Cold Summer

@vIGGiou riou Something I never see mentioned around here but which I find extremely handy is a pants stretcher. I got one off Amazon maybe five years ago after being previously unaware such a thing existed. Oftentimes the waist on a pair is a little tight relative to the rest for me to get my desired fit - or, as seems to be more often the case, the waist measurement turns out smaller than advertised. So while the jeans are wet from a wash, or after soaking the waistband under the faucet for a one-wash pair, I put in the stretcher, set it to the proper measurement, let the pants dry, and the waist fits just right. It might get there eventually regardless, but I don't really want to endure 2-3 weeks of an uncomfortable fit every time I wash my jeans, so I've found this to be a nice workaround.

@yung_flynn Exactly, I actually had them hemmed to 87 cm/34" since the measurements on Bears' site suggested a 94 cm inseam. I don't think they were actually that long, judging from the cut off hems they nicely included with my jeans, but given my preference for wearing my jeans uncuffed nowadays, the hem would have looked a bit sloppier with the original length. This pair was one washed and seemingly tumble dried in the process, so there shouldn't be further shrinkage.

Yes! Very pleasant weather in Georgia this week, in the low 70s. A couple weeks ago, we had lows of 15 degrees F. Weather around here this time of year is completely schizo. Thanks! I'd been hankering for an S501xx repro for a bit, and ones by Sugar Cane, Freewheelers, Warehouse tempted me, but lack of availability, price, and doubts about fit had me apprehensive, until this pair came out and ticked off all the boxes for me. I'm glad I was patient. The shirt is super cool, I found it on the rack at a local charity thrift store for a few dollars. I'm not sure exactly how old it is, but it's made in the USA from a selvedge chambray fabric, so it could be from the 60s or earlier. It's a size M but fits somewhat large, which suits my Grandpacore style well enough these days. I feel like I need some sort of old timey headgear to go with this sort of outfit, but I'm not real sure where to look.

Vintage Big Mac selvedge chambray shirt, Hollows Rail belt, TCB Late S40s, John Lofgren Steadfast boots.

Fit pics and impressions of my Late S40s jeans. I absolutely love these jeans. This is my first pair of TCB (and first serious, specific repro jeans) and I'm really impressed, especially considering the sub-$200 price tag. I got this size 31 pair from Bears, and had them hemmed to 34", which is the ideal no-cuff length for me. This is an incredibly quirky pair, given the inspiration from the wartime S501xx. The flannel pocket bags are super cool, the sewing quirks charming and fun. In spite of the replication of the oddities of wartime jeans, these are obviously very well made. The denim is dark, hairy, and full of character, so I'm excited to see how it ages and how close it comes to some of the great-looking S501xx pairs I've seen online. The 13.5 oz weight is just about ideal to me nowadays, and is well suited to life in north Georgia where it's pretty warm most of the year. I like the fit a lot, too. The regular rise feels great, and though there's plenty of hip flare and room in the top, after a couple days of wear the fit has settled and I'm quite pleased with it. This is a pair that's easy to wear daily with all sorts of outfits. Highly recommended!

Looks like that's a WWII-inspired pair made from the 15 oz Otokogi denim. Sounds like a solid choice to me!

I'm less of a Warehouse expert than some, but out of all the different fabrics I've worn over 15+ years of denim nerdery the Banner denim is a serious contender for my absolute favorite. The 14.5 oz on my 800xx is a nice denim too but it sort of feels and looks like a medium-weight version of Samurai's Kiwami denim from the S710xx. The Banner denim has some extra dimension of texture and depth of color to it that really captures the spirit of vintage denim, and it's just great for daily wear here in the southern US where it's quite hot for much of the year. For that matter, I like the Banner denim way more than the Full Count denim from the 1108s I wore for several years. I'm eager to see if the new TCB WWII denim on my Late S40s jeans ends up on the same level as the Banner.

Flat Head flannel and jacket, Hollows belt, Buzz Rickson chinos, Wesco Mister Lou boots.

