mondo

Nah, I have always been "mondo" online... my nieces used to call me that when they were very young, and the name stuck and was picked up by everyone else. I think my girlfriend (who is Italian) probably thought I was totally up myself when we first met, as it means "world"...so the word pops up everywhere. Ah, well, I'm used to it now.

Hi jes (jcotteri)... I'm assuming you'll be buying your Dukes from Another Inch in Darlinghurst (only place to go in Sydney). Go there and try some on. I can't imagine anyone successfully sizing down in Imperials, but maybe I've put on more weight over the months than I think...old age...that's what it is..heh. I'm your height, and take a 32 in every other jeans I have (Nudies, Edwin, Evisu), but I had to go to 34 for the Imperials. I couldn't even get a 33 over my thighs...and that was after I'd worn 34s for about six months and thought I'd go try some in a 33 because they'd just come out in that size. I ended up getting the same Kings in black. I imagine the story would be the same for Dukes, but you never know.. Get along to the store and Richie will sort you out; he's very helpful and will study whatever fade you currently have going on with great interest.

I can remember lusting after Evisu in about 1998, and I've always had a bit of a soft spot for them. The simpler ones do break in nicely...many of the jeans that really caught my eye in terms of the way in which they had weathered turned out to be Evisu (felt a bit stupid doing a double take to check out the brand of some guy's jeans, but...ah, well...many of you know that feeling..) Anyhow... Simplest way to quickly check a pair is to look for selvage in the coin pocket. All legitimate selvage Evisu's will have it, even if they vary considerably in their other details.

I doubt you'll get much in the way of stacking from Kings; bootcuts were designed to minimise that feature (it's only recently that it seems to have become desirable...not into it myself). Mine do have something going on down there, though, from being caught out in the rain a few times. Maybe if you gave the the cuff area a bit of a soak and let it scrunch up a bit as you walk around it would help...like you'd just splashed through a puddle. Silly, but hey, we suffer for our art.

And the black denim...yeah. Reminds me of tthat childhood saying "shake and shake the ketchup bottle...nothing comes...and then a lot'll"...One day you'll look down in bright sunlight and realise that what you thought were just the crests of your creases are in fact a lighter shade of grey..and some of those vertical threads are actually almost white...and some of the little bastards have worn right through aand you've got holes happening before you ever thought you had a fade....heh.

Cross-post from Imperial thread...thought I'd better add to the black Imperial goodness -- plus, don't see too many Kings in here.

I wore the indigo pair pretty much full time for 4.5 - 5 months, then decided I wanted to try the same thing with the black and see how they compared to each other as my own small denim experiment. I think they turned out surprisingly similar, though blue tends to show more depth of colour owing to the various hues that emerge with time. There were minor differences between the two; i.e. the placket just behind the j-stitch on the blues had this little "spur" where the fabric was folded over, and friction from this caused a small hole to start from the inside out...I used indigo thread pulled from the remnants after tthey were hemmed to repair. I've noticed the same thing with Nudies. That feature changed with the blacks, so there's no extra lumps or bumps of fabric to give you a crotch hole (I don't mean the between-the-thighs crotch wear...don't think you can stop that if your legs rub together...)

Also, the pockets on the blacks are ever so slightly smaller and have cross-shaped bar tacks instead of the single diagonal. Small things, but provided in a scientific spirit...heh.

Anyway:

and

OK

These pictures are from the same batch, just zoomed and cropped. Next time there's some decent weather I'll try to get some proper close-ups...

OK.

Sorry, forgot to add that...no, these pairs are both waiting for their first wash. Not sure if they'll evolve much more until without a decent soaking...

Hi, first post here...it was about time I stopped lurking.

The indigo Kings were purchased about this time last year...wore them constantly until the honeycombs started to show the very first signs of fraying (after about 4.5 - 5 months). I set them aside and got some in black, thinking it'd be interesting to wear them the same amount and compare. The black ones do seem a little more stubborn, but I was caught in the rain more frequently in the indigos and I think the creases set in a little more sharply as a result.

Anyway:

Apologies for the wide-angle lens; seemed the best way to fit both pairs in the frame. You all know what jeans look like, anyway. If anyone's interested I'll do some detail pics when I get the chance.

OK.

I chose the Kings over Dukes because I don't really like the skinnier cuts; too much like Rumpelstiltskin or (worse) an overstuffed sausage.