Designer Spotlight: B Sides!

vintage boutique Where I Was From. Their obsession has taken them from silver mines and log cabins in Colorado, where they work with a local cowboy who specializes in unearthing rare specimens, forever in search of that perfectly imperfect pair. Their collection begat B Sides’s vintage patchworked styles—graphic jeans that spliced different washes and colors together long before the current craze for reworked denim. Every wash, every whisker, and every fade are the personality of the time-worn pieces from the founders’ archive. The styles—cut to flatter—combine the personality of vintage with the polish of tailoring, and will evolve over time. No two are alike. Like their musical namesake, B Sides jeans are discreet classics with character—the sort of offbeat favorites you’ll reach for for years to come.

Any specific Assembly memories or anecdotes?

Stacy: Finding Assembly for the first time on Ludlow St. on an early trip to New York and making the neighborhood connection to John Cage and John Cales old apartment... the energy on the street felt so familiar --- Greg has always had an inspiring approach to curating art in the store windows, anecdotes that lead you through the front door and keep you lingering outside.

When was the most recent time you felt moved by something? An event, a shadow..?

Claire: "Glass Pieces" performed by New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center is something I am moved by every year.  It is so different, so athletic and especially difficult for the male dancers... the repetition, symmetry, architecture of the performance... Jerome Robbins' vision for the ballet set to Philip Glass is so
modern, and it is 35 years old. Lincoln Center shows this piece every year, using the same costumes (remade) as the original piece, multi-colored leotards and skirts and the same graph paper background as originally shown.

What has been an unexpected challenge for you in your career?

Stacy and Claire: Producing something that stays true to a singular idea, and that somehow manages to transcend trends.  Since starting B SIDES we have repurposed and reworked 2 tons of vintage denim. We are incredibly nostalgic, and carry with us every day the weight of responsibility to be purposeful and
sustainable and disruptive and beautiful so that we can be nostalgic for others and the next gen.

Do you have a preference to the sunrise or sunset?

Stacy:  Sunset.
Claire:  Sunset.

What's your favorite piece of vintage right now?

Claire: A pair of little paintings Stacy and I collected in New Mexico on one of our scouting trips (shown below). A man and a woman, sitting backwards and cross-legged, they were painted in a flat geometric style by Big Bow in 1937. He was also painting Western movie murals at the time. We found them on a routine visit to a
woman named Rose on our drive from New Mexico through Colorado. She walks us around to discuss her collection of Native American artifacts, handed-down by her father who established the desert town in
the 20's... 
Stacy: You cannot imagine such a beautiful collection of early-AD pottery — round-bottomed vessels earthen and mica, santo domingo and hopi wabi sabi, painted geos and daisies — we leave breathless and happy with these paintings tucked under our arms, all wrapped up in newspaper. Rose calls us her
“denim conservationists” and makes us promise to stay safe on our journey.

Shop the B Sides collection here.