Where to buy good jeans?

[Buff]

Originally Posted by malcolmk14

You can wash treated denim more often. If you wash raw denim too often you'll just ruin it.

Even my treated denim jeans I only wash once every 6 weeks or so.

You must not have young kids, or you don't wear your jeans around them.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by puckluck

Serious? I wash my jeans every time I wear them.

How do you get that dirty?

[malcolmk14]

Originally Posted by Buff

You must not have young kids, or you don't wear your jeans around them.

Nope, I don't have kids and I rarely wear jeans when it's slushy outside.

[AR_Six]

Originally Posted by malcolmk14

You can wash treated denim more often. If you wash raw denim too often you'll just ruin it.

Even my treated denim jeans I only wash once every 6 weeks or so.

This is just absolute nonsense. You won't "ruin" anything, it just affects the fading process, and not necessarily in a bad way. Quit worrying about it so much and remind yourself they're just jeans. Babying them kind of defeats the purpose of them being jeans.

Holts is okay but their selection has gotten pretty crap, basically they carry a handful of Naked & Famous models which has the benefit of being Canadian but the whole point of that company is to do ridiculous experimental stuff (glow in the dark jeans, silk and cashmere blend denim, kevlar jeans, flannel denim, the new 32oz armor which I am definitely going to try on when it exists etc etc) and they just have the vanilla basic models. They have a small selection of APC and Wings + Horns, which is nice, and a lot of Nudie which who cares. Sadly, nowhere else has much.

Except Leo Boutique on 17th ave around 8th st sw. They carry some good stuff and are worth checking out. It's still not outstanding though. If you ever make the trip out to Van, go to Dutil Denim, or in Edmonton, Gravity Pope should have a good selection (never been to the Edm locale but I know what they carry).

Right now my rotation is comprised of a pair of Margiela airbrushed blue jeans, a pair of Wings + Horns straight cut I got at Holts a couple of weeks ago (they may still have some), a pair of super distressed Miharayasuhiro tapered, and some Helmut Lang waxed matte black in a heavy denim from back when Lang was still running the company.

[blankall]

I will be heading to Japan in about a month. Anyone have any suggestions for brands I should check out. Will obviously take a look a the samurais.

[AR_Six]

Originally Posted by blankall

I will be heading to Japan in about a month. Anyone have any suggestions for brands I should check out. Will obviously take a look a the samurais.

Somet
Pure Blue Japan
Momotaro
Flat Head
Oni
Studio D'artisan
Sugar cane

Skull jeans used to be an absolute must home run check out for sure name to drop here but apparently quality has gone down the crapper the last 3 years or so. Sucks, because you used to be able to get the red tabs over there (not allowed to sell them in North America because Levis sued them).

The main thing is there are a ton of good brands in Japan that simply do not get any circulation outside of that country and are essentially unknown here.

There are some maps here that may be a bit outdated but good place to start: http://indigofan.com/category/maps/

EDIT: Also, to your earlier question, Dutil in Vancouver does or at least did carry Samurais last year.

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by malcolmk14

Nope, I don't have kids and I rarely wear jeans when it's slushy outside.

You sound like the kind of person where every order at a restaurant is a special order.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by AR_Six

Somet
Pure Blue Japan
Momotaro
Flat Head
Oni
Studio D'artisan
Sugar cane

Skull jeans used to be an absolute must home run check out for sure name to drop here but apparently quality has gone down the crapper the last 3 years or so. Sucks, because you used to be able to get the red tabs over there (not allowed to sell them in North America because Levis sued them).

The main thing is there are a ton of good brands in Japan that simply do not get any circulation outside of that country and are essentially unknown here.

There are some maps here that may be a bit outdated but good place to start: http://indigofan.com/category/maps/

EDIT: Also, to your earlier question, Dutil in Vancouver does or at least did carry Samurais last year.

Thanks for the suggestions. Any idea on pricing? Is it significantly cheaper in Japan for these brands?

[Kybosh]

I think it's funny how blue jeans were originally designed to be cheap and durable. Now some of them are extremely expensive and fall apart after three washings.

