signs that it could become more than just me writing about jeans.

2013 – Denimhunters has a booth at Bread & Butter in Berlin—twice—literally placing the site alongside Clutch Magazine, Men’s File, and Heritage Post. On my honeymoon in the US, I get a private tour of the Levi’s archive in San Francisco with Lynn Downey.

2014 – Things get more ambitious, with partners involved and a drop-shipping webshop that never quite becomes the business I hoped it would.

2015 – The partnership ends. I keep the name and the domain, lose most of the content with traffic, and rebuild the version of Denimhunters you’re reading now.

2016 (May) – Blue Blooded is published by Gestalten, turning my early years of research, retail experience, and denim obsession into my first book.

2017 – The Denimhunters Academy launches as a paid video course. It teaches me plenty, but it doesn’t become the business I’d hoped for either.

2018 – I focus on Instagram, including the Blue Blooded Instagrammers Q&A-series.

2019 – The Denim & Boots Podcast launches in April. Bryan Szabo’s first article appears in the autumn. In the winter, the Blue Blooded Portfolio series becomes the last project that follows the site’s old logic: good stories, strong content, no obvious business plan.

2020 – I launch The Denimhunters Podcast, build my Denim Encyclopedia, and Bryan and I begin working on what becomes the Well-Made Essentials.

2021 – During COVID, I take a full-time job in another industry after practically giving up on Denimhunters ever becoming the thing I could do for a living. It results in an existential crisis, and I nearly hand over control of the site. I quit that job in April, 2022.

2022 (October) – The Rebel’s Wardrobe is published, growing out of the Well-Made Essentials work Bryan and I had been building together.

2023 – Bryan and I create and publish the Rebel’s Outfit special issue of Heritage Post, which proves more commercially successful than the book itself. I also start working on what becomes my own brand, Weirloom.

2024 – My decade-long BESTSELLER consulting work ends. Freelancing work continues, but the old safety net changes, and Denimhunters has to earn real money.

2025 – I launch Weirloom, while Denimhunters starts generating real revenue more consistently through buying guides and affiliate income.

2026 – Fifteen years in, Denimhunters is closer than ever to standing on its own.

The full story covers all of this in more depth—including the “why” behind each decision, the partnerships that went wrong, the years when the site nearly disappeared, and what any of it has to do with growing up in a part of Denmark with wide open spaces and very low ceilings.

The Guilty Part

For the longest time, running Denimhunters felt like something I did on the side. Not in the entrepreneurial, aspirational sense—but in the feeling-super-guilty-about-it sense.

It was the thing I did when I was supposed to be doing something else. The work I’d open when I had a deadline. The tab I’d switch to when my concentration drifted. It was fun. It was also procrastination. And those two were entirely compatible.

Something shifted in 2025. The site finally started generating real money—consistently, for the first time. I’d set a goal for the year, and I beat it by way more than I expected. The revenue has found a new plateau since, and I’m still getting used to the feeling that this is now my actual work.

This year has been about doing the things I’ve been putting off. My guide to the best denim brands and the one about Japanese denim brands—I don’t think anything like it exists elsewhere. My shop guide series. And now my New to Raw Denim series, which I’ve wanted to build for years and finally did.

Before There Was Denimhunters …

If you watched The Sopranos—maybe more than once, like me—you’ll remember A.J., Tony’s son. He never quite fits the mould; he’s restless and doesn’t know what he wants—except what he’s got isn’t it.

That was me. The other kids were into soccer and mopeds. I played guitar, skateboarded, and was drawn as much to the gear and the clothes as to actually doing either. I was shy and introverted. I blush easily—my friends called me “Red,” and it wasn’t only because of my hair.

In 2008, during my bachelor’s in Aarhus, I got a part-time job at [ei’kon]—the leading menswear store in the city, carrying A.P.C., Edwin, and even the first Indigofera collection. Per Olsen, the store manager, brought me to trade shows. Tommy Rasmussen, the owner, became a mentor—one of the first people I called when I started Weirloom.

In the summer of 2010, I graduated and moved to Copenhagen. I spent a year as a buyer and deputy manager of a Samsøe & Samsøe shop, reading From Cowboys to Catwalk in every spare moment, half-dreaming of writing something like it. It was there that I first went to Bread & Butter in Berlin—and that’s when I launched Denimhunters.

