These custom handmade jeans are among my favorites, but I forgot to make myself a pair

I know what you’re thinking. How can you make such a beautiful pair of jeans and not own one? The answer’s simple. I forgot to cut one in my size before I used all the denim. Actually, that's not true, I did make a few in my size but they sold out before I claimed my own.

If you were me, would you take one from your customers or just wait until the fabric restocks? Because I have so many jeans, and only wear 1 or 2 in regular rotation, I figured I could wait a few months until I purchased more fabric.   After all, it took me nearly a year to ship some of the orders, with about 95% of the customers waiting patiently.

Yes, I said a year. Some people received orders within 1 to 2 months, others 3 or more months, and a few nearly a year. Not because I’m slow, but because when you’re running a business my size on your own, there’s never enough time. When I undertook the task to make handmade jeans, I wanted to do some special for my customers. I didn’t originally offer them as handmade or custom jeans, I just felt like showing my customers some appreciation by surprising them with an autographed pair of jeans that I made myself. So, instead of shipping the fabric parts to the factory after we cut, I kept everything inside the store and began to pull a few sizes at a time. Sewing them mainly after the store closed or early in the morning before we opened.

I decided to do this for 3 styles that I offered during the summer of 2017. I choose Grand Street slim styles sewn in American made Cone White Oak black and lightweight indigo selvedge, along with a beautiful 14-oz. gray Japanese selvedge from Nihon

Menpu Textile Co., Ltd. Japan. I produced special pockets flashers to market this collection that read “Made in Brooklyn.”

After making a few, the Japanese selvedge wereclearly one of my favorite jeans ever. Not just because I made them, but because I loved the whole combination fabric, weight and color. The gray selvedge offered in raw denim, had an appealing tone and felt very rigid. The black metal buttons and rivets darkened the overall appearance, giving them a killer shade that laid somewhere between black and gray.

Although I could make a pair of jeans in about 4 to 6 hours, depending on how many I’d sew together, this is something I don’t think I would do again. If I did, they’d have to carry a hefty price tag, which is against what I like to do for this brand. I mean, I love creating things myself, but I don’t have the time. There are so many things that I have to do for my company that are far more important than getting behind a sewing machine. And, I don’t wish to have my customers wait the time it takes me to make them. So, to everyone who has a pair, I’m truly envious, because I don’t even own a pair of custom handmade jeans by Maurice Malone.