Interview with Scott Morrison of Evisu

Dazed Digital recently had to opportunity to chat with newly appointed Evisu CEO Scott Morrison, who is widely recognized as the founder of popular denim brands Paper Denim & Cloth and Earnest Sewn. Amongst the many topics, Mr. Morrison breaks down Evisu’s comeback, new design direction, and what can be expected from the denim label as its celebrates its 20th Anniversary. Definitely an interesting and insightful look into an influential creative in the world of denim.

How did the collaboration between you and Evisu come about?

After having started and worked with both Paper Denim and Earnest Sewn since 1997, I felt I wanted to do something a bit different. It didn’t have to be denim related, but the day I left Earnest Sewn I got the call from Evisu. At first I wasn’t sure, but we had some great meetings and I agreed to come on board. It’s certainly been a challenging eight, nine months but it has worked out beautifully so far.

What would you say are the biggest differences between running your own company and working for a giant such as Evisu?

Well, this is a unique opportunity for me to work with a global brand. Like it or not, everyone knows of it and has an opinion on it. I mean, Paper Denim was sold throughout the world, but Evisu is one of the best denim brands in the world. I suppose the biggest difference is that I now have to balance my personal views with that of Evisu’s commercial needs.

What was the main inspiration for the Autumn Winter collection?

We used the word ‘reference’ as a starting point. It’s obviously a broad term, but the idea was to go back to Evisu’s love affair with Levi’s, Americana and especially the 1944 Levi’s 501 XX. The history is that during the war, the US government forbad all use of unnecessary fabrics. So Levi’s had to stop sew on the thread on the back of each jeans back pocket, and they painted them on instead. Hence the Evisu painted on seagull logo! There’s a great replica tradition in Evisu and we took that thought process and applied to key items from history, which we referenced. We wanted to start re-telling the origins of how Evisu came into being.

The interview in its entirety can be read here.

Photography: TrendLand