Insight on selvage denim front a Laundry man....

[damnIam]

I have been washing laundry at a very upscale laundramat in a college town partime for over a year now and I have not seen a single pair of selvage jeans yet. I wash and fold about 300 to 400 pounds of laundry every weekend. Most of the people that drop their stuff off are college kids and they have VERY specific instructions for their stuff. I have seen every other brand you can imagine. Just how rare is it to actually own and wear selvage denim in the United States? There is a school of fashion at the local state college UNT ( just north of Dallas) here and I have asked several of the students there if any of them know about selvage denim and to date not a single one has heard of it. They go on to explain to me what selvage on fabric is, but they have no clue about it as far as jeans go.

[mizanation]

i live in nyc and i'll tell you that selvage is still very rare. i would say the highest occurence is in soho. second highest occurence, believe it or not, is in the hood, where you are seeing a lot of (bootleg) evisu and red monkey.

http://mizanation.blogspot.com

[sneakeraddict]

as far as i know it is a very European thing.

i read somewhere that Wrangler and Lee (owned both by VFC corp.) consider Japan and Britain of first importance for their repro stuff, followed by the rest of western Europe.

In my opinion (this may not be factual) - Selvage jeans seemed to become more mainstream in Britain when largely UK urban acts in the mid 90s starting wearing cuffed evisu etc, so they had a high visibilty in popular culture even if you just thought they were expensive because of the logo, and not the workmanship

[Paul T]

It's much bigger in London than NY or LA. Yesterday morning, off Brick Lane, I saw at least one pair of nudies, a couple of LVC, and at least one other cuff w selvage, and one other dude who did an obvious doublte-take of my kid's Samurais. That's about typical. It's a reasonably trendy area, but not high fashion. At a party on saturday I saw a couple more.

Ultimatley the cuffed jeans things comes from the vintage market in the late 80s... there was also a reivial in the roackabilly look (not really the music). The hip hop thing did alter how people wore jeans - low slung, cinched jeans... now everyone's gone skinny. Remember there are also a lot of small labels around Covent Garden or Carnaby st with selvage too, like Duffer.

[Cue]

Yeah, I see loads of people with cuffed selvedge jeans around London - esp East London - and quite a few around my work on the South Bank

[mizanation]

i miss brick lane curry. can't wait to get a real curry and a pint.

http://mizanation.blogspot.com

[cheapmuthafukr]

ive never seen selvage here in jax. no shops, no people wearing it, nothing. even the little botiques still stock overwashed diesels and pdc. no nudie, no apc, no lvc, no japanese brands, no dior, nothing. the vintage clothing store i stop at in town doesnt even put redlines on the floor because no one will buy them.

If you've lost your faith in superfuture, Oh the end won't be long

Because if it's gone for you then I too may lose it, And that would be wrong

I've tried so hard to keep myself from falling

Back into my bad old ways

And it chars my heart to always hear you calling

Calling for the good old days

Because there were no good old days

These are the good old days

[derdankhund]

I'll second the no selvage stateside...at least here in Utah...

The boutique I work at has tried selling higher price point selvage Japanese stuff but simply can't sell it. Most of our customers show no interest in the raw denim, while True Religions, J&Companys, and Chip and Peppers simply fly off the shelf.

Personally, I'm not all that sold on cuffing my selvages...no one around here would even know to recognize the selvage, and I prefer the cleaner look of no cuff...

"One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star" - Nietzsche

[punyfig]

Seen two pairs of selvage jeans in Brighton since becoming aware of them. One was on a girl in shopping Tesco, I had to do a double take on the cuffs/turn-ups. And the Second was on one of the co-owners of 'Wildcat' (www.wildcat.co.uk) who was standing outside the shop on his phone wearing some Evisu.

...and to think I actually used to iron denim.

[Guest Berget__]

I see selvage denim now and then here in Gothenburg Sweden.

I aint gotta get money man money get me

[haptronic]

I see some selvedge here in Auckland, but mostly it is a habit guys have picked up in London, and it will be on some Edwins or Duffer.

[Tisswat]

Nudie is huge here in Holland, but selvage is not common. However, last week I spotted one of Amsterdam's politicians wearing a pair of Levi's selvage - I think the fella just earned himself another vote..

reporter: "what do you think about western civilization?"

gandhi: "i think it would be a good idea."

[Tob]

In the netherlands I see more and more selvage. Last week I must have seen some selvage cuff once a day.

Most of them are washed and of a brand I dont know (definately not Japanese or hipster like nudie/apc).I guess some fashion companies also want a piece of "quality denim". Most of these jeans feature typical fashionable details like long backpockets and yoke. They resemble a popular (but crap imo) brand I do know, replay.

