Rubin Chapelle launches new denim collection Erin Skrypek
Updated: 2006-05-18 14:29
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Denim was once just denim and that was that. But that time has long since passed. There are few designers who haven't added a "jeans" something to their ready-to-wear collection, and even Levi's are now specialized in super-fancy ways these days.
So it isn't surprising that Rubin Chapelle, the avant garde label designed by Austrian born Sonja Rubin and Ohio native Kip Chapelle, launch their own premium denim line. The duo, who met in 1995 while studying at F.I.T, started Rubin Chapelle in 1997 and have been thinking about jeans since their company's inception.
"Kip really pushed for it. He has a very technical background and was interested in 'engineering' a jeans collection," Rubin said over coffee on 14th Street, directly across the street from her ingenuously modern boutique designed by Austrian architect Annabelle Selldorf.
But how is Rubin and Chapelle's new jeans line, 192 Doves, different from the rest of the denim on the market? First, it's "designer" denim with designer sportswear details – trouser piping, hanger loops, pockets cut from bandana fabric and embroidered seat pockets that elongate the legs.
The collection is also produced in factories that only make denim brands, so you get old school specifics like triple stitching on the seams so the pants won't tear and expose your nether regions, curved waist bands so you can keep plumber's plunge to a bare minimum and perfected washes that look authentic and wear and wash well.
"I had no idea how much was involved in doing a denim line," said Rubin, "There is a reason why you have denim designers."
As she spoke, her other half was in LA at their denim factory trying to engineer and refine six new styles of women's jeans and three new men's styles in keeping with their signature edgy, but wearable, Rubin Chapelle signature look. "Right now we have one style of 192 Doves that we've been selling exclusively at the boutique. They are for women, but men have been buying them and we've completely sold out! People buy one pair and then they come back for another wash," Rubin said.
The team tried 20 different washes to see how they reacted after being baked, washed and dipped in resin. They narrowed their selection down to three kinds of denims and two washes.
"Dark is very important – it's kind of this 'urban elegance' that is so important right now," Rubin said of her choice of midnight-colored indigo and "rigid licorice" black. But they will offer a natural, off-white denim next spring.
While 192 Doves is a fashion brand, the cuts are not the trendy, skinny-skinny, bunched up, caterpillar legged jeans that you'd expect, that everyone from Acne to H&M and designers like Stella McCartney, Marc Jacobs and Nicolas Ghesquiere of Balenciaga have put out there for everyone to rock themselves out in. Rubin says she and Chapelle aimed to make the jeans "really authentic and sophisticated – we offer boot, trouser and skinny cuts" – but not shrink-wrap skinny, "and they look great when you buy them a couple sized to big so they fit loose."
192 Doves will come in two different style ranges: the "Daily" classics, which are basic styles that start at $180 and the "Indulgence" fashion group - more elaborate denim with signature Rubin Chapelle details like a removable section that masquerades the pant cuffs – that will start at $240. Both collections will be available in stores for Fall 2006.
So, after all that, where did Rubin and Chapelle come up with the name "192 Doves?"
"The name is just a name," Chapelle explained. "We like the mystery of it, but the number 192 symbolically represents the number of countries in the world. And the dove is widely recognized as a symbol for peace."
"We are really into the idea of 'Kultureless,'" added Rubin. "It's the idea that everyone is born into innate culture."
"Kultureless is a word we came up with during the Rubin Chapelle design process; something we coined - mixing English and German - that has to do with the intrinsic value of an object rather than its perceived or cultural value," Chapelle wrote via email from the factories in LA, further explaining the concept. "When trying to create something pure or authentic, it helps us as designers sometimes to start from a point (undefined) without cultural references."
Basically, people will eventually get over the trends - the current jeans cut so skinny that they look like denim-colored paint - and venture back into the classic, authentic cuts. 192 Doves transcends trends.