@Thicolas Rage I have the Buzz chinos too (the 1930s version, in the lighter Khaki color.) Best chinos I've ever worn, fit, fabric, everything is perfect. And an incredible value for the low price! I got my new jeans yesterday and wore them all day today, they're awesome! Easily the coolest, quirkiest jeans I've owned. It's got more of a boxy anti-fit than my Flat Head 3003s, which are certainly a more refined take on a WWII fit, but I really like it after spending a day in it. I'll probably wear them a few more times before getting around taking fit pics. The denim is also very nice as well, I think I'll love this 13.5 oz for warmer weather especially, much like the Warehouse Banner denim I wore in summer the last few years.

Beautiful jeans @.API., love it! I always really liked the offset pocket shape, too. The F350 should be the same cut as the 3005. I don't see many F350s show up on Japanese secondhand sites like Yahoo Auctions Japan, Mercari, etc. but unworn 3005s in common waist sizes often come up for sale pretty cheap. And various retailers outside Japan like Franklin And Poe stock the current production 3005. I like my 3005s a lot but my 3003xx is my favorite, I think it's the best-fitting pair of jeans I've ever worn.

Great points, the subject of the formality of jeans, or lack thereof, is a fascinating topic. I think a crucial aspect of this is the color, detailing, and cut of a given pair. A dark, classic 501-type straight fit is extremely versatile and while I wouldn't say it really looks formal in any context, you can easily dress it up with a nice pair of shoes, a sport shirt, and jacket of some sort, so you look well put together on date night, at church, teaching the class, or whatever. A well-kept, naturally faded pair is almost as versatile. Where things get a bit iffy is with obviously with torn-up or distressed jeans, but also, I'd argue, with a lot of mid-blue prewashed jeans. The average prewashed pair tends to have this very flat and processed sort of appearance and shapeless, floppy drape that has more of a pajama or leisure wear kind of quality to it. Even if you just wear a pair of TCB 50s or Sugar Cane 1947 and wash them once a week it's still going to look and fit way better than floppy mall jeans after a year. Personally, I can't stand leisure wear not because I'm opposed to being comfortable, but because I hate polyester and floppy shapeless clothing. There's an interesting parallel between the rise of jeans and "work wear" as everyday casual clothing coinciding with a romanticizing of the rugged working man as an ideal in an increasingly urbanized and white-collar context post-World War II, and the rise of leisure wear as everyday casual clothing coinciding with "being in the gym/exercising/active" as an aspirational lifestyle when the norm is for middle and upper class people to be fat and sitting on their butts in front of a computer screen all day. Going around all day in Lululemon or whatever sends the message that you've Made It enough to enjoy the privilege of free time enough for exercising and sculpting your ideal physique. Most of this is happening on the subconscious level, but I think there's definitely something there. Other, related historical instance: when agrarian work was the norm, fair skin was the beauty ideal because it signaled you were above laboring in the sun all day, and when industrialism and the rise of white-collar work made indoor labor the norm, tanning because a status symbol because you had wealth and leisure time to relax on the beach and all that.

Flat Head shirt and jacket, Hollows belt, Stevenson trousers, Viberg boots.

Wasn’t planning to WAYWT today but I liked this fit and was just standing around while my wife tried on some dresses. Viberg ball cap, Deluxeware thermal, McCoys A-2, Hollows belt, Flat Head 3003xx, Wesco 7500.

I'm happier with my style than ever, I hope I'm still dressing like this for the rest of my life, and at the expense of repeating my previous post on this thread I get the most enjoyment from wearing my favorite clothes over a longer period of time. I really don't care about the trends, and the whole perpetual preoccupation with youth and refusal to accept getting older/embrace maturing strikes me as an anomalous trait of modernity and the advertising-driven youth culture fixation that's had a stranglehold on western culture since the 1950s or 60s. I find myself much more inspired by my grandparents' generation, who managed to age with dignity, than Boomers. It is probably this, and the sense that I have a system of values and priorities deeply out of sync with current times, that makes me drawn toward styles inspired by the 1930s or 40s, rather than because I'm trying to appropriate the romanticized allure of the factory man, cowboy, or some other archetype. In short, the way I dress is a reflection at least to some extent of what I believe and value. For instance, I feel no attraction to streetwear or techwear not just for aesthetic or tactile considerations but because they seem to be a sartorial embodiment of a sort of urbanized worldview and sense of priorities at odds with my own. Another, weirder possibility is that dressing a certain way is actually the cause of my changing worldview. This is admittedly a bit silly, but it might play some small role. Okay, I have ranted enough for one day, I will see myself out now.

