Pinhead Selvedge: Hellraiser

Oct 17, 2026

By Geneviève Boucher

Written and directed by Clive Barker, Hellraiser (1987) follows a search for pleasure that leads somewhere horrific. It introduced Pinhead, played by Doug Bradley, whose calm voice and face covered in a precise grid of pins made him an unsettling presence before he even spoke.

Getting those pins to show up on camera took some work. In early test photographs, they were difficult to see. Effects artist Geoff Portass recalled that the team clipped their ends and fitted hollow brass nails over them, making them much more visible.

We wanted the pins to stand out in our Halloween release, too. The Hellraiser “Pinhead” Selvedge pairs black denim with tiny white pin neps, giving each bright fleck a dark background to stand out against.

"Originally he had pins all over the head, but Clive and I thought it would be nice to make it look more like a mask with pins around his chin, over his ears and at the back of his head. We modelled it about six times and did loads of drawings. If you look at the first test pictures that came out of Hellraiser there are actually pins in there rather than nails and the pins got lost - you couldn't see them. So we clipped the ends of the pins off and made our own hollow brass nails that inserted over the top and they were much more visible."
- Geoff Portass, Games Without Frontiers

Pins in the Fabric

Woven in Japan at 14oz, the selvedge denim combines a black warp with a white weft. The warp yarns run lengthwise through the cloth, while the weft crosses them. Both contain neps, giving the fabric texture in each direction.

Neps are small knots or tangles of fibre within the yarn. They are often reduced when producing a smooth, uniform textile. Here, they are central to the fabric’s character: the white pin neps show through the black surface as bright, irregular points.

That contrast gives the denim its connection to Pinhead. The reference begins with the yarn and carries across the cloth, so there is something to discover wherever you look closely.

A Blood-Red Edge

Turn up the cuff and the blood-red selvedge edge adds a sharp accent to the black and white. The same edge appears at the coin pocket, bringing a trace of red to the front of the jeans.

Black stitching and black hardware keep the surrounding details tonal, allowing the white neps and red edges to stand out.

Details from the Original Film

The black leather patch features officially licensed Pinhead artwork, embossed and foil-stamped in white and silver.

Inside, one pocket bag is fully printed in colour with the original 1987 poster artwork and the line “Demons to some, angels to others.” The other pocket bag is black.

A dual-brand Hellraiser x Naked & Famous Denim woven label completes the collaboration. Each pair is cut and sewn in Canada.

The Details

14oz Japanese black selvedge denim
Black neppy warp and white neppy weft
White pin neps
Blood-red selvedge edge at the cuff and coin pocket
Black leather patch with officially licensed Pinhead artwork, embossed and foil-stamped in white and silver
Black stitching and hardware
One pocket bag printed in full colour with original 1987 poster artwork
One black pocket bag
Hellraiser x Naked & Famous Denim woven label
Made in Canada