This is a story of how two old school American companies came together to experiment with bourbon and denim blue jeans. The bourbon aging process and the denim aging process are actually the opposite of each other. Bourbon starts out clear then darkens and gets its character of taste as it ages in charred oak barrels. Denim on the other hand, starts out dark then lightens with wear and gets its character as it ages. Time makes both of these products better.
In this collaborative project, Noble Denim and Bulleit Bourbon experiment with over dyeing jeans in freshly dumped bourbon barrels to create Barrel Aged Jeans. The video featured below shows the process from start to finish with 50 pairs of raw denim jean and gives a sneak peak at how Noble makes their jeans, Bulleit makes their bourbon and what happens when you combine the two.
Bulleit charred oak barrels.
The used barrels were filled with Noble jeans.
Bulleit and Noble are inspired by craftsmanship and the raw materials they work with: cotton, water, wood, fire and grains.
This video is influenced by Wendell Berry’s work which captures the centrality of nature to good craftsmanship…
The good worker loves the board before it becomes a table,
loves the tree before it yields the board,
loves the forest before it gives the tree.
How long does it take to make the woods?
As long as it takes to make the world.
The woods is present as the world is, the presence
of all its past, and of all its time to come.
It is always finished, it is always being made, the act
of its making forever greater than the act of its destruction.
It is a part of eternity, for its end and beginning
belong to the end and beginning of all things,
the beginning lost in the end, the end in the beginning.
Both these companies care about the details, the little things that no one else will see that matter, the things that make a great product.
The entire video story is here.
A marriage made in oak.
Handmade, small batch.
The Singers are once again humming.
From farm to fashion.
Great products made in the USA.
