Our Story
From the valleys, for the journey
Gentle Folk Jeans was born in the industrial South Wales valleys in the early 1970s — in Ebbw Vale, or Glyn Ebbwy, the 'valley of the wild horse.' It has been a wild and amazing ride ever since.
It began with Terrence Havard, a local barber. Adept with a pair of scissors, he started making jeans and denim accessories from his shop. People would turn up to buy a pair, and if he didn't have their size, he would measure them on the spot — the finished jeans ready within the week.
In the early 1970s Terrence sold the brand to Paul Kaye in Cardiff.
Through the 70s and 80s, Gentle Folk Jeans truly came into its own. Paul designed fabulous flares and patchwork jeans, first from a small factory on Britha Street, Cathays, then from a former Victorian cheese factory on Seven Road, Canton, with a factory shop that drew crowds from across the UK.
Paul imported used American denim from the penitentiary system — unknowingly creating an early form of a circular brand.”
The brand became a genuine success. A substantial grant from the WDA took production to the new Treforest Industrial Estate, where ninety seamstresses worked at its height. UK sales rivalled the major denim names of the era, with stockists across the UK & Ireland.
It eventually became too much for Paul, and as he faded, so did the brand — the two were inextricably linked.
The name passed through a few hands before reaching us.
We are rooted in Welsh denim heritage, and we mean to tell that story honestly, through contemporary and sustainable design. We could not be more excited for what comes next.
— Marc & Griff