Paul T

Sorry for not dropping in recently. RUn out of disk space on my Macbook, and I've forgotten my SuFU password for the desktop. yes I'm an incredibly efficient person.

We had a lovely summer break in Rome... where I wore my 44 cutoffs (and dreadful cheap sandals, yet another year of not finding decent ones). A few interesting places here and there which I'll try and load later. But just in case Volvo was worried my jeans are looking terrifically worn I thought I'd show them that they're not. It's probably a good time to wash them again but I'm a bit reluctant as I like them darker and crispier.

Still working here and there trying to get some interesting projects going; apart from re-learning German via Duolingo, I've also rebooted my pizza technique. On a mission to get them, too, a bit crispier and more Romana, experimenting with various Tipo 0 and 00.

I'm bidding farewell to my Armorer's Top. Hurts to move on. Deal for Sufu'ers if you email.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/153179239456?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

The denim will almost certainly come from Kaihara, with whom LVC have a longstanding relationship. Kaihara produced most of the Sanforized LVC fanric, for the 505 etc. I was told, perhaps a decade ago, that Kaihara had the specs for every LVC vintage denim, and were ready for production if Cone went. Cone has been in trouble for that long.

Interesting wearing my TCB 1920s, which are great jeans but I know what Allen Little means about predictable slub (the pattern is entirely regular, large slubs all the same size repeated regularly). I hope Kaihara keep the more authentic look.

nice work!
 

No new wear here so no post. But more fades after washing out a good number of bloodstains. So many sharp edges inside coffee machines - bloody Italians!

All (Rancilio Silva and Gaggia Classic)  fixed now though.

 

50 minutes ago, 428CJ said:

I am, of course, aware that jeans shrink..

So, again, I would size down 1 or 2 for a regular fit in the end, and buy TTS for a relaxed (but not baggy) fit in the end.'

Sure, all of our experience is different. I don't think there's many people here who recommend actually downsizing from their true waist on the 66 though, I'd be interested to see others' experience. I think it's reasonable that, if someone's intending to do downsize, there should be a health warning. Please do post your fit pics after a couple of washes, will be interesting to see how it turns out.

OP: do check on actual waist size of the pair you're buying, though, there seems to be variation over the last couple years. This pair here is 2016 I think.

My 2016  32 tag '  66 have stretched and are still at around the original waist size, around 32 1/2. The real issue for the OP is the thighs, here's a measurement to give an idea.

I think advising someone on sizing when you haven't washed seems over-optimistic. Jeans shrink - that's a physical reality. the waist will stretch to pre-wash size, but the thighs won't.

32 waist are true to size for current production, I suspect 33 are too.

I went actual size for mine, which would be 33, but if you can only get 32 or 34, go for the latter. Piece of wood in the waist as they dry after the first rinse in the machine. Seat and thighs are generous enough to make TTS work.

3 hours ago, Maynard Friedman said:

Lovely Paul, is there still table football in the Peveril?

Not that day. Was still great ... we did have one of the longest, most brilliant, meta conversations in there with various people. I do love that city. Everything was from central casting (in a good way).

Lovely updates folks.

Just a couple of images from recent ramblings.

Peveril of the Peak is a lovely pub near the train station in Manchester. Then there are a couple of Oxford  - the Radcliffe Camera and surroundings, then the elegant block of buildings is Pembroke College.

St Pancras station was a mess for years, despite which it was used for the exteriors of the Harry Potter films. It was restored a few years back and is now one of the most beautiful rail stations in europe, with its victorian steel span launched from a byzantine gothic cathedral (that's really a hotel).This is the view around 7am before we took a train up north.

Finally, I think my jeans are getting near the wear of the last pair, which feels quicker to me although I have no idea how long has elapsed.


 

Looks great. Nice Les Paul Jr TV that Keith has.

SFTD is right, it's Kaihara Sanforized, the same fabric essentially that's traditionally used for the 557 jacket. My experience of this fabric is that you won't get significant shrinking in the waist, although they might shrink by an inch in length over a couple of years. That feature gives a good idea of the fades, although I wouldn't bother followng Jonas's tactic of adding vinegar to the wash as it's based on a misunderstanding of chemistry.

I presume Kaihara will be making much more Levi's fabric from next year.

I own a pair of those 101B and they are indeed made by Edwin. VF Corporation licenses out the Lee (and Wrangler) name to various companies, as well as producing their own in various territories (the initial Euro reissues were all designed in-house using Japanese denim for Lee and Turkish for Wrangler). I assume that the 101 mentioned by ushokmwn are produced for Lee Europe by Denim Authority in Tunisia, like most current brands that contract out production. Before that they were made in Eire, Poland and other locations.

In one country they might well license the name to various people (eg kids jeans are often licensed separately) although the last time I sat down with one of their peeps, last summer, I got the impression that in China and Hong Kong they seem to be taking the brand back under more direct control - although still contracting out production I guess.

[Edit, to take the thread even more OT, I was told that Lee are focusing heavily on the Far East, and although the brand's limited to the mid West, and old folks, in the USA, they claim to be far outselling Levi's in China].

How great to have that "Made In San Francisco" tag.

v jealous of those. I had a friend bring me a pair of the 40501 back from Japan, but annoyingly, they're a much slimmer fit than the Nevada on which they're based, so I had to eBay them. If those are a 31 tagged waist maybe they're mine.

