The Story of Billiam
Every pair, cut and sewn by hand in Greenville, SC, since 2009.
A basement and one sewing machine
Billiam started in my parents' basement in Greenville with a single home sewing machine and a lot of stubbornness. I made my first pair of jeans down there, figured out what I'd gotten wrong, and made the next pair better. In those early days I drove all over picking up old industrial sewing machines in a minivan we called "The Blue Goose."
The back of a climbing gym
When the basement got too small, I loaded the machines into the Blue Goose and moved into the back of a rock climbing gym. We spent two years there, cutting and sewing alongside the climbers.
West Greenville
In 2012 we became one of the first five businesses in West Greenville, back when the neighborhood was just starting to be developed. When the rent went up, we had to move on.
Stones Point
Next we took over the front half of a space at Stones Point on Wade Hampton Blvd. Two years later we were able to rent the back half too, and we stayed there until late 2019.
London
In 2016 I started working with a company in London that flew me over three times to run pop-ups. This was one of the batches of jeans we made for them.
The Commons
In late 2019 we opened at the Commons in Greenville.
Retool and rebuild
A few years ago I closed the store at the Commons and moved everything home to retool and rebuild the business. The whole time, I've been sitting on a library of deadstock White Oak Cone Mills R&D denim I bought back in 2017.
20% to fight human trafficking
For our first seven years, Billiam gave 20% of its profits to fight human trafficking, all of it to Wellspring Living. We did it without any investors and without any debt. Over those years we gave more than $20,000.
One pair at a time
Today it's back to the way it started: me, my machines, and one pair at a time. I still cut and sew every pair of Billiam Jeans by hand. I offer custom made-to-measure jeans with fittings at your home or office, or over video, plus small-batch runs like the Tailored Slim and the Carpenter.
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