FOR TAILOR MALLORY KERMAN, A LOVE OF LEVI’S® IS A FAMILY AFFAIR.
Community /
January 2022
Normally, in our Tailor Profile Series, we sit down with one of our talented Tailors to talk shop, but in this special edition of our Tailor Profile Series, we’re doing things a little differently.
It all started when Lead Tailor Mallory Kerman who works in the Del Amo Mall in Torrance, CA had an argument with her older sister “she kept telling me ‘Dad has the Levi's® car’ and I'm like ‘no he doesn't.’ And I kept telling her ‘you're crazy’ and she kept telling me that I was crazy and then I was on Facebook and one of our neighbors had posted photos of my dad with the car and it had the little Levi's® batwing on this side and I was like, ‘oh I'm sorry it is the Levi’s® one.’”
From there, we had to call in the experts. Enter: Tracey Panek. Levi’s® Historian and interviewer extraordinaire. She sat down with Mallory and her father Larry (with special appearances from Mallory’s mother Gayle) to find out more about this Tailor’s family connection to–not one, but two–Levi’s® Gremlin cars.
And to make sure we paid tribute to the Levi’s® Gremlin, we collaborated with Kait De Angelis to capture it all on film. Correct - Portland based photographer Kait De Angelis only shoots with film on vintage cameras. Kait is inspired by the 60’s/70’s, classic rides, grungy music, and folks who take a stand for what is right. When she isn’t photographing old cars and motels, she enjoys working with artists, the queer community, and musicians.
MEET MALLORY KERMAN
The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
TRACEY PANEK: SO MALLORY CAN YOU DESCRIBE WHAT YOU DO FOR LEVI STRAUSS?
Mallory Kerman: Yeah, I'm a Lead Tailor but call myself an embroidery artist. I do denim tailoring, but I mostly specialize in custom embroidery. I get the pleasure of being able to work in the Los Angeles market and oversee one of our Tailor Shops at the Del Amo Mall.
TP: WHAT’S ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE THINGS YOU’VE WORKED ON?
MK: One of my favorite pieces that I've done was based off of a Levi’s® graphic tee and I just love how the back came out. It was a cowboy in jeans and so then I had to make a girl version of course. I drew this cowgirl and put her in and everybody loved the detail. So, after that I was kind of like that's become my speciality a little bit - so I enjoy doing the back of a person and highlighting details like Levi jeans. It is always fun incorporating more Levi’s® into designs to give it a more authentic feel. My other favorite - the piece I just created for this blog series. I designed myself changing a tire on the Gremlin - and of course I am wearing Levi’s®. I was even more excited when we took the design from the jacket and turned it into a patch for our Tailor Shops.
TP: WHAT'S YOUR PROCESS? ARE YOU SKETCHING? DO YOU DO IT ONLINE? CAN YOU TALK A BIT ABOUT THAT?
MK: Yeah, I used to do it all manually with a pencil or colored pencils and I would have to draw it once and then trace it again to block out where my colors were gonna go. I would also do it in neon bright highlighter colors, so I could easily tell what color was going where. But last year, I bought myself an iPad and Apple Pencil. So now I use that. It makes it so much faster. I can just draw it once and then easily invert the colors, which makes it super easy. And then when I go to embroider each color, it is kind of like paint by numbers. Game changer for sure.
TP: GAYLE, WHAT'S YOUR FIRST MEMORY OF MALLORY WANTING TO SEW?
Gayle Kerman: Mallory had this creative side to her from day one. I would get ready to throw out a paper towel roll or a scrap of wrapping paper and she would stop me. ‘Mom, what are you gonna do with this?’ She immediately had a project every time ‘I'm gonna make this out of it. I'm gonna make that out of it.’ So she had this creative side from an early age. I knew how to sew from my mother and grandmother. They were all very accomplished sewers and so they taught me. Then when I was in high school I took a sewing class, which most school systems do not offer anymore. And Mallory, with her creative side, she just had a yearning to learn how to sew. We have a skirt that she made when she was five or six years old. It's pink and has an elastic waistband. Basically, I sat down at the sewing machine and showed her how to work the pedal and she was just doing the straight-line stitch, and then when she was done with the sewing part she took markers and drew on it. So that's the first thing she ever sewed and she was very, very young.
It's just super serendipitous for me - I didn't even put it together that my dad had this Levi’s® car and he's had it my entire life.
TP: WOW AND YOU REMEMBER THAT MALLORY? YOU STILL HAVE THE SKIRT?
MK: Yeah, I do. That's my first memory of sewing. I know there was another one that we did after that and believe it was blue snakeskin fabric.
GK: Blue and black. Yep, and I'm sure that is still around here someplace too. Mallory didn't need much fabric to make things because she was so tiny. It was probably made out of scraps I had laying around.
TP: WHAT DO YOU THINK MAKES LEVI'S® SPECIAL?
