frideswide

Umm, maybe I'm missing something ... but you can buy Lee Japan (Edwin-made) 1952 101Z at the Lee shop in Carnaby Street (or you could last time I looked). I think they're something like 150 pounds.

You can get any of the models in the Japanese line without gull wings if you prefer. Generally you have to do this through the 'A Evisuya Tailor' shops in Japan, although I have noticed at least one Japanese on-line retailer selling them.

Some importers of Japanese Evisu for their own shops abroad get them without the gull wings. I got a pair of Japanese 2000Z (same as 2000 but with a zipper) in No. 2 denim without gull wings at the Duffer of St George shop in Covent Garden (London).

One of my favourite pair of jeans.

Lee Japan 101Z.

If you are in the U.K. get some Boots Pure Soap Flakes, dissolve in some hot water and add to a cold hand-wash. Line dry out of the sun.

There's a difference between "deep" and "dark".

In my experience, very deep tones can be acheived with natural indigo alone (a function of the number of dips, probably), but the color remains a kind of purplish-blue, which fades to a rather weedy shade of baby-blue eventually. Personally I prefer the darker black-blue which I believe is due to some kind of sulphur dye wash in addition to the indigo.

I'm also a bit intrigued as to why, in general, natural indigo jeans don't seem to give as high-contrast fades as synthetic indigo jeans. Since it can't be due to chemical differences between natural and synthetic, it must be due to the method of dying, the additional substances present in the dye, the method of construction of the jeans, or a combination of all three.

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Welcome, Ryu （ようこそ！）. Great to have you as a member of our community --- Please feel free to post your ideas and your pictures. And please tell any of your Japanese friends that they are welcome too.

- frideswide

Mmm... natural indigo, and.. I am correct in thinking by the photos that these are left-hand twill ?

Quote:

seriously, why did you post this? to show off your expensive jeans so you can impress some nerds around the world? you barely have any creases or anything. try again in 6 months.

--- Original message by cheapmuthafukr on Mar 31, 2006 05:29 AM

C'mon --- first of all they're not that expensive ( 22,890 yen, work it out -- it's around $195 ), secondly spitzbrg didn't need to take the trouble to post a pic -- he just did it because he thought people would be interested. I'd like to see the 6-month pics too, but I like the new ones as well... so I'm a nerd... guilty as charged!

Edited by frideswide on Mar 31, 2006 at 07:30 AM

Very nice indeed. More pix, if you have time.. ?

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Agree with all my friends above that Cinch is best. Levi's "own brand" shops (like in Covent Garden) don't do LVC, for some reason. Other than that, Selfridges carry some LVC; they might take your voucher, not sure.

Nothing on Regent Street to my knowlege... I don't think Liberty does LVC.

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Check out http://www.d26ya.com/index.html

If you're passing through Shikoku while you're in Japan, definitely worth the visit.

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I remember when the wine craze hit ridiculous heights in the late 1980's / early 1990's.

Of course, if money was no object you could find fantastically exotic bottles of incredible wine that were almost too expensive to enjoy knocking back. Add to that the fact that many people got into wine simply for the status appeal of it, which was kind of obnoxious in itself.

So my friends and I thought... what a bore: there's no challenge in finding a good bottle for over $200 -- try finding a great one for under $5 ! (Don't forget this was the 1990's...). So we started an 'under $5 wine club' -- on our evenings together the winner was the one who brought the best bottle (as voted by the group) costing under $5. The prize was... well, $5. We had some great fun and drank some great wine I can tell you.

What does it have to do with jeans? If you look at the average price of really decent quality raw Japanese selvage jeans (Denime, Sugarcane, Samurai, Evisu Japan No. 2, Full Count, Dry Bones), it averages around 20,000 yen. That's about $170. Paying more than that gets you exotic stuff like natural indigo, limited editions, super slubby denim, etc. So my proposition is that unless you're into all that, there's no need to pay much more than $170 (plus whatever shipping, tax, fees, etc), and there are a lot of great jeans in that category for considerably less.

Edited by frideswide on Mar 27, 2006 at 12:12 PM

The IronHearts, when new and unwashed, seem to be silicone-coated or something along those lines. This makes them *very* slow to fade by wear alone. I have a pair that are coming up to the 1-year mark in June -- I'll wash them then and see what happens.

The heaviest denim I ever heard of jeans being made from was a 23-oz model made by the (now defunct) firm of 'Canton'. I saw some for sale in a Japanese jeans forum for around 60,000 yen.

