The Jean Genie: Story of a Denim Lover
My favorite trousers are not Levi‘s yet Georges, the founder of Maverick Repair Jeans in Paris and a true aficionado for 501s agrees to see it for consultation. After a diagnosis, he heads for the back of his shop. Slaloming between piles of previously pampered jeans, he opens the doors of his workshop to me. At first glance, it may seem a little cramped. It contains years of archives, works, and fabrics, as well as three sewing machines, one of which is an old leather workshop reformer.
He settles down and plunges his hand into a mound of patches from previous repairs. “Nothing is lost here; everything is used,” he says with a wink. Then, with his glasses on, he places the patch on my trousers and activates the machine, which purrs gently. To my question “Is it cotton?” Georges answers in the affirmative and offers to tell me, during the repair, the interwoven story of the jeans and of his life.