Inspiring Conversations with Antonio Pacheco of Dr Blue Jeanns

Today we’d like to introduce you to Antonio Pacheco.

Antonio, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My first job after leaving the Air Force was working as a driver sales for the Seven Up Bottling Company in Los Angeles. During this time I took up custom tailoring as a hobby. I attended night school at L.A. Trade Tech College to learn custom tailoring. I eventually made a suit for the president of Seven Up. Soon after that, I went on my own and opened up a small neck tie shop in the hope of providing custom made tailored suits with the help of a skilled coat maker. Well, that did not work out so well; however, I got overwhelmed with coat and pants alterations work. I noticed that customers would bring in denim jeans that most tailors would not work on because of the technical construction and expensive equipment needed to work on them properly. I got the idea that perhaps I could specialize in denim jeans.

I slowly acquired the necessary equipment needed to do the work. Because I wanted to get attention and provoke thought I added an extra “n” to Dr Blue Jeanns. Well, before long I was getting well known around town. I have been written up in Los Angeles Times and Daily News and have been featured on television news a number of times.
In the span of two years, I have had two “drive through accidents. Both times the person stepped on the gas instead of the brakes and plowed inside my shop. Both times it happened on a Monday, my day off! Had I been open, serious injuries would have occurred. I finally put up a sign in front of the boarded windows, ” no drive through services available”. These incidents gave me more free television advertising in the news casts.

One day a customer came in and asked me if, after shortening a hem , if I could distress it, or sew the original hem back on to make it look original. Well, I fooled around with the idea a few hours and came up with the reattached hem! That was back in 1977. Well, it seemed to have caught on world wide. No one I knew did this before me.
Then along came the jean craze! Jordache, Sergio Valente, and Big Star were hot items of the day. Well, business blossomed and soon other tailors started doing what I was doing. I consider myself a pioneer. When people bring in expensive jeans they want the work to look original. We do it all, patch, repair, distress, take in the waist, cosmetically let out the waist, convert fly zippers to button fly and button fly to zippers and so on. People mail them in for repairs from all over the country. Our prices are reasonable and affordable. No fancy prices here.
Being next door to Beverlly Hills, I get my share of television studios and celebrity work.
However, the bulk of my business is from people who are a little more sophisticated about what they wear. They buy an expensive pair of jeans and need the waist taken in, they want it done properly and for the work to look as original as possible. Some of my clients have jeans that have been repaired a number of times and they begin to take on a conversational look. They have invested so much money in a particular pair of jeans that they get hooked and keep bringing them in time after time. I guess its all about character.

When skinny pants came into fashion, people bring wide bottom jeans to bring them back in style. Some people dont want to follow current fashions and if they want to convert to bell-bottoms, we add inserts: fancy or plain. Then of course, I get regular people who just come in to get waist adjustments and pants hemmed.

Well that is my story.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Not really except for Covid which lowered my income for months. I got hungry for awhile.

As you know, we’re big fans of Dr Blue Jeanns. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
As the original specialized denim tailor, we are known for the quality of our work.

Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
Our denim clients are the heartbeat of my business

Pricing:

• Waist 65.00 and Up
• Regular factory hem 24.00 and up
• Original hems 34 and up
• Taper legs 40 and up
• zippers 30 and up

Contact Info:

• Website: drbluejeans@dslextreme.com