MK: Over the years I've heard so many stories about how Levi’s® brings people together in such interesting ways. In college is when I got really into working with denim and it was kind of my dream to work for Levi's®. Just a secret little dream- like ‘Oh my God to be so cool.’ Now here I am. It's just so crazy. But like just everybody, every single person has a Levi's® story and it's just super serendipitous for me, like I didn't even put it together that my dad had this Levi’s® car and he's had it my entire life. I didn't know it was the Levi’s® one, so it's just really cool.
TP: TURNING TO THE CAR, LARRY SO YOU'RE THE PROUD OWNER OR WERE AT LEAST OF TWO LEVI’S® GREMLINS IN YOUR LIFETIME.
Larry Kerman: Yeah. On my 17th birthday I went with my father and ordered a Gremlin. A Gremlin was a cheap economy car. They were competing with Volkswagen Beetles. The car was about $2,000, but when I finished loading it up it was $4,000. So, I doubled the price with options like Levi seats and the Gremlin X package. The only part of the car I didn’t like was that it was stick shift. It came in about two months later, in July; my father went with me to bring it home. I don't know how to drive a stick shift, so he drove it home and taught me how to drive it. I kept it until 1981 after I already met my wife. It was rusting out and I sold it to someone for about $200 bucks.
TP: WHY THE GREMLIN?
LK: I was a car guy. I had a book that had every car model made that year and I had seen an ad for a Gremlin probably in 1970 and I was only 14 years old. It was a newspaper ad and I just liked the style of it. Not having a trunk on it, you know, it just looked different and caught my eye. I remember also liking a Plymouth Duster or Mercury Capri. But I pretty much knew I wanted the Gremlin.
When I saw the one I have now on the Internet, I was the 2nd owner of it. I couldn't believe how similar it was, 'cause even now I'm a member of Gremlin Facebook groups and if you see one that has the same color, it won't be the same year. And if you see one that's the same year, it won't be the same color. And if you see a Levi's® one, it won't look anything like yours but this one was about 80% the same as my original car. I saw it on the Internet in 2000, which must have just been the start of the Internet.
TP: TELL US ABOUT THE SECOND ONE. WHY DID YOU LIKE IT? HOW IS IT SIMILAR/DIFFERENT FROM THE ORIGINAL?
LK: They just look cool. I wanted a blue car, so I got one with a white stripe. Just about every year the Gremlin offered stripes of different shapes, so my year was a hockey stick stripe, I call it. It fits the car perfectly. The car was bright blue but some people think it is purple, which drives me crazy 'cause I don't think it's purple at all. I think it's sky blue to a little darker than sky blue and it's been repainted so it's hard to tell exactly. But I think it's pretty true to the original color and the Levi's® looks so cool with it. The seats are covered with Levi's® denim, but they even went to the point of putting the rivets and stitching in. One of the coolest features is these little door pockets. Cars these days have the plastic things to put your water bottle in but this one has old-fashioned map pockets.
TP: I WANT TO HEAR NOW FROM MALLORY A LITTLE BIT. WHAT MEMORIES DO YOU HAVE OF THE GREMLIN?
MK: I was pretty tiny as a kid and by default the baby in the family. I was always stuck in the middle seat of every car. But in the Gremlin, I was always in the tiny little back row because I was the only person who could fit back there. I knew we've had this car my entire life but never put it together that it was the Levi's® edition. Most of my memories are just my dad being obsessed with the color of the car. So anytime we went anywhere and he had to pick a color of something he would want the Gremlin blue. Especially when we’d go mini golfing every year in Myrtle Beach, he would always have to get the mini golf ball that was Gremlin blue.
TP: WHAT YOU'RE DESCRIBING IS RATHER POETIC. I'VE OFTEN SAID THAT LEVI'S® IS KIND OF THE BACKDROP OR THE CANVAS OF THINGS THAT HAPPEN IN EVERYDAY LIFE. AND HERE YOU ARE WITH THIS CAR BEING PART OF YOUR LIFE.
MK: It is for sure poetic. Levi’s® is ingrained in my life in various ways. It is also really cool for me because growing up I was a mommy's girl and this project was a bonding experience for me with my dad. I also get to infuse the story of the Gremlin in his life by designing a jacket for him. What a conversation starter and amazing piece to add to his wardrobe. I've designed jackets for most of my family, so this was the perfect time to do one for him.
TP: YEAH, LEVI’S® IS REALLY KIND OF INTERWOVEN, RIGHT? HOW DO YOU WANT TO SUMMARIZE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT THE PROCESS, LARRY?
LK: I'm just not a fashion guy so I never had an affinity towards any brand of clothing to be honest. Uh, and now pretty much all I wear Levi's® pants and Levi's® shirts. Obviously, you know, so she's got me hooked. I'm proud she works for Levi’s®. My wife and I always talk her up when we shop at the Levi’s® Store in Niagara Falls. How cool do I look working with my daughter on a project for Levi’s®? This is going down in the books as one of the most memorable experiences for me.
