Self Edge

Self Edge opened its first store in San Francisco in 2006, founded by Kiya Babzani and his wife Demitra. Kiya had a longstanding interest in vintage American workwear and denim, and had concluded that Japanese manufacturers -- working from vintage shuttle looms and close study of mid-century American garments -- were producing more faithful reproductions of that heritage than most American companies still making it themselves. Self Edge built its business around importing that Japanese output rather than domestic denim, and became the first retailer outside Japan to stock several brands, including Dry Bones, Strike Gold and Real Japan Blues, giving American and European raw-denim buyers access to labels that previously required importing directly. The shop's name plays on 'selvedge,' the pre-20th-century term for the tightly woven, self-finished edge of a bolt of fabric that doesn't fray -- a construction detail associated with older shuttle-loom weaving and central to the raw-denim category Self Edge specializes in. Three years after the San Francisco opening, Babzani opened a New York location, followed by Los Angeles in 2010 and later a store in Portland, Oregon, along with a Mexico location -- building what several outlets describe as a small chain that became a reference point for Japanese denim retail in the US.