If fashion has a man behind the denim curtain – a wizard of jeans – Benjamin Talley Smith is it, a name that’s passed from brand to brand, designer to designer, like a secret password. Photo: The New York Times
“See that honeycomb wear pattern?” he said. “That was because some cowboy had his jeans tucked into his boots. I might try to replicate that.”“Look at that,” he said. He smiled. “I made those.” Smith has also worked with Tommy Hilfiger, Alexander Wang, Rag & Bone, Juicy Couture, Helmut Lang, Marc By Marc Jacobs, Vince, Everlane, Aritzia, Jordache and Walmart, for whom he developed its sustainable Free Assembly denim, which starts at US$27 .
Aside from Khaite and Reformation, Smith is currently working with Ulla Johnson, La Ligne and Spanx . In jeans, “whiskers” does not refer to feline sensory antennae but rather the thin faded lines created by sitting that radiate out at the crotch. “The degree of scientific inquiry that goes into how many hours of wash you need is very, very different from questions of draping,” she said.
He has the first pair of jeans he ever made, back in 2000, when he was in college, and the most complicated pair of jeans he ever made, for Evisu, which was inspired by an ancient pair of Levi’s and involved so many different aged patches, each of which had to be created by hand, that one pair took two weeks to make and cost US$800 .Smith did not expect to be a denim guy. He grew up in a small town in Vermont, the youngest of five children.