We always enjoy discovering new and exciting brands here at Denim Geek and MQT is no different. A premium menswear brand offering rustic denims and indigo classics, the brand was started two years ago by a few ex-Levi’s designers.

MQT’s mission is to provide superior jeans to the masses at a decent price and now they’re sold in numerous boutiques across England. All of the cotton is sourced from European mills in places like Italy and Spain and the finishing of each piece is centered on little details such as battered rivets, reversed belt loops and deep-v pockets. MQT jeans are available in six fits (carrot, slim, regular, relaxed, loose, twisted), nine designs and ten finishes.

OK, so it’s not a huge brand yet. But mixing and matching among designs, fits and finishes provides plenty of selection for men who want their denim a little different. The small size of the brand pays dividends: new designs are quick-to-market and detail can really be focused on. MQT live to make men look good in denim. And ideally, they don’t want that to be six months from now.

You’d struggle to find the same combination of style and detail at the price. A pair of Levi’s in London would set you back around £125 and MQT can be had from about £90 to about £110. Who knows what you’ll find it for online.

Check out www.mqtdenim.com for more information.

We just got word that Levi’s and Original Fake are continuing their collaboration this year. Denim Geek reported last year that the legendary denim label were teaming up with KAWS and Co for a few select samples and this 2010 will see a joint project re-working the 501 1944 jean from the Levi’s Vintage Collection.

Like last year, the jeans feature KAWS’s Chomper teeth on the back pocket as well as details which are pulled straight from the 1940s. If you like the look of them, these jeans should be available soon from Original Fake and www.levi.com.

Opening Ceremony was founded in 2002 by UC Berkeley grads Carol Lim and Humberto Leon and bills itself as “a multifaceted retail environment comprised of shops, showroom and a private label collection.” Levi’s is Levi’s – founded in 1873 and iconic. Denim Geek finally managed to find more info on the eagerly anticipated collaboration over at www.sfgate.com.

Leon and Joshua Katz, senior manager of collaborations at Levi’s, say they’d long been following each other’s work. “We’d talked about doing something together, but it was a matter of finding the right project,” Katz said.

Talk turned into action, and the result is an affordable co-branded collection including updated Levi’s 505 corduroy jeans with a slim-leg 1980s fit, trucker jackets for men and women, a unisex button-down shirt and cutoff shorts, all in undenim colors like teal, fuchsia and curry.

The Levi’s x Opening Ceremony collection premiered Tuesday during New York Fashion Week and will be available from this Monday in hot spots such as Colette in Paris, Lane Crawford in Hong Kong and V2K in Istanbul as well as online at www.levi.com.

Q: You’ve collaborated with Wong Kar-Wai, Chloë Sevigny, Spike Jonze, United Arrows and Pendleton, to name just a few people and companies. Why did you want to work with Levi’s?

A: They’ve been always on my radar as a company we wanted to work with. We look at every project in terms of who is expert at what they do. If you look at American denim, and quality denim, there’s Levi’s. They make the classic trucker jacket that James Dean wore. They’ve been around for enough time to be really grounded in a lot of categories. When you think American heritage, Levi’s is the first brand that comes to mind. We wanted to stick with the heritage of Levi’s, their signature items with a hint of Opening Ceremony.

Q: What inspired the collection?

A: It started with the corduroy.

Q: Why not denim if you’re working with Levi’s?

A: My inspiration came from going to upstate New York in summertime with friends. They had incredible short cutoffs they made from corduroy pants. They had a great feeling to them. We’d go swimming in creeks, and their cutoffs took me back to my days of going to Berkeley, where I was always finding corduroys in thrift shops. I’d taper them to make them the right fit. It was a great group of people I was around – Mod kids, riot grrrls – in the ’90s; I was thinking about that when I was doing the collection. It reminds me of how we’d drive down to Stinson Beach, and on our way we’d find these great little beaches and have a bonfire.

Q: Teal, fuchsia and curry aren’t the colors of Stinson Beach or upstate New York, yet they figure strongly in the collection. How did you select your palette?

A: It was based on the great festivals in India where they throw pigment and it stains white garments. The colors evoke the feeling, and it was crossed with the rich vegetables we’d buy at the farmers’ markets – squashes and beets – a beautiful, almost curry color and almost fuchsia.

