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Recently, Swedish online shop Tres Bien took a few weeks off to redo their site, mainly to make it work with multiple languages and currencies. This being done, the new site launch a few days ago with the beginnings of what promises to be an excellent fall selection.

Henrik Vibskov

Burfitt

Minimarket

Wood Wood

S.B.U.

We've been following Chicago's Jake for a few seasons now and have witnessed quite an evolution. When we first discovered the store they were mainly about luxury casual labels, but these days they've begun to incorporate some serious high-style fashion into their repertoire. This season we have pieces from CDFA Fashion Fund winner Doo.Ri, beautiful, classic shoes from Rupert Sanderson, and luxurious men's bags from Want.

Mayle

Behnaz Sarafpour

Doo.Ri

Doo.Ri

Rupert Sanderson

Band of Outsiders

Helmut Lang

Common Projects

Want

So last week in our comments we received the following inquiry:

Myself and at least another 2 of your readers (my roommates!) are going crazy trying to find high-waisted denim skirts (not minis) with pencil and circle skirts.

Help! We can't find any that are affordable (i.e. under $200) and really great looking!

Let us know!

xoxo Daniela

Dear Daniela,

We can understand why you're looking for high-waisted denim skirts. If you check The Sartorialist as often as we do, you might have noticed that like every third picture the woman is wearing a high-waisted pencil skirt, and just last week there was this:

And we can also understand why you're having trouble finding them, so did we! We don't know about you, but we didn't have the time to check every shop in our guide one by one to see what they have. So we quickly built the Jargol shopping guide inventory search. In the top left of the front page you'll notice a "Find Products" search box. Just type in what you're looking for and this searches the sites of all the shops in our guide that have online shopping.

We typed in "denim skirt" and on the second page of the results this came up at La Garconne:

It's an A-line wrap skirt, it's $150, it's high waisted and it's from Rag & Bone, who know how to do good denim.

In looking through La Garconne's site we also came upon a high-waisted skirt from Phillip Lim. It's chambray not denim and is over your budget but we quite liked it so we thought we'd mention it in passing.

Unfortunately that's all we could dig up from the stores in our guide. Everyone is in that summer/fall transition stage right now so there's just not much available but we're betting if you check the product search in a month or so you'll have more luck.

Going away from our guide, something told us to check Yoox.com. We seemed to remember them having lots of denim skirts. We found 3 possibilities. Each is a high-waisted denim pencil skirt, each is on sale and each is available in exactly one size.

There's this from Christina Santandrea for $84 in size 4:

We don't know what that gold thing is on the side but we're hoping it has nothing to do with the skirt.

And this from Dolce & Gabanna for $85 in size 8:

Don't worry, we checked and we couldn't find any hint of sequins or sparkles or pleather on the thing, as those crazy Italian are prone to do.

And this from Diane von Furstenburg for $134 in size 6:

We hope this helps and like we said check the product search in a month or so and you might have better luck.

Love, Jargol

P.S.: If any readers have any ideas/suggestions, please don't hesitate to put them in the comments!

Better 3 years late than never? The New York Times last week did a piece on high-end Japanese denim. Naturally, San Francisco's Self Edge and New York's Blue in Green were both mentioned in the piece.

Last Wednesday we featured Scout's bee print dress (below) on these pages. The next day we visited the shop in person and saw the dress (which is quite beautiful in person), and found quite a few other pieces from Scout's line, from denim to shirts. Like Opening Ceremony and Oak before them, it looks like Scout is going to be developing and expanding their own line. So far, so good.

We've never spent $200 on denim, much less $500, but doesn't stop us from appreciating the work of Pure Blue. More than any company they seem to take their work incredibly seriously--you need only read the description of the painstaking processes involved to figure that out. A host of special Pure Blue styles are now available for preorder at Blue In Green.

Oak is better known for being a reliable arbiter of monotone fashion. But this spring it's all about color for them. Now in store, a Oak line of jeans in a variety of incandescent colors.

Think of Self Edge as Blue in Green west.

The mix of labels is a bit different from its New York counterpart, but the idea is the same. They import premium denim from small labels in Japan, most of which have been making jeans for a couple of decades. While a typical pair of the jeans at the mall might be made of 12-14 oz denim, Self Edge sells ultra-durable 21 oz jeans made from cotton from Zimbabwe of all places (by Iron Heart). Thanks to a helpful reader, it is a latest shop in our guide.

Another day and another exclusive denim shop makes it online, while Blue in Green focuses on ultra-exclusive Japanese denim, Denim Bar's selection draws more from Europe and The States. Highlights include jeans from Julian Red and Denimbirds, both Swedish labels that are very difficult to find in the US.

You might have already read about Waraku on Cool Hunting. But if you haven't, allow us to introduce you to this new addition to our shopping guide.

