Kiya Babzani: Where the Past Will Take US | Hypebeast

So a double-edged sword if you will… what about some of the different levels of interactivity that have spawned from forums such as denim tours and denim contests? Do these serve any meaningful purpose?

Yeah sure, they’re fun and it adds to the dynamic of the scene and gives people a bit of their own thing to write about. It’s not unlike having a blog except this way you’re getting a far larger base of people to read it right off the bat. If you started your own blog about your jeans you’re wearing or about a pair of boots you resoled yourself and you want to talk about the process, how hard would it be to get people to read it from the beginning? With a message board you have a huge audience that randomly clicks all through sub-forums looking for things to read or look at and you’ll have people commenting on your project or denim tour or whatever and it continues. The more popular your project becomes, the more people who will look at it.

Where can or where should the world of denim go. Or can it simply stay on its present course? The one thing that interests me is how something like denim which is rooted in more simple and archaic ways hasn’t really evolved too much on a technical properties level. You never really have a goal of making denim more breathable or water repellent but this theme has already become a popular direction in apparel by infusing technical properties on iconic pieces of apparel.

Denim hasn’t really changed much since the 80′s, all we have now is a resurgence of interest in the type of denim that was popular in the 40′s to early 60′s. I think the course will remain the same as more people discover denim as a whole, as the years go on. The market is expanding in every direction yearly, whether that be fashion, mass produced, or raw artisan Japanese stuff, it’s going in all directions and will continue to grow.

I don’t think there’s going to be some huge advancement in the denim world if that’s what you’re wondering. We’re dealing with a textile that’s been around for a long while and what’s happening now is more people are wanting it the way it was when it first came around during the turn of the century as opposed to how it mainly was found for a twenty year period starting the early 80′s.

Thanks a lot for the opportunity Kiya, I look forward to more from you and your various projects down the line, especially the 3sixteen+ collection. You have any last words?

Didn’t I say enough? I like the fact that more people are exploring vintage and the styles which were around years ago but I just wish people would explore outside of the small group of items which are popular right now in America.