Jack’s Journey Through 🗽
Craft, Values and Denim 🇺🇸
Explore Nashville Tennessee heritage denim through a European lens. From music city workshops to cobblestones, the man who who lived his 🇺🇸 American Dream.
What Are Cobblestones? Cobblestones are small, naturally rounded stones traditionally used to pave streets and courtyards. Common across historic European cities, they evoke a sense of timelessness, craftsmanship, and old-world charm. Unlike smooth modern pavement, cobblestones are uneven and tactile, telling the story of centuries of foot traffic, horse-drawn carriages, and city life. In storytelling, they often symbolize heritage, durability, and tradition—the perfect metaphor for craftsmanship that endures. Just as Nashville’s workshops create jeans built to last, cobblestones have withstood the test of time, connecting the past with the present and linking European history to modern American artistry.
From Nashville to the Cobblestones 👟
Jack’s Journey Through Craft 🗽
Values and Denim 🇺🇸
Jack Morrison never expected that a pair of American jeans would become his passport to understanding two worlds. A 34-year-old architect from Brussels, Jack had spent years restoring 18th-century buildings across Europe—his hands intimately familiar with limestone, timber and the patient craft of bringing old things back to life.
It was on a business trip to Nashville, Tennessee, that Jack discovered something he’d been searching for without knowing it: a modern expression of the American builder’s mentality, stitched into every seam of a pair of selvedge denim jeans.
Nashville Where heritage meets highway walking down 12th Avenue South, Jack stumbled upon a storefront that felt more like a workshop than a boutique. Imogene + Willie—its name hand-painted on weathered wood, the scent of raw denim and leather lingering in the air.
Inside, founders Matt and Carrie Eddmenson weren’t simply selling clothes. They were preserving a living tradition: core denim cut and sewn in the United States, made with premium selvedge denim woven on vintage shuttle looms—the same technology that once defined American workwear. “This is what meaningful progress looks like today”, Matt told Jack, running a hand along the rigid selvage edge. “Building something honest, with your hands, your community, and your values.” Jack bought two pairs that afternoon. One rigid and unwashed—ready to shape itself to his life. One broken-in, already carrying a past.
🗽 imogene + willie 🇺🇸
The European Test 🇨🇿
From Prague to Porto 🇵🇹
Three months later, Jack’s Imogene + Willie jeans had crossed ten European cities. Prague’s medieval squares. Copenhagen’s cycling lanes. Porto’s riverside stonework. Paris’s Marais district. That’s when Jack understood: what he’d found in Nashville wasn’t tied to geography. It was a craft-led optimism—the belief that things made with intention improve through use. European colleagues noticed. “American jeans?” asked Henrik, a Danish urban planner, studying the contrast stitching in a Copenhagen café. “But these feel built for a lifetime.”
Jack smiled “They’re made the way your grandfather’s workwear was made. No shortcuts. No trend cycles.” In Portugal, a master stonemason named António traced the fabric carefully. “Trabalho honesto” he said. Honest work.
The Story Woven Into Every Thread Imogene + Willie didn’t emerge from trend forecasts or venture capital decks. It grew from Matt and Carrie’s belief that Nashville’s creative community deserved a brand grounded in authenticity. Their flagship space in a former automobile factory became more than retail—it became a cultural anchor.
Every product reflects that philosophy Premium American Selvedge Denim – crafted using traditional weaving methods that shaped early workwear. Nashville-Rooted Design – influenced by a city where makers, musicians and builders coexist. Built for life, not Seasons – a denim recycling initiative honoring longevity over disposability. Community Before Commerce – relationships and values prioritized over volume.
Why Old Europe Gets It Walking Amsterdam’s canal district, Jack met Sofia, an Italian textile curator preparing an exhibition on workwear heritage. She noticed the selvedge ID instantly. “Europe understands this instinctively”, she said. “We’ve watched craft disappear under fast fashion. When an American brand chooses restraint—domestic production, traditional methods—it feels like cultural resistance.” For European retailers and buyers, this authenticity translates into long-term customer loyalty rather than seasonal sell-through. Imogene + Willie doesn’t perform heritage. It practices it.
Worn Daily, Better With Time. Six months in, Jack’s jeans had developed their own map. Whiskering at the thighs. Honeycombs behind the knees. Indigo fading where tools lived in his pockets. Over beers in Vienna, Jack reflected: “These are better now than when I bought them—not despite the wear, but because of it.” His friend Georg, a furniture maker, nodded. “That belief—that things improve through use—that’s something Americans still protect.”
Where Two Worlds Meet Nashville’s creative grit resonates with Berlin’s maker culture. Tennessee pragmatism aligns with Dutch design clarity. The optimism of building something true from your own hands isn’t American or European—it’s human. That’s why Jack recommends the brand to colleagues across Europe: “You’re not buying branding. You’re buying into a craft philosophy Europe invented, America preserved and Nashville refined.”
The Invitation For those curious about authentic American craftsmanship—not spectacle, but substance—Imogene + Willie offers a direct connection to place, people and process. Explore the story where craftsmanship meets community.
The Final Chapter (for now) Two years on, Jack’s jeans have crossed fourteen countries. They’ve been repaired once—reinforced with sashiko stitching by 🇯🇵 a Japanese tailor in London. Washed sparingly. Worn constantly. They’re not perfect. They’re earned. That’s the story Jack found in Nashville: not success measured by newness, but meaning built through time.
And that’s OLD Europe language
who always spoken 🇺🇸 American
Dream 🗽 imogene + willie 🇺🇸
Etichete: Advertorial, American Dream, Carrie Eddmenson, eVisa, imogene + willie, Matt Eddmenson