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Samurai's Levi's 66 repros, 15oz, second model. (Note there are two seagulls flying above Mt Fuji on the goatskin patch -- the first 66 repro model had one seagull).

There is in fact back-pocket stitching, but it is done in dark thread so only becomes apparent as the jeans fade.

Note the samurai motto Ââ€Âs–³Âí on the buttons.

Class, Guy... class jeans. Wear them in good health.

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I have handled some similar ones here in London.

Nice denim. They are Chinese-made Evisus (from their plant near Hong Kong), however, if that matters to you.

Somewhere on the inside it will indicate the country of origin (although I notice all the photos carefully avoid it) -- for Chinese ones it is often on the inside of the fly. If there is no indication whatsoever of the country of manufacture, then someone has cut it off, since I have have never seen a legit pair of Evisus which doesn't state somewhere where it was made.

I have a pair of the 2000 No. 2, and the Earthmarket chart seems closer to the true unwashed size. The Hinoya chart looks more like the size after washing.

Be aware that the No. 2 denim is sanforized and the No. 1 denim is not sanforized, so the shrinkage will be much more of a factor in the latter case.

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If you feel like ordering from Japan, you can also get some Japanese-made LVC 1947 501XX:

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/hinoya/141935/141937/147578/

ringring, what do you imagine the "6x6" refers to on some of the pairs of these jeans?

http://www.fabfour.co.jp/netshop/babe/showcase/list_btm001.html

For example on the 5010XX 6x6 superslims. From the text it seem it is something to do with the weave, but I can't figure out just what.

There are two main commercial methods in use, according to the type of solvent used:

1) Perchlorethelyne ("perc") -- this is usually indicated on the care label with a "P" with a circle around it.

2) Hydrocarbon petroleum-based solvent -- this is usually indicated on the care label with an "F" with a circle around it.

Perchlorethylene is the solvent most commonly used in the industry and is the most powerful. Hydrocarbon, available as a petroleum based solvent, is not as powerful but is very gentle, and is usually used for things like wedding-dresses, etc. It's also much more expensive.

For high-end denim, if you can find a cleaner who will do it properly, the "F" method is probably preferrable, as it will dislodge less indigo.

Actually, I just had a look on the label of my own Yen selvedge and it does have a "F" symbol on it.

There is also one other factor which affects the results, and that is how much water is present in the dry-cleaning fluid. Despite the name "dry", with use a small amount of water does accummulate in the dry-cleaning solvent -- it is supposed to be strictly controlled and filtered out, but some dry cleaners do a better job of this than others.

I used to work in a dry cleaners for a spell, so I learned a bit about it.

Whew, that's pretty harsh.

I have been hit with import duty on jeans I had shipped into the U.K., but they didn't actually *destroy* them... just charge me for it.

It seems the US Customs rationale was copyright infringement, not import tariff per se. Did the jeans have a red tab on the back or something along those lines? I know they can be particular about that. When importing Japanese repros here into the U.K. the importers (usually) cut any back pocket red tabs off before they're shipped. Most U.K.-sold Evisus have the red tab cut off in this way, for example.

Quite right, but for the lady from Evisu to suggest that jeans sold in Rakuten shops are not legit is absurd. Actually, compared to, say, eBay, Rakuten is quite well policed. Also, some of the biggest 'bricks and mortar' retailers in Japan (like Hinoya, G-pan, etc,) have a presence on Rakuten. In addition many smaller manufacturers use Rakuten as a direct sales channel rather than setting up their own independent online shops.

Those are the persimmon-tanin dyed denim I was referring to in my message above. In Japanese it is called "kaki-shibu" dyeing.

Persimmon is a type of fruit --- extremely bitter when unripe --- and its juice, which is full of dark brown tanin, is used in place of indigo in the making of this particular type of denim. Kaki-shibu has the characteristic that it strongly darkens as it oxidizes, which means that these jeans will tend to darken over time, not lighten. Other than the dye, the material is made of normal cotton (not a fiber mix like sugarcanes).

This run was limited to 100 pairs of jeans, and as far as I know all are sold.

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Edited by frideswide on Mar 14, 2006 at 04:43 AM

Samurai is a pretty small outfit, based in Osaka. They have no trouble selling their entire output in the domestic Japanese market and feel no particular need to 'go global'. Some of their production runs number only a 100 or 200 jeans and sell out pretty quickly. They come out with new models every year and are always experimenting with something new (like persimmon-juice dyed jeans, etc.).

I agree about the shirts, though...

Pathetic and shocking.

Edwin (the Japanese ones, not the Italian ones)