Rising Sun

Come celebrate with us the release of the much anticipated denim history book, written by Michael Harris. Covering the origins of denim in the ol’ west frontier of San Francisco from 1873 to 1890.

You will have a once in a lifetime opportunity to purchase a few of the mine found items chosen to be recreated by “Dead Grass” & manufactured by The Rising Sun on period correct machines using period correct fabrics and hardware.

* LIMITED QUANTITY AVAILABLE *

Saturday August 7th
6pm to 9pm

Hosted by
Rising Sun & Co

107 S Fair Oaks Ave
Pasadena, CA 91105

Below is an excerpt from the book, an example of what you will learn from denim history:

In the Old West, blue jeans were one of a workingman’s tools. They protected his lower body and they carried items of use, and they were comfortable enough to wear all day long. And, with the invention of the riveted jeans, they were sturdy enough to last for years.

To me, old San Francisco-made blue jeans have functional beauty – like old steam engines with all of the pipes and workings on the outside. Not only the riveted jeans of Levi Strauss & Co., but also, and perhaps more so, the non-riveted jeans with strengthening features sewn on the outside, like the designs of B. & O. Greenbaum, A. B. Elfelt, and S. R. Krause.

Although this book is primarily about the jeans manufacturing companies in San Francisco during the late 1800’s, there were a large number of independent tailors working in San Francisco at the time who made clothes-to-fit. Work pants could be bought ready-made off the shelves of dry good stores in all of the Western towns and mining camps of the period, but dress clothes were probably mostly purchased from these independent tailors.

Remember that the first rivet denim jeans were made by Jacob Davis in his tailor shop in Reno, Nevada. In fact his inclusion of a watch pocket on work pants may have been because of his being accustomed to making suit pants, which customarily came with one. Also, Jacob’s addition of a back pocket to his work pants, something not normally found on work pants of the period, but often on dress pants, suggests that he used a dress pants pattern for his work pants design. So, the modern form of jeans, with a watch pocket and back pockets, probably owes its existence to the melding of features from dress pants with work pants by a tailor.

So don’t forget to mark your calendars for August 7th!