Chemin de fer jeans…
Lately my days have been filled with Re-Generation-Angeleno.com and I’ve been engrossed in the endless research and cataloging of my inventory.
The Re-Generated memories and appreciation have been flooding in as fast as I can dust off the stuff to get closer to my goals.
Chemin
De Fer Jeans is just one of the highlights. Almost all teenage girls that grew up the 70's knew about Chemin De Fer. Teenage girls were begging for their very own Status pair of Sailor Pants or the groundbreaking Lace Up Hip hugger Pant. My father was
the pattern maker for Chemin De Fer Jeans during their Heyday. I don't even think he knows how legendary that is. I never thought about it either back then, but now when I look back in a newborn appreciation for an era gone past. I can appreciate the footprints he left for so many to follow in. I am now so in aww and filled with a new respect of this era and all of the original Garmentos that created this LA fashion world we all live in.
What better luck
for a young girl my age, free samples and a never ending fresh wardrobe. Every
teenage girl’s dreams! I remember going with my father to the Chemin De Fer corporate
building in Downtown LA, located on the corner of 6th Street &
Bixby.
I was a youngster and in retrospect I wish I would have had the foresight to
pay better attention to more details in this exclusive world, but kids will be kids. As I got older I was privileged
to hear bits and pieces of a time spent in this iconic place by my dad. Just the other day my dad
was telling me stories about the people he remembered being around on a daily
basis, He described it to me in a flippant kind of way….you know those
Hollywood motorcycle Guys….ummm from the 70’s? What’s his name? They wore those
American flag helmets? Uh Peter Fonda, Dad? Yeah that would be Jack Nicholson
and Peter Fonda… a little movie called “Easy Rider”
Close to the end of the Chemin De Fer Era, there were some pretty intense stories in the
news about one of the owners sons having ties to the BBC…Billionaire Boys Club.
It was a big deal bunch of rich kids caught up in a kidnapping/murder plot that
went bad. It was pretty big news in the late 80’s.
It was the end of the 70’s
and the beginning of the 80’s. Needless to say Chemin De Fer was an LA Icon for fashion denim. Its nice to be reminiscing
about them and do the research and see how their Imprint to young girls my age was so
strong that I can still find groups of Bloggers that are reminiscing about Chemin De Fer Jeans and this era. I have been enjoying talking to others about their memories of the
Iconic Chemin De Fer Status Jeans. I guess this was the beginning of something
to come here in LA. The time when trendy came to be…
I can remember going to their huge corporate offices
and thinking how cool it was, yet not really having any idea about how lucky I was
to be a part of the behind the scenes. I remember a gigantic pool table with ornately
carved feet. Weird…I remember the creepy underground parking lot. And I
remember loving to explore the tons of bolts of fabric and climbing on top of
the tables while I watching my dad in his Denim Apron pushing around the
pattern pieces with his long yardstick with rubber bands wrapped around the
edge to help grip the pattern pieces so he could move them around on the 60”
paper. After all the careful placement of the paper pieces, I used to help him
trace each one, I would help write the info lovingly by hand.
It was all so fascinating to me, like a
giant puzzle. It’s sad how this type of craftsmanship can become ancient
history and eventually replaced by computers and “The New Ways.” Don’t get me
wrong I love newer, better and faster just as much as the next guy. It’s just I
have this empathy and can understand, appreciate and revere the Old School
ways. Everyone should appreciate the past a little more. Without the past there
would be no future to build on.
Respect is what Regeneration is about….
Find
what moves you to Regenerate.
Re-Generation-Angeleno.com is dusting
off the
Chemin De Fer Jeans
and I’m about to start a Re-Generation
of my own.
Coming soon...
