We walk the trade show floors twice a year, invariably when NY takes on its two worst personas: the Five Boroughs of Hell, and the City That Never Thaws. This season was the latter. Though I’d take the cold over the heat any day, this season was just a little colder without the warmth of our managing editor by my side. He is quite warm in real life, a valuable companion in a Donner’s Pass type of situation.

Anyhow, I walked the trade show floors all by lonesome, and this is what I saw.

Craighill

Some people believe in coincidences. I do not. There is a conspiracy and it is this: rare as they may be, the times that you need to swap keys from your key ring just so happen to occur immediately after trimming your fingernails. The correlation of these two events is quite high. I’m not suggesting causation (it’s the one thing I learned as a psych major). But I am suggesting a conspiracy amongst nail clippers and key rings. Anyway, Craighill started less than two years ago with a focus on US-made accessories and homeware. Using materials like brass, steel, and walnut, their designs are clean, clever, and beautiful. The key holders they make don’t even require fingernails. Aside from that, their bottle openers are obviously useful, but also just beautiful objets in their own right that will just get more beautiful with age.

Himel Bros.

Himel Bros. continues to bring the leathery goodness, of course. Just look at that rack of fine leather. Shinki horse leather and suede mixed with indigo wabash fabrics are the standouts among the rack.

But he’s also putting forth some lighter wares with tees, sweatshirts, chambray shirts, and jeans. Yes, jeans. The cotton goods are made in collaboration with master jeansmaker, Ben Viapiana and are on par with the quality of the jackets for which Himel’s been known. The jeans are made with a 12oz. Kuroki Mills selvedge denim and are full of tasty details like leather reinforcements at the coin pocket, a secret sixth coin pocket, reversible camo pocket lining, and hidden chainstitch ‘Himel’ embroidery that will reveal itself with fades at the rear pocket.

Naked & Famous

Napoleonic in their approach, Naked & Famous crowns their super slubby jean the King of Slub. To make the denim, they had to make new yarns that are extra thicc and slubby. The result is an unsanforized, 23oz. denim that feels like a full page braille movie script typed out in size 6 font.

Their Elephant series jeans are now in their seventh iteration and it’s the first time they’ve done it in black denim. Black warp and weft, the pachyderm pants pack it in at 20oz. Other notable jeans include an alternating twill/plain weave denim, ‘blizzard’ denim that uses twisted yarns for a jean that goes well with an Oreo McFlurry.

That’s it for now, but be sure to keep up with our trade show coverage to see what else will be hitting retailers in the next year.