Q: You have stores in New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo. Why not here?

A: Opening a store in San Francisco is not too far off our radar. We have lots of San Francisco roots we feel really strongly about. We have a kind of daring approach, so I would think there is room for us there.

More Info: www.levi.com & www.openingceremony.us

Firstly, I apologise for the terrible camera phone photos.  Anyway, it was never my intention to become any kind of denim collector when I started this blog but everytime I’m in town, I can’t help but have a snoop around.  I’ve needed a nice pair of loose, comfortable jeans for a while and haven’t really seen any which have caught my eye, until I saw these Levis in a local store.

These are beautifully cut, Levis Seasonal Welt 503s from the Autumn/Winter 2009 season.  This loose fit jean has a slightly tapered leg and side cinch belts.  Although not made from a very heavy denim or selvedged, I love the way these jeans look and am very happy with them.  The dual tone stitch detailing and oversized back pockets really set off the back.  You can get your hands on these for around £85 at the official Levis store, by clicking here.

I also couldn’t resist buying these Chefdeville jeans from my local TK Maxx, which I think are from last season.  Such a bargain at £15.  If you like the look of them you might want to check out the Chefdeville website at www.chefdeville.com.

Born in Germany but based in New York, Robert Geller has trained under Marc Jacobs and won awards including the Vogue/CFDA grant in 2004. Geller began his own label in 2007 but has recently collaborated with the godfather of all denim brands, Levis, to produce a capsule collection.

The designer has searched through the Levis archive and re-worked several classic styles using various layers, shades and cuts of denim which makes double denim look more fashion dream than fashion nightmare.

The capsule collection will be available in 12 bloomingdales stores, at www.bloomingdales.com and in 7 Levi’s stores throughout the USA.

We knew it was going to happen eventually. Although they’ve never gone out of style with the old guys down at your local bingo club, or Jonny Borrell from Razorlight, denim jackets are back with a bang. It’s once again time to search your wardrobe and dust off the jacket that you thought you’d never wear again.

Fear not though, if you don’t own a denim jacket or haven’t really been interested before, there has never been a better time to jump on the bandwagon. Denim Geek has decided to give you guys a little bit of a head start and suggest some of the best denim jackets that we’ve found recently.

Now, don’t skip down to the next post just yet. Denim jackets are a lot different today to what they were 10 years ago. The recent demand for vintage and raw denim has seen several brands change their jacket designs and styles somewhat. You might be surprised.

First up is this beautiful Washed Indigo Denim Jacket from the Levis Orange Tab Collection, which is known for it’s construction quality. This jacket will be ideal for the coming months as it features a full plaid lining and handwarmer pockets. It is available at End Clothing for £115.00. Check it out at http://www.endclothing.co.uk/brands/levis/levis-orange-tab-pitted-denim-jacket.html.

If the lighter washes in jackets aren’t your thing and you’re planning to pair one with some khaki or beige pants, a darker wash or raw denim number may just be the way to go. ASOS currently have this Edwin Flat Head Denim Jacket in stock. It’s made of quality Edwin raw denim and will weigh in pretty heavily.  The jacket has a vintage look to it and a darted front seam. You can pick it up now for £120 at http://tinyurl.com/flatheaddenim.

Probably our favourite jackets we’ve stumbled across lately though, are also available from ASOS and come from a brand which is now sometimes overlooked.  Bluebell is a collection from Wrangler which reshapes the brand’s illustrious heritage and concentrates on sharp, modern clothing.  These two button-up, dry denim jackets are based on the original 1947 and 1949 fits and feature contrast stitching and front pockets.  You can check them out at http://tinyurl.com/bluebell1 and http://tinyurl.com/bluebell2.

It’s a first!  Come september, the Original Fake x Levis Collaboration will be available in the UK and Europe.  Now in it’s fifth edition and never before released outside Japan, this exciting collaboration is bringing fits to London in extremely limited numbers.  Denim Geek has been told that only 48 pairs of these 12oz indigo denim jeans will be available in the UK, with 24 pairs available from Selfridges and 24 pairs at Cinch London.

