Paper Denim & Cloth

When Jack Jeans didn’t work, Mudd’s owner, Dick Gilbert, backed my idea of starting my own brand instead. But first he told me that Paper Denim & Cloth was the worst name he had ever heard of for a jean company. Thankfully I didn’t listen. PD&C was the first thing I built, and the start of everything since.

What I loved about Diesel and Replay was that they were experimenting with better fabrics out of Japan and doing advanced washing. Diesel was the gold standard of the 1990s, and I wanted to make an American version of it.

I started it at 26 with $16,000 spent on a sample collection, carrying three pairs of jeans in a messenger bag to Barneys and Bergdorf Goodman. I did the selling myself. Diesel, Replay, Miss Sixty and Energie topped the market at $99, and Earl Jean and Frankie B. sat there with them. We launched at $150, made in America, using Japanese and Italian denim, sold out at Henri Bendel in our first week, and the fax machine ran all morning with orders.

What I didn’t know was that we were helping create a new ‘Premium’ category in denim and we were setting the standard for how brands thought about fabric, wash, and finish. PD&C was a culture brand too, dabbling with collaborations, movies, and artists which were defining the NYC fashion scene.