Rising Sun

Rising Sun & Co. is featured in the Japanese publication Workwear 3. Their English headline “History Leading to New Design” hit the nail on the head.

Rising Sun is featured in the June 2010 issue of Japanese men’s magazine SENSE. There is much love for our duck canvas fabrication, which Mike loves to work with.

Our good proprietor Mike Hodis works hard to impress the duck canvas crowd with the latest Duck Ranch Hand Jacket with HBT details.

Details include HBT contrast pocket flap facing and waistband.

Also check out this super comfortable and soft washed Worker.

We even turned a couple of raw-denim-only guys onto this. Try it for yourself.

Spring is in the air and there is no better suited garment for the crafted workwear/outdoor fiend than a Rising Sun Outdoor Vest. This single needle constructed vest is made on our prized black head Singer. It is a little different than other black head single needles out there but we will get into that at a later time.

The Outdoor vest is now available in 2 fabrications. The duck canvas version uses the same fabric on our popular Worker pants. The back panels are made from a special cotton HBT (herringbone twill) we sourced.

The next Outdoor vest now available flips everything around with the front in HBT and the back in duck canvas.

Watch out for the sequel to our Mighty Duck post in which we will feature our Ranch Hand duck jacket.

You can go here to see our first Outdoor Vest made with indigo canvas.

At the Inspiration LA show we met a Japanese gentleman named Katsu. He picked up a pair of Rising Sun Blacksmith jeans and loved it so much that he custom ordered the companion jacket, the Engineer. Now that he is back in Japan he sends us his regards and this picture showing off his Rising Sun clothing. He tell us he will wear this outfit 3 times a week, which honors us consider he works for Howa, one of the premiere laundries in Japan, and knows a thing or two about denim.

Thank you for the support!

This sweet couple from Germany visited our shop after reading about Rising Sun in a German magazine and we chatted the day away. Customers hungry for denim talk make our work immensely gratifying. After trying on several pairs they walked out with a pair of Standard jeans hemmed on the spot for a perfect cuffing length. The machine used is of course none other than our especially rare black head bulldog Union Special chainstitch hemmer. If you come by the haberdashery in Pasadena we can show you how this is not your garden variety Union Special.

Thank you for visiting!

We have been featured in the Japanese magazine Safari. Check it out. Big thanks to all of the Rising Sun supporters in the land of the rising sun (don’t forget we already covered how our name came to be on our blog here).

We have been swamped with production for stores carrying Rising Sun in Japan where we are now more popular than ever. Here we have pictures showing the fruits of our labor.

The details-focused Blacksmith jean took up the lion’s share of our time. Working with antique sewing machines require care, finesse, and lots of patience. The results make the extra energy we spend very much worthwhile.

The Worker jean continues to be a big hit. Here we have the patches drying after the Made in USA shield stamp was applied.

The Rising Sun booth got very busy.

There is a perfectly good reason for why our blog has not been updated in some time. In preparing for Rin Tanaka’s Inspiration show our good propreitor Mike Hodis reminded us how madly dedicated he is to his work at Rising Sun. Running for days with barely any sleep and lots of RS coffee Mike moved practically half the shop to the Barker Hanger in Santa Monica airport. Human limits were tested. We took great pains (ie, back pain, shoulder pain, etc) to carefully move our sewing machines like the ol’ black head Union Special bulldog hemmer, our lovely black head single needle, the black caballo, and a special triangle stitcher (more on that last piece of equipment next time but it has this neat attachment and cam that make it perfect for stitching leather reinforcement on seams). Not to mention putting in tongue and groove pine floors, crates, stock, heirloom showcases, and so much more.

All these and the required raw materials were transported there for us to set up a temporary haberdashery to stitch up a fine pair of jeans and show off our passion. We also flaunted our and Michael Harris’s vintage collection in wooden showcases that are sisters to the ones in our shop. Considering visitor reactions we think we did a pretty good job and wonder if maybe we should hit the road more often (no).

Showcase of vintage pieces at Rising Sun booth.

Mike with JP Plunier.

Mine finds from Michael Harris's collection at Rising Sun booth.

Heller's Cafe put on quite a display of amazing vintage pieces. In both quality and quantity the collection displayed is one of the finest in the country. Important artifacts of denim workwear pieces included racks and racks of chinstrap shirts and Stifel pieces including shirts with removable collars still attached.

The most interesting and memorable booth for us is Julian boots'. His booth was right behind ours and he was making a pair of booths right there and then. Julian is an old school craftsman who makes boots the old fashion way in America. He will measure your foot, feel your foot, and goes through the whole process needed to get a handle for what your feet needs before carving a last just for you to ensure the best fit. Very rarely do you hear about custom bootmakers who go through such lengths.

Julian only worked on spiffing up one pair that day and Mike was super impressed with the results. He exude such pride and joy in his skills at the art of a fine polish.

The Mr. Winter booth

Mr. Winter's vintage racer. From 1939.

Chuck's Vintage booth.

Mister Freedom booth.

Given the opportunity we will definitely do the Inspiration show again. Besides being one big party for denim and vintage lovers the show also gave us the chance to meet unique craftsmen like Julian. If you missed the first show be sure to keep an eye out for the next one. See you there!

Here is a snapshot showing our setup at Inspiration. There is no doubt this show will become one of the most important gatherings in the US for denim and vintage lovers.

There is heavy denim talk on every corner. Stories about vintage finds are abound. They should rename this event to Heaven.