I remember from the time there is some natural indigo in the mix. It's a Nihon Menpu fabric. I'm guessing that it's simply a mix of yarns, most synthetic but with a few hank dyed natural indigo in there, which will almost certainly be Indian cake indigo.

Here's the natural dye vat there:

http://loomstate.blogspot.com/2014/05/naturally-beautiful-trip-to-nihon-menpu.html
 

I haven't got that much wear to show, I'm afraid. Generally looking good, and I seem to have much tighter whiskers on this pair than the last for some reason. I had to dump all my photos because no disk space so I can't remember when I soaked/started but I was thinking I'll have a couple of months before I expect some real action. I like the dark phase... but I see from the odd bits that have been caught in the rain that they will go super-contrasty and I'm getting some fading on the knees, way earlier than normal.

Nothing exciting enough here for photos. I've been spending lots of time off social media, doing Duolingo German (!) and catching up with some old classics. These, plus Robert Service's Lenin and Nicholas II, plus Sheltering Sky, have been my TCB reads of the spring. War Of The World really works, even today; half-way through Turn of the Screw and it's genuinely unsettling and sinister. Thornton Wilder is a poor man's Tennessee Williams; Darkness At Noon is... dark. Very. Some of the current Stalin fans need to read it (think it was an influence on 1984 too IIRC).  Sheltering Sky is by someone I despise, but the writing is beautifully poetic. Still despise him.

But the sleeper is definitely Wide Sargasso Sea, bought for £1 for my train trip back from Yorkshire, phenomenal writing and all the weirder, as a prequel to Jane Eyre, set around the despised/irrelevant/mad Mrs Rochester, most of it written from her viewpoint. A consummate, bravura example of how to celebrate the underdog.

looking good...

[Edit: when you posted I could see two. Now I see the second one only. Hmm. ]

Julian is right, washed/rinsed is normally from Turkey. The fades should be pretty good... but there have been some with a resin wash designed to fade more quickly.

This is the Nihon Mempu Sanforizer. I haven't checked but I have a feeling NM produce all the SC stuff, so this machine is the last rite of passage for all the Sugarcane Sanforized fabric.

Note it's huge, several times bigger than any loom, by far the biggest item of kit in the entire mill.

Sorry for crappy photos... my Fuji X100 was new and I hadn't quite worked out how to programme the auto ISO on it at the time.

More on NM here:
http://loomstate.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/naturally-beautiful-trip-to-nihon-menpu.html
 

Sanforised means the fabric is (mostly) shrunk before being sewn. So it looks quite different to one-wash jeans. No crinkling etc.

I'll try and dig out the pic of Kawai San, who makes most of the SC fabric, with his Sanforizer, it's a vintage one he's very proud of. Essentially it passes steam over/under the fabric then squeezes out the water with huge rubber rollers.

 

Sanforised means the fabric is (mostly) shrunk before being sewn. So it looks quite different to one-wash jeans. No crinkling etc.

I'll try and dig out the pic of Kawai San, who makes most of the SC fabric, with his Sanforizer, it's a vintage one he's very proud of. Essentially it passes steam over/under the fabric then squeezes out the water with huge rubber rollers.

 

3 hours ago, i_denim said:

Thanks @Paul T This makes sense. I'm still not sure why Cone had to shut down, I've been reading up a lot. There are brands like Bravestar and Roy who use cone denim. I am sure there are others as well. I think there is a general lack of awareness about cone denim worldwide and most people believe cone only produced the generic denim. LVC could have done for awareness but I don't think they did.

I think the main issue is that Cone only supplied LVC for well over a decade - they only gradually branched out with their own premium denim because of their contractual obligations to Levi's. Hence everyone's opinion of Cone was dominated by their opinion of LVC. For nearly every independent shop, world-wide, Japanese jeans were their main product, and it made sense to push that and belittle Levi's - this is why the whole lie about Cone selling their looms to Japanese makers spread.

My impression was that at one point Levi's realised their monopoly on the fabric endangered White Oak and became more relaxed about Cone supplying other makers. But in the meantime, of course, Levi's stopped using much Cone in their volume range. I was told around 2001 that the 501 raw and rinsed jeans (mass market, not LVC) only used Cone denim, but my guess is that by 2010 they were using a lot of other suppliers, probably as part of the same cost-cutting that saw Levi's own US factories closed. Who knows the real truth, but there are people around Cone who blame Levi's for letting them down.

59 minutes ago, Foxy2 said:

Most of the Toyda looms currently used at some of the Japanese selvedge denim manufacturers are not much younger than those Draper looms that were used at Cone...

A few are older: Nihon Menpu has perhaps six Model G, which must be pre-1930. Cone has one or two turn of the century, but nearly all at X models which were launched in the 1930s, while the bulk of NM and Kurabo loom are 50s and later.

The link is correct in that the BS about Japan having "better" looms is BS but of course the question is a vague and meaningless one.

Talking about the G model, the most historic loom, Shinji Kawai told me the difference was simply that they were slower, and that there was therefore less tension in the fabric. The loom-vs-loom difference is probably marginal, the difference between Cone and Japanese denim (and of course discussing the latter group as a homogenous whole is meaningless) is probably more down to yarns than looms.


I find it hard discussing Cone as the whole business is so depressing! But there is perhaps one upbeat story in all of this, about hugely successful selvage fabric producers in the USA. Detailed here: http://loomstate.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/drapers-in-field.html

Looks perfect. Good times.