kotmj

She's very pretty, yes. Mother of two. The husband is definitely CEO material. CEOs are like models; not physically, but temperamentally. They are instantly likable, and appear genuine and completely trustworthy (whether they actually are is a different matter).

The CEO of one of the Mercedes dealership chains was in the shop today. The wife was very unimpressed with everything. She rolled her eyes at everything. How curious. The husband wanted shirts. One shirt. I said it has to be at least three. I showed a bolt of fabric. The wife gave an expression which suggested it was insultingly bad cloth. I then showed another bolt---this time, it is a very high quality crisp Italian poplin. Same facial expression from the wife. I thought, fuck it. I brought out the Alumo. Same facial expression from wife. I brought out the Soktas. She knows Soktas, and perused the book briefly. She wants to leave. They left, the husband apologetically. Ridiculous.

Customer's initials on the coin pocket.

Singer 299U all refurbished and back in the shop

Very high rise jeans. You may also notice we have six belt loops on our jeans instead of the customary five.

Sold a double breasted suit in Drapers Light Panama over WhatsApp while lying in bed.

I want to make long sleeve buttondown polo shirts out of Supima pique next (under Sava). I wonder how many years that will take. It seems to take me years to introduce a new product.

I have 12 yards of this on order. Its a 7 oz. chambray by Kurabo. 46" width selvedge. This is a real work wear chambray by a major Japanese denim weaver. Not a gentrified chambray by some Italian mill that turns out to contain polyester. Should make for a delicious shirt. I have also stopped posting jeans pictures on JT's Instagram. Instead, I post them to savajeans.

Next pair of jeans will be in a khaki denim. The same denim I used for a bush jacket. This khaki denim has a reputation amongst my staff as a needle breaker. It resists puncturing, and in making the bush jacket we broke 5 needles. But! I have a new machine in the shop that has a walking foot and it sews through very tough and thick fabrics without problems.

Second jeans for the first customer who ever commissioned a jeans from me several years ago

I had a job interview today with a recent graduate in Civil Engineering who won the equivalent of the Dean's Award,with a cpga of 3.92. Straight A's in SPM etc. Between SPM and uni, she spent 9 months at Louis Vuitton The Gardens. She was deciding between another four years at school for a PhD, or doing something she really likes. For some reason, she thinks JT is extremely relevant to her. She asked for an internship. (BTW, once upon a time, I told a customer that I had a job interview yesterday. He said, but why? I thought you're doing what you love? I then told him I interviewed a potential hire.) After some prodding, I discover she has a problem with what she calls "office life". What's so bad about office life, I asked. She said it's not appealing to go to an office before the sun has properly risen, and to leave it only after it has set. I'm not sure how long I can do that for, she said. I didn't say much about that. At JT, we do not lose the connection with the sun. Our workspace is flooded with daylight.

A Hashima iron. I saw this iron in the Pakistani technician's apartment, and was amazed by the feel and the appearance. It oozed quality. But, he told me, the heating element is shot. He plans to refurbish it by transplanting the heating element from a donor iron. I asked how much he plans to sell it for after refurbishment. RM200, he said. I told him I'm buying it. I gave him one of my Panasonic 2kg irons as a donor.

Once it works, it will produce the plumpest and nicest buttonholes. I see renowned jeans makers setting their machines to make poor buttonholes because they do not understand how buttonholes are supposed to look like. These machines were designed to mimic hand sewn buttonholes. The sort we make by hand everyday on our jackets. But, the machines require the user to adjust certain parameters and to use certain kinds of threads (there are 3 threads which go into a buttonhole) to produce the optimal buttonhole. Almost none of the renowned jean makers know what an optimal buttonhole looks like.

Pakistani working on my Singer 299U. By this stage, he has spent 2 days on the machine, refurbishing the drive gearbox under the table and in modifying it to be driven by a servo motor. The machine runs exceptionally quietly now. Previously, it was the most incredible rattletrap I have encountered. There are still some problems, which he is still diagnosing. He spent 10 years as the equipment maintenance head of a certain Bonanza Garments of Karachi, a vertically integrated garment manufacturer and retailer which had during his time there about 1000 machines. He then left to become an independent repairman.