S.O.S Jeans by Orza Studio

There is another brand on the denim scene to watch, S.O.S. Jeans by Orza Studio. They are a denim brand with more than 30 years of experience in the jeans field and are a vintage company with their jeans 100% made in Italy. The company founder, Mr. Pasquale Orza, grew up in the area of Hertfordshire, England, starting the company in London’s King’s Road, Chelsea. In 1978, following the success of the Lycra corset jeans, Pasquale Orza launched the first stretch denim jeans in the world with denim developed with Kaihara denim Japan. I was lucky enough to get the chance to chat to Mr. Orza about his brand and find out more! Check it out!

DB: Hi! Thank you for doing this interview with us, so tell us a bit more about your brand!
It’s my pleasure, in a nutshell I make S.O.S Jeans to help women face the days with confidence and style. We try to achieve this with feminine silhouettes and innovative cloth finishes and washing techniques. The brand stands for quality, style and innovation.

DB: When and why did you decide to start SOS Jeans by Orza Studio?
In 1978 I started working with Peter Golding consulting and launching other brands into the UK fashion market with great success. I realised there was a gap in the market for my vision of a real woman’s jeans label. So I took the opportunity to show the world what I thought women wanted.

DB: How did you come up with the name?
At the time I was seeing a gorgeous girl and with her name constantly in my mind I combined it with the name of my design studio. It’s a simple story, but true.

DB: What sets your jeans apart from the other denim brands on the market?
The main thing that sets us apart is that we first made and still make truly feminine jeans. It’s our sensibility to what women young and old want and need that sets us apart. We always have the women we sell to in mind when developing our new denims and fits making sure they are trendy and contemporary.

DB: What would you say your favourite jean is that you have designed?
Of all the jeans I have made over my 35 years in the business, my favourite is my original stretch jean which has truly lasted the test of time as we still make it today in our continuous packet, but you’ve asked me a really difficult thing as I love all of my creations as they all have something special. It’s as if they were my children.

DB: Where do you find your inspiration when designing?
I find inspiration everywhere. It’s a boring answer I know but no matter where I am, whether on the underground (subway), from a film, book, photo, piece of music or just from walking the streets of London, Milan, New York or Paris inspiration finds me.

DB: Why is denim so important to you?
That’s easy- It’s the most essential part of any woman’s wardrobe. Denim has become a part of women’s lives like no other garment, it’s worn when she wants a casual day with friends and with a simple change of style when she’s embarking on a new love chapter in her life, denim can help give her the confidence that only your favourite pair of jeans can give you. Denim is for life and when we say goodbye to our old faithful jeans it’s a sad moment.

DB: Do you have a background or a history with denim?
I started working for Alpargatas in South America when I was 20, at that time they were one of the three biggest producers of denim in the world, making both fabrics and finished garments. It was here that I learned about the denim process from the cotton plant to the rivets. Ever since then denim has been an addiction. I then moved to Hong Kong and Japan to further my denim education.

DB: What is your latest collection about? What are the styles you have to offer?
There are two aspects to the new collection. The first is the authentic vintage part which is the most fun to work on. I love the research involved, it’s always exciting to decide what I’m going to present and how. The other side of the collection is what I call the “technical revolution of denim”. This is the sci-fi inspired packet with futuristic styles based on re-visited 80’s and 90’s techniques. We have included high, mid and low waist styles in skinny, straight, boot cut and boyfriend fits.

DB: Lastly, add anything you want to that may have been left out!
I am proud to have been a founder of the jeans fashion revolution. In England I was one of the first to make jeans a fashion apart from anything else that was happening on the catwalks. The creation of stretch is still today the most potent factor for the growth of jeans in the female fashion market and I feel proud to have been its pioneer, in fact we created an industry within the fashion industry.

Today the big money and the rest of the industry have tried to takeover this fashion revolution. The reality is that Jeans in all its forms today are 70% of the whole world fashion business. The Big fashion houses have homed in on this market and are doing everything to appropriate it by constant copying of the few independent creators still left.

As long as a few independent labels still continue to exist there will be a premium jeans market that will still give us the space to create and develop new things.

DB: Thank you very much!

Written by Lorna Burford