If Roman Acevedo wasn’t handcrafting jeans and leather accessories, he’d probably be a rock star. Usually wearing jeans, a pony tail and turquoise jewelry, he’s articulate with a larger-than-life persona. Fortunately for us, he went the route of Levi Strauss instead of Carlos Santana, opening up Lawless Denim in October 2013 at CityScape.
So far, Acevedo’s hip heritage-style jeans have been a hit in Downtown Phoenix. In fact, he said he can’t keep up with the demand and is opening an additional factory in Los Angeles.
“You can still come to Lawless and get custom fitted and your jeans will be made right here in Arizona, he said. “But for our online presence, it will all come out of L.A.”
Acevedo is committed to creating an affordable American-made product, while still paying workers a living wage. His passion for sustainable local production recently led him to acquire 14 vintage looms with plans to begin producing his own chambray and denim using Arizona-grown Pima cotton. He said he’ll have 20 looms by the end of 2014.
“It will be 100 percent Arizona if we can help it,” he said.

Using high quality materials and selvedge denim, which has a finished edge instead of a frayed one, is costly and time consuming, but ultimately, he said it’s worth it.
“There’s nothing like this store that I know of west of the Mississippi,” he said.
When you come into Lawless Denim, located on the first floor of CityScape, it’s a completely custom experience. For $79, you pick out the denim, the fit, the cut, the thread color and even the buttons. You’re guaranteed to love them or Lawless will make you an entirely new pair.