Waraku in Venice does a yeoman's job of trekking to Japan and bringing back some rather cool sneakers, T-shirts and denim. First they bring in Japanese shoes from well known sneaker companies like Nike, Puma and Converse. Why some of these shoes aren't available directly in the US is beyond us but they aren't so for now Waraku is the only place in the US that we know of where you can find these. Then they bring in clothing, sneakers and denim from various Japanese companies, many heavily influenced by skate and surf culture. There's the surf brand Namitatsu that makes T-shirts that would put most American surf shirts to shame. Or denim brand Studio D'Artisan which has been making fine denim jeans since 1979. Check it out.

Men's

Namitatsu

Nike

Converse

Namitatsu

Studio D'Artisan (for those denim geeks out there, Studio D'Artisan is 20% off right now).

Women's

Converse

Tretorn

Mizutori

In a few short years we watched as jeans as jeans eclipsed $100, then $150 and now most premium denim lines have comfortably cleared $200. Then there was the backlash, as new brands like Cheap Monday became all the rage with their $65 jeans. But premium jeans are not done, oh no, and two recent articles bear witness to that.

First there's the Forbes article that notes "in 2005 the number of premium pairs sold doubled over the previous year, and in the first eight months of this year, they've risen 33%." Then there's the JC Report piece introducing yet another slew of high-end denim labels.

Our view on premium denim has always been that among the dozens of labels out there you have to be able to separate the companies that sell jeans for $200 because they can to the few that seem to actually care about the materials and construction.

Rag & Bone makes its jeans in North Carolina using premium Japanese denim.

PRPS makes its own selvege denim from African cotton on looms in Japan. You only need look at one of their jeans up close to see their uncompromising attention to detail.

Among the more widely distributed lines Earnest Sewn does a pretty good job as does Habitual (if you don't mind the giant cross on your ass). If you'd like to go more obscure you can go for the Japanese denim lines at Blue in Green.

But for each one of these companies there are 5 that take denim of equal quality to those in cheaper jeans, manufacture jeans in some random factory, spend a ton on making sure they end up in the right magazines and on the right celebrities, all to convince the public into shelling out $200 for their average product. Buyer beware.

Denim affocianados take note: Factory People just brought in a boatload of jeans to their shop, encompassing some of the most respected names in the game.

From Crate out of LA we have the Sally jean, a dark wash skinny jean.

Habitual, a company known for its women's jeans and recognized by the large cross symbol on the pockets has a new design team. With the new team come more understated designs and men's jeans, inluding this "Johnny Glory."

The most premium of the bunch is Rag & Bone's version of their basic 5-pocket jean in an ash-colored Japanese selvage denim.

And finally we have slim jeans from Nobody and a classic straight-leg from 5EP.

• Now through 10/21 Jake in Chicago and online has premium denim for men and women (coupon codes mdenim20 and wdenim20, respectively) 20% off. Looking to buy a pair of Nudie, Rag & Bone, Habitual or Earnest Sewn jeans? Now would be a good time.
• Seattle shops Schmancy and Fancy will be hosting a Plush You! art show featuring over a hundred plush toy artists. The opening reception was October 6th, but the show will be running through November 2nd.
• In celebration of its first anniversary, Milk in Los Angeles and online is offering 10% off any purchase made now through 12PM (PST) on 10/16.
• Celebrating its 3rd anniversary, Azalea in San Francisco is hosting a party and fashion show on October 21st. Go here for more information.
• Also on October 21st, Eliza Page in Austin is hosting a trunk show for jewelry designer Metalsgirl.
• Via NY Mag, Broadway Panhandler in New York is taking up to 75% off kitchen appliances and gadgets from Cuisinart, Le Creuset, and OXO, now through 10/29.

For places that follow such things, the opening of Blue in Green in New York was a rather big deal. Finally there was a store in the US that carried ultra-premium Japanese denim labels that previously were only available sporadically or through a third party.

The denim obsessed will be happy to note that last week Blue in Green brought their selection online, offering brands such as Pure Blue, Warehouse, Sugar Cane and Studio D'Artisan. For the non-denim obsessed, click through and browse the store to find that somewhere, somehow, someone is paying $500 for a pair of jeans from a Japanese brand of whom you never heard.

Is there a denim company out there right now that isn't doing a skinny jean? Probably not. But April 77 gets bonus points for doing skinny jeans since 2002. The French denim company was started then by Brice Partouche. Moonlighting as a member of the rock band Rodeo Massacre, Partouche draws much of his inspiration for the brand from the style of punk rock bands of the past and present. Skinny (and often shiny) jeans and trousers. Kickass motorcycle pants. Fitted shirts. These are hallmarks of punk rock style and they've all made it into a collection that screams authenticity and quality.

In this unique moment in time April 77 finds itself at the center of another trend in denim, something we like to call "cheap expensive". Seven likes to call the brand "the French Cheap Monday" which is to say their jeans will set you back around $140. Not exactly the same your basic pair of Levi's, but better than $260 some brands have come to charge.

But by going to the website, reading about the brand online, looking at their collection, listening to April 77 Radio on their site (highly recommended!), we get the feeling that they'll be doing skinny jeans at these price points long after the trend is gone.

The brand is currently available at Seven, Factory People and Riley James (not online yet, call to order) among other places.