Two of the styles will be based on the vintage Levi’s 501 fit, with a third cargo jean using a silhouette from Original Fake’s mainline collection.  The 501s will be iconic styles from 1947 and 1955 and will feature a customised zip fly.  All three pieces will include Original Fake founder and legendary graffiti artists KAWS’ unique tooth design on the rear pockets and also on the selvedge, which should really set off the jeans when worn turned up.  The cargo pants are offered in pure rigid denim but the dark wash on the 501s is inspired by KAWS’ own vintage Levis jeans.

This capsule collection will only be available in 7 stores in Europe with the two London stores the only places in the UK to grab a pair of these rather special jeans.  We believe the prices will start at around £250.

So I found myself with a little extra spending money this weekend. You guys should know what that means by now. Bought me some jeans! Although I’m shopping online a lot more recently, we’re pretty lucky in our town to have a few decent clothing stores. Anyway, after browsing through a few said stores and a few hundred pairs of jeans, I settled on these Levis 505 Jeans from the ‘Products With Roots’ range.

Levis makes some of the the best quality jeans on the market today and has done for well over 100 years. To be honest, when you buy any pair of Levi’s you should be safe with the knowledge that you are buying top grade product. There is a reason why if you asked pretty much anyone in the country for a jeans brand, they would probably say Levis.

The guys at Levis hand picked some of the best silhouettes and details from their illustrious history, remixed them and created the ‘Products with Roots’ range. All of the products in the range are Special Edition.

Emulating the 1967 505 fit, these jeans are a slim straight fit with a slight taper toward the bottom of the leg. The blue wash on the jeans is extremely well done, with slight creases on the thighs and backs of the knees. Overall, the jeans fade to a darker blue denim toward the bottom.

I was debating whether to leave these jeans with the tags on for a while just to admire them, but decided to break them in last night. Although not selvedge denim, I did wear the jeans turned up as they are about an inch too long on the leg. I think I’ll get them taken up…

You can get these online at Aphrodite Clothing where they’re currently marked down to half price at £45.00. What a steal. Check them out at http://www.aphrodite1994.com/levi-3.phtml.

We’ve admired the Levi’s DNA range for a while now without having bought a pair. This time may be coming to an end pretty soon though, because no matter what anyone says, you won’t just be buying any old pair of jeans, you’ll be buying a beautiful piece of denim history. The DNA range was launched to represent classic Levis Red styles using the stitching, pockets, tags and buttons which made them popular with the denim connoisseurs of yesteryear.

All of the jeans are made from dark, washed Levis denim and are marked with the immediately noticeable Levis Red DNA patch on the reverse waist.  Jeans from the collection are finished off with oversized pockets, cinch belts and oversized stitching detail which is mega popular at the minute.  Some of the jeans from last season had a light Bluevine wash which highlighted fade spots from the hips down to the knees.

The DNA jeans are currently available at few online retailers and are not too hard to find. What can be hard though, is finding your size. You might get lucky and find a bargain pair from last season, but Denim Geek wanted to be the first to let you know that there are two new season pairs available right now at End Clothing, with full size-breaks in stock.

Both the Regular Tapered Rigid Rock Jeans and the Slim Tapered Hot Road Jeans are available on the Newcastle stores’ website and are priced at £105.00 and £115.00 respectively. Nice.

We love Saturdays and normally spend them browsing the net for stories about jeans and clothing.  Chilling out doing not much is what they’re for.  You already know we like to keep you guys up to date with any sales and discounts that we can and we’ve got a first for you!  We’ve just had a chat with one of the guys from our link partners, Aphrodite Clothing and he has let slip to Denim Geek that the current sales prices of 25% off will be marked down again tonight at midnight!

These new knock downs will include designer jeans from Edwin, Evisu, Levi’s, True Religion, Armani Jeans, Paul Smith and Hugo Boss all at half price!  Make sure you get over there tonight or tomorrow to get your hands on those items you’ve had your eye on for a while.

I was hoping the Evisu Vintage Cut Jeans were going to be halved but there is only a 34 waist left.  Gutted.  Check out www.aphrodite1994.com/sale.html after midnight.