The Full Series Is Already Live

I wrote the story about the site first. It felt like the natural beginning—the “why” before the “what.” But once I had it, I realised it couldn’t go first in the actual series.

If you’re new here, you don’t know me yet—and if you don’t know me, the story of how I got here probably doesn’t mean all that much. So the practical guides needed to go first in the series. But here, for the DH Weekly, it makes more sense to lead with the story.

For the rest of July, I’ll be publishing Weeklies about the other parts, with some context around each of them. But if you’d rather not wait, the whole series is already live.

If something in this story surprised you, or if the format doesn’t work for you, I’d love your feedback.

The post I Wrote My Story, Then Built the One Thing This Site Was Missing appeared first on Denimhunters.

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Dior is betting on lots of denim for the coming fall season.

Jonathan Anderson made denim one of the most significant casual fabrics in his debut Dior Fall 2026 ready-to-wear collection. Rather than treating it as rugged workwear, he integrated denim into Dior’s couture vocabulary through refined construction, embroidery, and fluid styling.

The denim collection included several fits:

• Regular straight-leg jeans
• Long regular jeans
• Slim-fit jeans
• Bootcut jeans
• Carpenter jeans

And, as most of the other previews we have posted about, Dior Men’s runway styling emphasized clean, elongated proportions over exaggerated volume.

Check out the denim looks for this coming fall in our gallery below.

You can shop for Dior Men on the brand’s website, at Farfetch (pre-0wned), and at MR PORTER (acessories).

The post Dior Men – Fall 2026 Lookbook first appeared on Denimology.

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Acne Studios’ Spring 2027 menswear collection, designed by Jonny Johansson, explored office culture and workplace hierarchies, but denim remained one of the collection’s strongest storytelling tools.

Rather than focusing on distressed jeans, Johansson reimagined office dressing through unexpected denim pieces, hybrid construction, and Acne’s signature irreverence.

Also noteworthy is the fact that, unlike the oversized denim of recent years, the silhouettes felt more controlled and intentional.

Perhaps the collection’s most influential takeaway is the idea that denim can function like tailoring. By introducing denim chinos, crisp white matching sets, and hybrid pleated trousers, Acne Studios expands the definition of what denim can be in a contemporary wardrobe.

For Spring 2027, Acne suggests that the future of denim lies not in louder washes or heavier distressing, but in innovative pattern-cutting, office-inspired styling, and refined silhouettes that bridge casual and tailored dressing.

You can check out some of the Spring 2027 key pieces in denim and leather in our galleries below.

Tailored:

Skinny:

Embellished:

Leather:

And More:

Acne Studio clothing is available to shop for at Saks Fifth Avenue women/men, Nordstrom, and at Bloomingdale’s.

The post Acne Studios – Spring 2027 Menswear first appeared on Denimology.

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This is a first for Dsquared2! After more than 30 years, Dean and Dan Caten have named their label’s first global brand ambassador. 

The Dsquared2 founders tapped Spanish music sensation Bad Gyal for the role, which will see the singer and songwriter front upcoming international campaigns and represent the brand at key global events.

A multiplatinum artist in the global reggaeton and dancehall scene – known for her debut album “La joia” and this year’s release “Más cara” – Bad Gyal will further strengthen the Catens’ longtime ties with the world of music, which the duo consider a celebration of confidence and unapologetic self-expression.

“There was already genuine mutual appreciation between Bad Gyal and Dsquared2, so when we began exploring the opportunity more seriously, the alignment was immediate,” she said. “Rather than bringing together two unrelated worlds, we were formalizing a relationship that already existed,” Bad Gyal states.

And as for the men’s side of the brand, following the signing of Bad Gyal, Dsquared2 is once again placing its trust in Spanish talent with the addition of Huelva-born soccer player, Fermín López, as the brand’s new face,. In line with the brand’s evolving aesthetic and its longstanding connection to the world of sports.

“We’ve always been inspired by the passion of athletes, and Fermín is a true role model. His energy on the field is electric, and off the field, he has a natural, carefree attitude that fits perfectly with Dsquared2’s DNA,” explained the Catens. For the designers, sports represent not only a source of inspiration but also one of the brand’s creative cornerstones, symbolising the convergence of the intensity of competition and the “rebellious spirit of pop culture.”

