Amanda Chantal Bacon is the CEO and founder of Moon Juice, the Los Angeles purveyor of raw, organic juices, cosmic provisions, nut milks, health tonics, and cleanses of all kinds. With three shops in Los Angeles and a mobile “Moon Rover” catering van, she is a serious, booming-business owner. She is also a mom, chef, soon-to-be book author and active-wear designer, and…denimhead. Look at the Levi’s cut-offs she wore for our shoot! She’s had them since she was 10 years old – they were jeans belonging to her mom’s best friend’s son before Amanda inherited, cherished, and eventually chopped them herself (first to the knee, then significantly higher). These days, depending on the weather, Amanda might wear her cut-offs as many as seven times in a single week. Forget that they are falling apart. They are, as she describes it, part of her professional life’s cycle: “Moon Juice mends me, I mend the shorts,” she says. Until infinity, if all goes well.

Her cut-offs, though, are only half of this story. At her home in Venice, Amanda also put on a chambray shirt that she found at a thrift store years ago. The tag says JC Penney, but the hand-embroideries on the placket, pocket, and yoke say so much more. “I loved that someone was expressing them self on a JC Penney workman’s shirt,” she said when I asked her why she bought it in the first place. Like the shorts, she’s had the shirt longer than she’s had Moon Juice, which she started in 2009 (doors opened in 2011). Is anything as sentimental and hard-working as the denim you wear while you’re creating something from scratch, I wondered while admiring everything that Amanda – just 32 – has accomplished in her life thus far? Maybe I’m projecting, over-thinking it, maybe that’s a stretch…or maybe, like the rest of L.A., I’ve just drunken her Moon Juice.

Describe your cut-off jean shorts in one word.

Alive.

How long have you had them?

Since I was 10 years old!

And your shirt – how long have you had that?

About seven years.

What do you love most about your shorts?

That we’ve grown up together.

And your shirt?

Ummmmmm…rainbow diamonds and grapes on soft chambray??? What’s not to love!

Amanda Chantal Bacon

How did you get that rip in the back of your shirt?

The rip is courtesy of my son’s maneuvers while nursing.

And the rips in your cut-off shorts? Can you point to the time you got some of those?

Some are from train rides, cartwheels, long kisses, and cooking big meals.

What’s the first memory that pops into your head when you think about your cut-offs?

Afternoon drives around Laurel Canyon in my merlot vintage Mercedes coupe with dappled light, rock and roll, and Palo Santo burning.

What’s the best place they’ve ever been with you?

They have been on some pretty epic sailboat rides, trekked through centro/South America by bus, and were worn hiking through a 30-acre ancient myrrh forest.

What the weirdest place?

A giant Las Vegas kitchen. [When I was a food writer] I wore them for 48 hours while investigating the top French pastry chef imports…with kitten heels. I’m usually a practical girl.

Click to get closer…

 Is there anything your shorts know about you that no one else knows about you?

They know my dance moves that only happen when we’re alone together.

If you could take them anywhere in the world tomorrow, where would you go?

We’d be off to Bali for six moons.

Do you see any similarities between Moon Juice and your jean shorts?

They both have a straightforward, honest, long-lasting quality.

Amanda Chantal Bacon
Click on the pictures above for more…

OK, now your shirt, if you had to give it to anyone right now, who would you give it to?

You, you get it!

Wow. Thanks! I’d take good care of it. What if they had a theme song, what would it be?

‘Since I’ve been Loving You’ by Led Zeppelin.

You just spilled Moon Juice on your shirt, what do you do?

F**k it, it’ll rinse out later! I have to say, though, I’m a pro at not spilling.

Have you ever let anyone else wear it?

I’ve wrapped my baby boy up in it to protect him from the sun and the winds.

What’s the best possible ending you could imagine for it?

Being swept away by the tantric force at the Guru Ram Dass Ashram on summer solstice in New Mexico.

Amanda Chantal Bacon

OK, last questions, they’re fill-in-the-blanks…When I’m wearing my cut-offs I feel _________________

Like the Earth.

And, I treat my chambray shirt like it is _________________________

My hair.

Amanda Chantal Bacon

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We can’t buy Amanda’s amazing one-of-a-kind denim…but we can shop her dusts (add to hot or cold liquids and drink to your health) and pantry provisions. Get the Moon Juice glow below…

Moon Juice has three locations in Los Angeles, CA – Venice (507 Rose Avenue), Silverlake (2839 Sunset Blvd.), and in the Ace Hotel (929 South Broadway); go to moonjuiceshop.com.