Fantastic, love this fit. The jacket looks wonderful! Excited to get my Late S40s jeans, hopefully sometime this week.

Love the tag @mlwdp. As someone who's been into the denim hobby for about fifteen years now, I relish the experience of wearing clothes that I've had for a long time more than anything else. When I put on something I've had for five or ten years, or even longer, I think about all the various experiences I've had wearing it, and how satisfying it is to keep wearing the same stuff for a long time, fix it, and keep it going. I find that more satisfying and enduring than the immediate thrill of buying New Thing. When something doesn't work out for one reason or another, being able to pass it on to somebody else in the denim community who will hopefully connect with it that way is also gratifying. Likewise, many of my favorite pieces of clothing I own, I bought used or otherwise secondhand. This all might constitute a little act of rebellion against the global consumerism machine that demands we buy an excess of crummy expendable junk For The Greater Good.

Flat Head western chambray / JCrew fair isle sweater / Warehouse x Rocky Mountain vest / Flat Head 3003xx / Wesco 7500… inside of a caboose.

Flat Head houndstooth flannel, Real McCoys A-2 jacket, Hollows Rail belt, Flat Head 3003xx jeans, Viberg Service Boots.

My comments were probably more tongue-in-cheek that I managed to communicate there in written form, as someone who is skeptical of the notion of "progress" in all sorts of different contexts, I don't think we really need totally new concepts from denim brands. But I guess I would like to see interesting ideas in enthusiast jeans beyond crazy fabrics or hyper-specific repros, whatever form that might end up taking. I do like the idea of incorporating subtle design/sewing/construction aspects into jeans inspired by the quirks of WWII pairs, for instance, though I'm sure I'm not the first to have this idea.

I have changed my tune since this series of posts almost (gulp) five years ago, I've really fallen in love with the WWII jeans, not necessarily because I've become super invested in vintage denim, though I surely have a greater appreciation than before for nicely-aged vintage jeans. It's probably more because of the vibes, these wonky WWII-era jeans are weird and I find this fun and compelling, moreso than gimmicky over-engineered slubmaster denim. Also, somewhat to my surprise, I have found that at least some variations of the WWII fit work quite well on me. Seeing WH, Sugar Cane, and TCB try to tackle the task of reproducing obscure and rare permutations of particular jeans is also rather fascinating. I do think these are often past the point of diminishing returns for me, but the price-to-quirkiness ratio of the TCB Late S40s is right on point... hence, why I just bought a pair. I have to think that within a year or two Sugar Cane will have made a Super Denim Collectible for every obscure variation of 1940s 501xx, which raises the question: where do we go from there? "Reproductions" of fictitious World War Three jeans with ever stranger and wonkier features? Again, I'd take it over neon pink weft slublord 28 oz denim. Will we eventually spend $1000 for Japanese jeans that look like they were sewn by Pablo Picasso on acid? I suppose only time will tell.

The Late S40s jeans just landed at Bears, along with the corresponding Type I jacket. Between the appealing price with free shipping, and measurements comparable to my favorite pairs I wear, I couldn't resist and ordered a pair. These should be a nice complement to the more conventional wartime features on my TFH 3003xx. Amazingly, this is my first pair of TCB jeans. (Though back in 2017, I briefly had their 50s jacket. I loved the denim on it, but it was too small for me.) I'd be really curious to hear from somebody who's had several of the specific wartime repros that have come out in the last couple years from other brands like Sugar Cane and Warehouse, and how they compare to TCB's attempt.

Deluxeware thermal tee, Flat Head jacquard sweater, Flat Head 3003xx, Wesco Mister Lou

Awesome jacket! I much prefer the Storm Rider design to the more common Type III. From looking at TFH's product page it looks like it's made from the same left-hand twill Zimbabwe denim as Young's jeans posted above.

Flat Head denim shirt / Flat Head single riders jacket / Buzz Rickson 1930s chinos / Hollows Rail belt / Wesco Mister Lou

Freenote flannel, Warehouse x Rocky Mountain down vest, Flat Head 3003xx, John Lofgren Steadfast boots