“I don’t know if it’s the machine or the sewing that brings me to it. I love bringing the drawing, the dream, to life,” says Carlton Daley, owner of Carlton Fashions and a specialist in custom designs and alterations.
Whatever it is, it all started with jeans and high school in Jamaica. Denim was a moving canvas of personal expression, and Fridays were Jeans Day when Carlton was a student. “Back then, jeans had no stretch,” Carlton reminds us, which is one reason the kids got so creative. “For girls, so they could wear the jeans pretty close to the skin and still be able to move, we washed them, stone-washed them, cut it up. For guys, the jeans were baggy, thick 12-ounce denim and the thing was to add tons of pockets, sew on rows of waistbands, add belt loops.”
When Carlton moved to Montreal, he carried on with the Jeans Day tradition. “I would still make a pair of jeans every Friday, in the first year I made 105 pairs,” he says.
