Bolts From The Blue
When jeans designers Jeff Venanzi and Lee Lottes say they’ve gone heavy metal, they mean it literally.
In their Corona del Mar studio, they make jeans adorned with metal hinges and other hardware. They’ll take an actual working hinge made of stainless steel and attach it to the fly of a pair of jeans. Instead of traditional buttons and zippers, they’ll substitute nuts and bolts, the same kind used for home improvement projects.
The handymen are calling their new line of hardware-enhanced denim Hinged Inc., and they’re hoping enough people will latch onto the concept that they’ll be able to parlay their jeans into a full-fledged clothing company.
“People look at us wearing these and say, ‘Honey, they’re wearing a hinge,’ ” says Venanzi, a 32-year-old Corona del Mar resident. “Or they’ll ask us, ‘Is that, like, a hinge used on doors?’ ”
Close.
Most of the hinges they use are just a little smaller than your average door hinge, although they once fastened a monster 1 1/2-foot hinge on the leg of the pants.
Hinged Inc. already has a modest following in Southern California among those who like their clothing different, especially skateboarders, rave-goers and, not surprisingly, people into heavy metal and body-piercing.
“The eccentric person is who we’re looking for,” Lottes says.
Between his hinged jeans and body jewelry, Lottes wears enough metal to set off alarms at any airport security checkpoint. The 24-year-old Long Beach resident, who has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Cal State Fullerton and hopes to become a private investigator, enjoys art and began making the multimedia jeans for himself and his friends.
“I was doing a lot of custom jeans work in college, and I wanted to incorporate something on a pair of jeans that’s never been seen before,” he says. “I wanted something industrial, and I liked silver metal.”
Lottes began wearing his bolted-down denim to clubs in Orange County and Los Angeles.
“I wanted that individuality. People would see the jeans and order them. They’d either send us a pair of their jeans and we’d put on a hinge and some patches, or we’d make them a pair.”
Venanzi, a friend of Lottes’ since their high school days in Lakewood, saw that, with a little tinkering, Lottes’ hobby could be expanded into a business.
“I have entrepreneur aspirations, so I said, ‘Hey, let’s make this happen,’ ” Venanzi says.
At the time, Venanzi’s experience was in business, not fashion. Lottes, a graduate of Long Beach State, works for a Newport Beach entrepreneur who offers a training program for human resources professionals in labor law. A year ago, Venanzi offered to devote his spare time to the business responsibilities of what would become Hinged Inc.
He got a patent on the hinged jeans and a trademark on an H-shaped logo that looks like a hinge.
“I referred to Mossimo’s trademark M. That’s why we came up with an H,” Venanzi says.
When talking about their progress, the partners say their success is due to serendipity, karma generated by their creativity.
“We’ve been such good friends. We noticed this energy draws us to people we need,” Lottes says. “It’s all been so positive.”
Their dream is to work full time for Hinged.
“We’re like actors. We have to work to pay the bills, and yet we have dreams,” Venanzi says.
For their spring/summer collection, Venanzi and Lottes expect to manufacture 500 pairs of jeans as well as belts and T-shirts. They’re looking for a company that can manufacture the jeans--hinges and all--from cut to final stitches.
They hope to someday set up their own manufacturing business and expand the line to include jackets and belts.
Hinged jeans are available through the Wild Flora Boutique Gallery on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. The unisex jeans, slightly baggy and made of stone-washed denim, sell for about $50 a pair.
Lottes has also designed vests with hinges screwed onto the front, shorts with fabric patches and swim trunks with dingle-ball fringe. Besides hinges, he has adorned jeans with bottle caps, appliques of fabric remnants and faux fur and odd patches advertising everything from delis to Little League teams.
“We found tons of patches in an old La Puente jeans warehouse,” Lottes says.
Their Hinged jeans have a built-in advantage: Should customers tire of them, they can still use the hardware.
