[Image above: The Denim Guy, Mik Serfontaine, and his wife Maria at ENK Las Vegas Show Feb 2020]
THE DENIM GUY: First, Can you give our readers a little background about the brand? For example… When it started?
Mik Serfontaine: Serfontaine was started in 2000
THE DENIM GUY: Why you started the company?
Mik Serfontaine: We started Serfontaine out of the desire to make the best fitting jean. At the time there was nothing on the market that was a premium jean that also incorporated the nuances of great fit, so I decided to make my own.
THE DENIM GUY: How did you come up with the name?
Mik Serfontaine: Serfontaine is my name, obviously. When you attach your own name to the brand it’s hard to do anything other than stick to your integrity. It holds you to a higher accountability when your name is attached
THE DENIM GUY: What inspired you to become a denim designer?
Mik Serfontaine: I have a love for denim.
THE DENIM GUY: Now, What keeps you wanting to design?
Mik Serfontaine: Continuing the quest for the perfect fit – which is of course, relative. Also, always going back to loving the product. If you don’t have love for what you do it can be very challenging.
THE DENIM GUY: Being a denim designer must be hard. Trying to “re-invent” denim season after season is a challenge in itself. What is your inspiration process like for each season?
Mik Serfontaine: For spring 2011 we want to bring back what is most essentially important in a pair of jeans, meaning in relation to what women need. People have simplified their lives so for Spring 2011 so the inspiration is “Less is Modern.” When you take everything else away except fit, fabric and function, that is what you’re left with: premium denim.
THE DENIM GUY: What are you denim predictions for the next 18months for both men and women?
Mik Serfontaine: Denim is going to continue to be more important because jeans are becoming even more versatile through the advances in fabric and fit technologies.
THE DENIM GUY: What makes your denim line different from every other denim line out there?
Mik Serfontaine: Serfontaine is always developing ways to incorporate new fabrics and construction methods to help our product evolve. We were the first denim company to use X- fit technology and we continue to push the boundaries in this dimension. Serfontaine was also one of the first companies to experiment with organic enzyme dyes, the rope stitch technology that eventually caught on throughout the industry, and even waterless washing methods. Serfontaine is different because we work to be on the cusp of new technology and break the status quo.
THE DENIM GUY: Where do you see the brand at in 5 years?
Mik Serfontain: Still innovating! In 5 years we will hopefully be working with newer technologies and fabrics to continue to push Serfontaine design forward.
THE DENIM GUY: Part of what thedenimguy.com is to give readers an understanding about denim and who the denim players are. If you feel comfortable, I would love to share with the readers some things about who YOU are?
THE DENIM GUY: Where did you grow up?
Mik Serfontaine: Capetown, South Africa
THE DENIM GUY: What is a typical workday like for you?
Mik Serfontaine: In this business there is never a typical workday. Working in design never ends but anything worth doing or being good at is worth the constant work. Evolve or die, right?.
THE DENIM GUY: What are you hobbies? Do you like to collect things? Sports? Traveler?
Mik Serfontaine: I love surfing, music and my family
THE DENIM GUY: Favorite book?
Mik Serfontaine: The Bible
THE DENIM GUY: Favorite movie?
Mik Serfontaine: Currently my favorite movie is “Shutter Island.” It’s impossible to pick just one all-time favorite.
THE DENIM GUY: Favorite Band/Musician?
Mik Serfontaine: Hmmmm. . .this is a hard one. . . can I break it up into genres? I think the absolute musical geniuses of all time are Beethoven and Mozart because they just heard everything in their heads. For songwriting I enjoy wordsmiths like Bruce Springsteen and Phil Lynott. My favorite band might be Queen, but then I love all of the innovators who broke barriers and helped create whole new sounds in music like Jean Michel Jarre, NWA and The Sex Pistols.
THE DENIM GUY: Favorite food?
Mik Serfontaine: My wife’s cooking!
I hope you enjoyed our interview with Mik. He is an amazing and talented Denim Designer and absolutely a great source of knowledge. When meeting with him at ENK Las Vegas this past February, Mik was kind enough to not only show me the collection but also talk with me about all the great innovative things going on at Serfontaine!