[Northendzone]

I am also confused - freezing jeans to kill bacteria, not wearing them when it is slushy outside (which equates to 9 months per year here in shangri-la on the bow), washing them 3 times per year....these $300 jeans are more delicate than the flimsy negligees at Victoria's secret

[AR_Six]

The limited washing is because raw denim is generally pretty starchy which creates honeycombs and other idiosyncracies in the fading process when worn over a long period of time. If you wash them, there is going to be indigo and starch loss which means those effects will be less pronounced. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is why people don't wash them. That, and some people are nerds and like the authenticity factor; historically jeans were work clothes and didn't get washed much (waste of water, for one thing). I forget which maker it was that had a tongue-in-cheek garment care label that said their jeans were only to be washed by hand in the pacific ocean.

The freezing is complementary to the not washing, because it does eliminate odors, but I honestly have never had an issue with jeans getting smelly. I guess if you ride your bike in them a lot, maybe. But in that case I'd just wash them.

If people are so worried about their jeans getting dirty they can't wear them in slushy weather there's not much point to owning the jeans.

Originally Posted by blankall

Thanks for the suggestions. Any idea on pricing? Is it significantly cheaper in Japan for these brands?

It will all be somewhat cheaper, but how much cheaper depends on the brand, for some reason certain labels are sold at a more ridiculous markup over here than others. IIRC Sugar Cane is pretty cheap over there.

[Winnie]

Originally Posted by AR_Six

The limited washing is because raw denim is generally pretty starchy which creates honeycombs and other idiosyncracies in the fading process when worn over a long period of time. If you wash them, there is going to be indigo and starch loss which means those effects will be less pronounced. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is why people don't wash them. That, and some people are nerds and like the authenticity factor; historically jeans were work clothes and didn't get washed much (waste of water, for one thing).

I didn't know you could get a PhD in denim. What was your thesis on?

[krynski]

I have two sets of jeans. (not two pairs, about 15 total)

1st set i use for rougher stuff and don't usually wear them in public when going out. These I wash probably once every 5-7 uses.

2nd set i use for going out in public, and avoid rougher stuff. These i wash every 12-17 uses.

I only really see a purpose to washing jeans mostly due to spilling stuff on them or maybe accumulating dirt or whatever. I wash my shirts after i wear them, but i don't really see a purpose to wash jeans all that often. I mean, i wear underwear. maybe if i didn't that would be a different story. I've never really heard of anyone having sweaty legs under normal circumstances. Jeans, IMO, do not make contact with any significant perspiration center, so what's the point?

[woob]

This thread screams "LOOK AT MY JEANS!!!! LOOK AT THEM!!!" to me.

[AR_Six]

Originally Posted by Winnie

I didn't know you could get a PhD in denim. What was your thesis on?

My degree is in tax law but I'm pretty sure if you spend enough time on Superfuture they'll issue you some sort of diploma. I am in no way qualified to call myself a true denimhead. Hell, I've never even sat in a lukewarm bathtub with my jeans on for hours on end to get the proper shrink-to-fit result.

Yes.

People do that.

[woob]

Originally Posted by AR_Six

Hell, I've never even sat in a lukewarm bathtub with my jeans on for hours on end to get the proper shrink-to-fit result.

Yes.

People do that.

That's crazy!. But, on the flip-side, I know I benefit from the results when checking out some cute girl in her shrunk-to-fit jeans.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by valo403

Why are you washing raw denim 3 times over the course of a year? One wash in the first year, preferably at the end of that year, should be the max. If they start to smell put them in a freezer bag and throw them in the freezer overnight to kill bacteria.

I'm not a scientist but wouldn't freezing bacteria actually preserve it? (I'm asking seriously).

[MelBridgeman]

ebay
honestforum

[AR_Six]

Originally Posted by woob

That's crazy!. But, on the flip-side, I know I benefit from the results when checking out some cute girl in her shrunk-to-fit jeans.

Very few girls do this, because girls are not generally nerds.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

I'm not a scientist but wouldn't freezing bacteria actually preserve it? (I'm asking seriously).

No. Only if you ad some kind of anti-freezing agent. Freezing a living cell causes the water within it to expand as it enters a crystaline form (IE ice). As the water within the cell expands it ruptures the structures within the cell and the cell wall.

The problem is you won't actually freeze many bacteria in a freezer anyways. The freezing point of water is 0 degrees celcius, but the fluids within bacteria don't freeze until much colder temperatures as they contain natural anti-freezing agents.

It's all kind of a moot point anyways, since the bigger issue with smells is fungus and not bacteria. Fungus are a little more sensitive to colder temperatures than bacteria. You'll kill a lot of fungus, but won't really kill the spores, which are in general much hardier than the fungus themselves. So they'll just start to grow again. It will have a short term positive effect on smell though.