There may be few acts more difficult than shopping for jeans. With hundreds of brands of jeans the world over and another couple of hundred styles and cuts to choose from among those masses of denim, shopping for that perfect pair of jeans may be akin to visiting your local car dealership.
Ponce Denim Company, located on the ground level of the Ponce City Market, is Atlanta's denim retail therapy destination.
"We want to be Atlanta's one-stop jean destination," said the boutique's co-owner Farshad Arshid. "The goal is to make the process light, fun and educational without the pretentiousness." Arshid, along with his wife, Sandy, and business partner Ruel Chambers are co-owners of the Ponce Denim Company and treat the store's rare assortment of denim like a jeweler treats his diamonds.
The space is only 1,200 square feet but remarkably comfortable, Sandy -- who doubles as a knowledgeable sales associate -- showed me shelf after shelf of men's and women's jeans of brands from all over the world: the U.S., Canada (more on those later), Sweden, the Netherlands, Italy and Japan, even an American-made Japanese hybrid. Edwin and Denim, a very popular Japanese denim brand sold at Ponce Denim Company has an American offshoot, END. that is also sold in store. Ponce City Denim has jeans priced anywhere from $69 to a $200 pair of Japan Blue Denim. There are more established and popular brands like G-Star and Levi's (regularly priced at $80.00) stacked beside more obscure, fashion forward brands like DL1961. A white pair of women's skinny stretch jeans ($225.00) were featured at the front of the store as were a dark pair of Momotaro brand jeans, a handmade small-batch brand made in Kojima in Okayama, a small Japanese coastal town. If you're trying to find a unique pair of jeans, you'd be hard pressed to find a better place in Atlanta -- minus the large crowds and mall-type of shopping experience -- than Ponce City Denim.
"Come in, hang out, try things on, ask questions," Farshad said. "Find a pair that you love. If you don't it's OK. Come back another time and see what we have new in store for you."
Chambers agrees. "Customers can come here to get that expert, knowledgeable experience."
Ponce Denim Company gets new brands and styles in on a weekly basis, so the store's merchandise is forever changing, if not in brand name then in regard to various styles and cuts.
One of the stars of the 30 brands currently on display at Ponce Denim Company is a little known brand out of Canada, Unbranded. The least expensive brand in the store, the $69.00 dark denim is described by Chambers as a great "starter jean for people interested in wearing foreign brands." Another equally awesome addition to anyone's denim wardrobe are the Momotaro Indigo overdyed jeans ($295.00). This particular brand comes with signature peach-colored stitching on the inside carriage, and the indigo overdyed pair has multi-colored stitching to authenticate its exclusivity.
"We want to tell a story with jeans while also representing all kinds of brands and styles," Farshad said. "The experience starts with the product and it ends with us and how we make sure that our clients walk out of here happy."
Part of that experience will also include direct attention not only to the jeans that customers try on and are thinking about purchasing but continues well after purchase. The team at Ponce Denim Company offers free alterations with all regular-priced purchases. "We're going to walk our customers through every single fit and every single jean type," Chambers said. "It's all about 100 percent customer service."
There are also plans to have an in-house tailor in the upcoming weeks. "We believe tailoring is a dying service and we'd like to bring it back," Farshad said. "It's a customer appreciation. For us to be able to extend that offer is simply because we value our customers," Sandy said.
Following a second smash-and-grab break-in in less than a year, Farshad hopes that recent improvements in the number of on-site Ponce City Market security officers will prevent another break-in. Since the last occurrence in January a number of new businesses have opened in PCM, bringing more people after hours and additional security patrols.
Exotic brands, a one-in-a-kind shopping experience and free on-site tailoring are what makes shopping for denim at Ponce Denim Company a unique Atlanta-based experience.
Ponce Denim Company, 675 Ponce De Leon Ave. NE, Atlanta, Ga. 30308, 404-532-1055. Hours: M-Sat. 11 a.m-8 p.m., Sun. 12-6 p.m.