As part of this collaboration, Fermín López will star in the brand’s upcoming international campaigns and participate in some of its major global events. “I’ve always admired Dsquared2 for the way it combines character with elegance. Fashion is a way for me to express who I am off the field, and I feel a natural connection to the brand’s energy and creativity. It’s a true honour to be part of the Dsquared2 family,” said López.

Dsquared2 clothing is available to purchase at Farfetch and at YOOX women/men.

The post Dsquared2 – A First! New Ambassadors Named first appeared on Denimology.

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Debuting during Haute Couture Week in Paris this July, the Christelle Kocher for Levi’s® capsule unveils a visionary 10-look collection that reimagines American denim through the lens of French couture savoir-faire.

Drawing on her signature “Couture-à-Porter” philosophy and her role as Artistic Director of Maison Lemarié, Christelle Kocher brings a unique vision rooted in exceptional craftsmanship to Levi’s® heritage.

Rooted in an ambitious exploration of textile manipulation and hand craftsmanship, the collection transforms Levi’s® icons from the 501® jean to the Type II Jacket into highly crafted couture pieces.

Across the line-up, Levi’s® signature pieces are reworked with feather finishes, embroidery and sculptural detailing. These sit alongside more elevated silhouettes, from draped black denim gowns to statement headpieces, creating a natural dialogue between everyday denim and couture dressing. The result is a seamless blend of Levi’s® heritage and Christelle Kocher’s couture-driven approach. 

Accessories further extend the narrative, with the Levi’s® Baby Brooklyn Bag reinterpreted as a couture object alongside dramatic feather headpieces designed to amplify silhouette, movement and emotion.  Entirely developed using denim as the core material, the collection pushes the boundaries of the material through feather work, hand embroidery, plissé drapery, floral constructions and sculptural fabric treatments. 

The capsule merges the authenticity and cultural legacy of Levi’s® with Christelle Kocher’s refined couture sensibility. Intricate plissé work, feather and floral constructions, delicate lace applications, resin-coated denim fragments and leather embroideries create a dialogue between American denim heritage and Parisian haute couture excellence, drawing on generations of exceptional French artisanal savoir-faire.

“It was a privilege to bring these two teams together and see this collection come to life and see this collection come to life. This capsule reflects my life between the United States and France, two countries that fuel my creative energy” – Christelle Kocher (Designer).

“Bringing Levi’s to Paris Haute Couture for the first time is a major moment for us. With over a century of history behind the brand, partnering with Christelle Kocher felt like a natural fit. She brings a distinctly Parisian perspective with a modern edge that complements our denim heritage. Her Couture-à-Porter vision is the perfect way to elevate the craftsmanship of denim. With this collaboration, we continue to take our iconic brand into new cultural spaces in Europe.” – Mathilde Vaucheret (Vice President Europe Marketing & Brand Experience).

Across the collection, silhouettes evolve between structure and fluidity: layered denim plissé forms abstract floral bustiers, degradé feather capes create sculptural movement, while couture embroidery elevates classic tanks, shirts and denim separates into luxurious eveningwear pieces. A standout look, a full feather gown paired with a matching cape combines denim, lace and resin into richly textured surfaces inspired by fish scales.

The capsule stands as both a celebration of craftsmanship and a radical reinterpretation of denim. It highlights Levi’s® ability to craft bespoke silhouettes with the precision and intent required for stage performances, red carpet appearances, and other high-visibility cultural moments. It demonstrates how one of fashion’s most universal materials can be elevated into the language of haute couture while remaining deeply rooted in culture, authenticity, and innovation.

The post Christelle Kocher for Levi’s® Capsule first appeared on Denimology.

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Denimsandjeans Vietnam 2026 concluded its 8th edition successfully, bringing together the global denim value chain in Ho Chi Minh City over two days. The event continued to strengthen Vietnam’s
position as one of Asia’s most dynamic denim sourcing and manufacturing hubs. At the same
time, it offered focused discussions on innovation, sustainability, design,and the evolving opportunities
shaping the future of the denim industry in Southeast Asia.

