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The story behind Schaeffer’s Garment Hotel’s best selling Japanese denim jean, inspired by Road to Paloma and developed through years of trial, friendship, and refinement.
In 2009 we opened Schaeffer’s Garment Hotel. Shortly after opening, I searched for and found Cone Mills denim in selvedge indigo. I built a pattern and found a cutter to cut our first 50 pairs of selvedge denim jeans to be sold in our store. This was the first item we ever made in house for Schaeffer’s GH.
The only issue was that the cutter accidentally cut all the selvedge off. When I picked them up, I didn’t know what to do. I had customers waiting on the release, and more importantly, my first celebrity customer was waiting on a few pairs. That guy was an up and coming actor, some people knew about him and some didn’t. His name was Jason Momoa.
I decided to make a deal with my cutter. I told her that if she paid for my cuts for the next six months, I would keep my business with her long term. She agreed, and we still work together today, 17 years later.
With orders pending, I scrambled and found a non selvedge black over white denim. There was not much else to choose from on short notice. I said screw it and bought enough to make 50 pairs. We cut, sewed, and released them as our first jeans for Schaeffer’s Garment Hotel.
Little did I know, that jean, which was only meant to be a one time run, would become our best selling jean.
That same actor, Jason Momoa, who bought my first run of jeans, asked if we could help supply a passion project film he was making with his film partner Brian Mendoza.
Jason and Brian quickly became like family, and I jumped in to supply vintage jackets, boots, and our Paloma jeans to Jason and his co star Robert.
This film still holds a special place with me because we were very involved, helping in any way we could to reduce wardrobe costs while Jason funded and pushed the project forward himself.
There are scenes shot behind our shop, and it also became their Hollywood base while they were filming in Los Angeles. This is where the Paloma jean got its name. The film is called Road to Paloma.
Years later, after Jason found major success, he approached me after the premiere of Aquaman. To my surprise, he had worn our 21 oz denim jeans throughout the entire film.
He told me it was time to make his jean with me. The next day I went to his house, and he handed me the original Paloma jeans and said, this is the one.
I told him I had no idea how to recreate them, and he said, Schaeffer, you will figure it out.
The Paloma is an indigo dyed jean with a black out coating applied to the fabric after it is completed. It took us a long time to get it perfect, and now it is better than it has ever been.
Every pair is made in Japan from start to finish using premium denim and carefully developed processes to achieve the final look and feel.
What started as an accident turned into our best selling jean, and into a long term working relationship and friendship with Jason over the years.
Embrace mistakes, because sometimes your success can come from them.
And watch Road to Paloma. No one wanted to fund it. Jason and his team wrote, directed, scouted, acted, and edited the entire film themselves. That same mentality is what built both the film and The Paloma Jean.
