My Favorite Emerging Brands Pt. 14: Henry's
Small, sustainable and built to last
Henry’s
“Everything you need, nothing you don’t”
Henry’s is the eponymous label of Keith Henry, a Toronto based photographer and self taught pattern maker who is currently making some of the most sought after, well constructed denim on the market. The brand is relatively small, partially due to its sheer limited production capacity as each pair is hand crafted by the owner and designer himself, but some part intentionally kept underground as well. Known for its elusive oversized denim, Henry’s sources incredibly durable yet fashionable fabrics into brilliantly simple, self designed patterns.
Keith is a photographer, first and foremost, imbued with the passion and eye for the craft from his father’s many artistic pursuits. He was introduced to photography at an early age, digging around and playing with his dad’s lenses. Keith has pursued photography professionally for many years, moving to Vancouver about 9 years ago to pursue skateboard photography, before settling in Toronto to pursue editorial fashion photography about 5 years back. Keith’s introduction to clothing was through his passion and love for skateboarding, which for many in the 90s and early 2000s bridged an interest into fashion and the broader culture surrounding the skateboarding community. This attraction to skater’s clothes prompted him to ask his mother to teach him how to reconstruct pants he’d find or buy into the popular silhouettes or shapes he was seeing at the time. It was his mother’s willfulness to buy Keith those clothes, teaching him instead to make them on his own, that would eventually pay Keith dividends in the form of his own clothing label. This interest became a passion later in life once he moved to Toronto, the cultural and economic epicenter of Canada, opening the doors for Keith to start making and selling his own product after repeated interest from his friends to buy the pants he was making for himself.
Keeping his production tight, Keith is allowed the greatest advantage of having complete creative control of the products he creates, when he makes them, and how they are put out into the world. He doesn’t rely on photographers to shoot his product, having to carefully direct their every move; instead, Keith shoots everything himself, giving him the ability, in his photography and the product itself, to take creative risks a larger brand might not be able to. Everything the brand does is incredibly intentional, and as a result, often results in slow, painstaking production which has garnered the brand a seemingly un-intentional amount of attention and hype in that process.
Henry’s releases its limited runs, usually consisting of a few self designed styles/patterns of denim, teased over the course of a few days prior to the product’s release, with images like the one shown above, of what’s to come. In this process, Keith builds hype leading up to his releases, similar to skate or streetwear brands releasing their lookbooks days before their drop date, which almost always sell out within minutes. In addition to his own releases, Henry’s does limited collaborations with Vancouver based James Coward about once a year and is stocked in the world renown menswear boutique, Neighbour, also based in Vancouver.
Product Highlights
One of the pairs of denim from Henry’s most recent release is this Rounded Jean, a staple silhouette of the brand, in a deep neppy (snowy) 14oz hemp/cotton blend selvedge denim from Japan. No detail goes without incredible consideration, but beginning with the largest and foremost detail, the denim fabric chosen here, which is a hemp/cotton blend that allows the fabric to drape quite naturally around, not on the legs and provides more tensile strength than a standard 100% cotton denim. The swooped front pocket bags which make it easier to get things in and out of the pocket, to the large, partially rounded back pockets, the detail, fit and construction of this pair of denim is unmatched, and in my opinion, the brand’s best pair to date all in all.
Next up, are these Chicane Trousers in a military cotton sateen. The pattern used here is one Keith often experiments with in mixed fabrics, pictured above in collaboration with James Coward is a pair constructed from two mismatched heavy cotton drills, and below, here, Keith used his roll-ends to complete two pairs of these Light/Bright chicane’s. However, the pair I intend to highlight here is the army green military cotton sateen chicane trouser, which Keith cleverly constructed from essentially two sides of the same fabric. By using the face and the inverse of the same fabric, sewed together in this wavy pattern, the result is a much more subdued two-tone effect, than his previous pairs. The high sheen nature of the face fabric catches and reflects light where the back tends to absorb it, creating an “alternating color effect on the same fabric under certain lighting conditions.”
Of course, a man with the craftsmanship expertise and many talents of Keith, limiting Henry’s to just trousers would be an absolute travesty. Recently, the brand has been experimenting more with shirting and jackets, the eventual next step in Henry’s rounding out its offerings. From the brand’s most recent release, I was FINALLY able to pick up what Henry’s simply calls its Snap Shirt. This iteration is constructed from a streaked selvedge cotton chambray shirting fabric from Japan, which has an eye catching deep purplish/indigo color. Using French seam construction with a clean top stitched finish, this snap shirt will age beautifully with wear and hold up as long as you will have it in your closet.
Lastly, a newer silhouette in Henry’s assortment is the Swoop Jacket, which was first introduced and carried by Neighbour. This version was produced in a 12.5 oz Japanese neppy denim, similar to the hemp/cotton blend from the Rounded Jean above, which has been washed and dried to minimize shrinkage. The cropped silhouette follows most of Henry’s tops, while this particular denim fabric has an incredible marled/heathered texture that will age beautifully and continue to develop character the more its worn, fading and distressing over time. Hidden snap closures add a subtle, unseen touch to this jacket, while my favorite feature, the jacket’s huge swooped front pockets is quite predominant. The pattern of the swooped pockets, from the middle collarbone swooping down to the sides of the jacket, are done in a heavy contrasting white, further bringing out the jacket’s snowy texture.