OPENING CEREMONY

The event opened on June 24, 2026, with an Opening Ceremony. Mr. Vu Duc Giang, Chairman of the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS), shared insights on Vietnam’s growing potential within the global textile and apparel industry. This was followed by remarks from Dr. Dang Vu Hung, Chairman & CEO of PPJ Group, highlighting the role of Vietnamese industry leadership in shaping the future of denim manufacturing in Southeast Asia.

Visitor Profiles

The show welcomed more than 750 visitors across both days, with strong international representation.
Visitors included sourcing teams, designers, and decision-makers from Japan, Korea, China, Cambodia,
Sri Lanka, India, Hong Kong, America, and across Southeast Asia. Key international brands and companies in attendance included Gap, Levi’s, Calvin Klein, Muji, Edwin, ITOCHU, Terra Korea, L-World Korea, Crystal HK, Walmart, Saitex and many others. It also included major Vietnamese industry players such as Phong Phu, MGF, Vinatex, Nien Hsing Garment, Nha Be Garment, Thuan Hai Jeans, Marvel Cambodia. Alongside this, prominent Vietnamese local brands including V Sixtyfour, Yame, Routine, Blue Exchange, Ninomaxx, and many others were also present.

Trend Area

The Trend Area offered a curated lens on where denim is headed. Anachronistic Roots merged classic western workwear with East Asian heritage through dense rigid denim in herringbone and indigo plaids.
Bio-Tech Futurism showcased lightweight, bio-based stretch fabrics that look premium but are rooted in clean, circular manufacturing. Earth-Bound Pigments explored natural dyes & plant based blends of hemp, organic cotton , recycled fibers.Smart Utility & Tech Denim responded to Southeast Asia’s climate realities with moisture-managing, temperature-regulating fabrics. Cyber-Athleisure & Digital Aesthetics captured the screen-to-street sensibility through metallic and 3D jacquard denim that looks industrial but wears as softly as activewear.

Denim Bazaar

The Denim Bazaar was created as a platform for local artisans, small businesses, and emerging creators to showcase and promote their brands. Unlike the main exhibition area, the Bazaar (B2C space) focused on independent labels, handcrafted products, upcycled denim creations, accessories, and
small-scale collections. It gave visitors an opportunity to discover unique denim products while allowing local creators to connect directly with potential customers and industry professionals.
The idea was to support local talent and provide a space where smaller brands could gain visibility as part of the larger denim community.

Workshops

Workshops played a key role in engaging designers, students, and industry professionals through hands-on learning and experimentation. Renewjeans Workshop included denim painting and
customization workshop where visitors painted and customized denim tote bags, wallets, and canvas
artworks. Fabric for the workshop was sponsored by Viet Hong Denim. HMS Stone Workshop conducted a hands-on session where participants used HMS Designer Pens and stone wash inspired tools to customize denim products and experiment with surface design. Bottle Holders were
sponsored by Tuong Long Vietnam and Denim Bags were sponsored by Advance Denim.

Panel Discussions & Talks

AI In Denim: Opportunities, Applications And The Future Of Product Development

The discussion featured Jason Fernandez (Director Global Sourcing , Development , VF Corporation) and Michael Lam (Director, Advance Denim). It was moderated by Janet Lui (Senior Manager , Design &
Product Development – Denim Division , Crystal Intl. Group Ltd). The discussion addressed the opportunities and applications of Artificial Intelligence in denim, including its impact on product development and the future of design innovation.

Vietnam’s Denim Evolution: Local To Global

The discussion featured Khiêm Nguyễn Ngọc Duy (YAME) and Romeo M. Ordas (Viet Hong Textile
Dyeing JSC). It was moderated by Ana Paula Alves de Oliveira, Strategic Director at Be Disobedient.
The discussion explored Vietnam’s denim evolution, tracing its journey from local manufacturing roots to its expanding presence in the global denim supply chain.

When Creativity Meets Algorithms: The New Era of Generative Design & Product Development

The program included a presentation by Janet Lui, (Senior Manager, Design & Product Development
Denim Division at Crystal International Group Limited, HK). Titled “When Creativity Meets Algorithms: The New Era of Generative Design and Product Development,” the session outlined how AI and generative tools are reshaping design workflows, product development cycles, and creative possibilities within the denim industry.

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