Displaying all articles in the category &ldquo Press &rdquo

Rising Sun in PasadenaLand

The latest issue of Pasadena Magazine, features an insiders guide comparing Pasadena to a theme park, dubbed PasadenaLand. Rising Sun was honored to be the first pick in the guide, and we appreciate the community support that Pasadena has been giving to our humble haberdashery.

Style In Progress

Rising Sun is honored to be featured in “Style in Progress”, an Austrian based magazine, for their Spring/Summer 2011 issue alongside other denim legends and visionaries such as Ron Herman and Adriano Goldschmied.

Here is what they had to say about Rising Sun:

Unsatisfied with mere inspiration from denim’s history, Rising Sun & Co. completely replicates jeans from the 20s and ’30s and the culture that surrounded them. Owner Mike Hodis’ Pasadena-based boutique has a jeans shop in the back where every piece is made, offering an experience that is genuine to the era, and a safe haven from mass-produced fashion. Hodis dismisses any modern manufacturing practices in favour of old processes such as using antique industrial sewing machines. Pieces mad with these machines come away with certain types of subtle imperfections that cannon be recreated with modern technology. Even the selvage denim Hodis uses comes from Cone Mills, the oldest denim manufacturer in the world. A pair of handcrafted Rising Sun jeans average at about $300, while custom-made jeans can run up to $,1000. But despite the high prices, Hodis doesn’t make much money, instead opting for the personal profit in following his passion. “I can easily make ridiculous amounts of money working for someone else, but this is truly what life’s about,” he says of Rising Sun. “The thing about the all-mighty dollar is that you lose sight of the real goal.”

They also included a nice photo of our proprieter

The article was entitled “The Reincarnation of Los Angeles Denim”, and while we’re not sure where you can get a copy, the author of the article, Tiffany Lee, has posted scans of the article on her blog alongside an interview with Adriano Goldschmied and other articles from the magazine.

Another Buddy

Our new friends from the blog Anothersomething and wrote up a brief history on the Buddy Lee dolls. They stopped by our shop when they were in town to model some of our Buddy Lee collection for the photos in the article. Click here to read the article. They have more of these articles which they call “anotherfeature,” and they also have curated online store called “anothershop.”

Lightning Strikes Twice

We are fortunate to be featured in Lightning Magazine for the second time. They came to our shop in Pasadena to attend the Jeans of the Old West release party and took some photos while they were there. The feature came out in their October 2010 issue.

We had the content translated, and this is what they had to say:

We recently attended a publication event for vintage denim in Pasadena, Los Angeles to investigate and research denim trends and fashionable people in the vintage industry.

“Rising Sun & Co.” is a denim brand and shop that exhibits a truly cool vintage vibe. The shop is located in Old Pasadena, north of Los Angeles City. The streets of Old Pasadena are different than other parts of Los Angeles because the old buildings are still standing which were first built during the early settling of Los Angeles so that Old Pasadena seems like it is lost in time. We first encountered and became enamored with Rising Sun & Co. at “Inspiration”, a significant vintage event in Santa Monica. Mike Hodis, the owner of Rising Sun & Co. is well-versed in vintage collecting and styles, so he invited his friend, the author of a new vintage denim book, to hold a publication event for his new book at Rising Sun’s shop in Old Pasadena. Many people from the vintage industry were present at the event, but we were surprised to find there were more people wearing new denim than vintage denim. Standout styles at the event were the people dressed like workers in 30’s. Suspenders were an accessory worn by many at the event confirming the comeback of their popularity. Rising Sun & Co. has manufactured and released new denim styles that are modeled after 40’s or older styles, and have made an impact on many in the vintage industry because of these attractive designs. Rising Sun & Co. currently use Cone denim from the USA for their line. Future production plans include the release of a new denim line using denim from Okayama, Japan. Denim made in Okayama is highly regarded by the attendees of this publication event.

Rising Sun appears like a vintage shop. The sign in the window matches the atmosphere of the shop. Incidentally, parking in the front is for “Hot Rods Only.” There were a number of hot rods on the day of the event.

Click to view a larger version of each photo

Check This Out

We were pleasantly surprised to be mentioned numerous times in a recent NPR interview that [Put This On creators] Jesse Thorn and Adam Lisagor had with KPCC’s Alex Cohen.

They said some very kind things about Mike and his shop so be sure to listen to the short audio interview. Enough said, click here to listen.