Former Ralph Lauren and Levi Strauss designer Loren Cronk unveiled Loren last week, a 500-square-foot specialty denim store in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The shop is filled with stacks of small-batch jeans for women and men — brands like Soldier and Brave (the company’s first U.S. retailer), Blacksmith, and Melody — as well as limited-edition denim bow ties, guitar straps, belts, shoes, and bags. But the real draw is Cronk’s custom services: He sources fabrics from Japan, Italy, and Turkey, fits and sews the jeans in back, calibrates the color in an industrial washing machine, then sands them by hand, numbering and dating each finished product like a work of art (from $400). Watch the video to see Cronk create a pair of jeans from scratch.
Loren, 82 Nassau Ave., nr. Manhattan Ave., Greenpoint (646-413-4984); M–Th (appt. only), F–Su (10–9).