But I also once saw an older man sporting some (I assume repro) selvage Lee's. He had a small cuff, not to show off but simply because they were a tad bit too long for his taste i guess. Really cool because i think he really went for the quality aspect and not the richlifestyle thing (judging by the rest of his clothing).

[lilbucu]

in seattle its not too rare, i see it on campus (university of washington) quite a bit. just today i saw someone wearing imperial jeans, other day saw some nudies. there is also a pretty large japanese population and i've seen some of them wearing some very vintage looking denim.

[McdoBigmac]

I have yet to see selvage in Besançon (France), Meaning on people.

But I guess it's the kind of thing you get to see in Paris

[ally fu]

It's pretty common in Edinburgh due to the amount of 'Style Bars' here ... full of pretentious wanks competing with each other to have the latest 'underground' trend!

[kwiteaboy]

Quote:

in seattle its not too rare, i see it on campus (university of washington) quite a bit. just today i saw someone wearing imperial jeans, other day saw some nudies. there is also a pretty large japanese population and i've seen some of them wearing some very vintage looking denim.

--- Original message by lilbucu on May 15, 2006 01:49 PM

WHOA. You saw me or my twin brother wearing the Imperials here. He's got washed black and I've got dry indigo. Next time, come up and say hi.

[ruach]

In Seattle I've seen several people with their selvage jeans cuffed. I also saw someone wearing a pair of Nudies last week around the Seattle Central campus and yesterday saw a guy on a motorcycle wearing a pair of Nudies in the University District.

[kwiteaboy]

I've seen a lot of Nudies in Seattle, but not many selvage - only one pair of what I think were Straight Svens. A guy whose girlfriend I know wears PRPS cuffed.

[ayn]

Selvage is rare here in the bay area, and also, I'd imagine the people who own selvage denim wouldn't bring their jeans to a laundromat.

[wild_whiskey]

I see them from time to time because there are a LOT of Japanese exchange students at my school. I've also had a rockabilly guy tell me "nice redlines," and that was the only compliment on my jeans I've ever received for selvage.

My Japanese language teacher (a Japanese guy, obviously) has some Lees he's worn for some 10 years and they are selvage, but he didn't know what it was until I mentioned. He had heard "akamimi" mentioned sometime in his lifespan though.

Edited by wild_whiskey on May 15, 2006 at 06:09 PM

[watchman]

I see it on girls jeans periodically, but i practically never see guys wearing it. There are a few rich ones that have them, but otherwise it's pretty rare.

[lilbucu]

Quote:

Quote:

in seattle its not too rare, i see it on campus (university of washington) quite a bit. just today i saw someone wearing imperial jeans, other day saw some nudies. there is also a pretty large japanese population and i've seen some of them wearing some very vintage looking denim.

--- Original message by lilbucu on May 15, 2006 01:49 PM

WHOA. You saw me or my twin brother wearing the Imperials here. He's got washed black and I've got dry indigo. Next time, come up and say hi.

--- Original message by kwiteaboy on May 15, 2006 04:19 PM

hahah, i was thinking that that person i saw would be from supter future!! it was you i saw because they were raw indigos. i'll say hi if i ever see you agian, id only recognize you if i saw the imperials again, because i don't even think i saw your face, i just looked at your jeans... HAHA.

i was so surprised on how different the indigo/texture of denim was compared to my lvc 1947.

saw you in the quad talking to some girl i think? them jeans looked nice!

if you ever see an asian kid wearing lvc 47s, thats me! might be hard to tell cause i don't cuff though, and levi's look like levis

my friend has a pair of selvage nudies that are very fresh too.

Edited by lilbucu on May 16, 2006 at 01:04 AM

[ally fu]

Quote:

It's pretty common in Edinburgh due to the amount of 'Style Bars' here ... full of pretentious wanks competing with each other to have the latest 'underground' trend!

--- Original message by ally fu on May 15, 2006 02:41 PM

I should probably add to this that 99% of selvage up here is Evisu, with the occasional pair of nudies making up the other 1%. I've seen a few pair of PRPS too, but the dirty/destroyed wash ones, which aren't selvage.

[tweeds]

none reported in singapore. i'm sure there are, but it's just abysmally hard to find any.

[6MT]

Quote:

i live in nyc and i'll tell you that selvage is still very rare. i would say the highest occurence is in soho. second highest occurence, believe it or not, is in the hood, where you are seeing a lot of (bootleg) evisu and red monkey.

--- Original message by mizanation on May 15, 2006 06:26 AM

da hood, oh man thats the best....actually, i seem alot of fake levi's at the rosebowl recently, they are all selvedge and are very high quality of bootleg....

[batorizer]

I'm in oklahoma at OU and I haven't seen any quality high-end jeans. there are a fair number of true religions and other such garbage. at the motel i work at i saw some edwins the other weekend.

[choice_genes]

Selvedge is getting bigger here in Melbourne Australia. Mostly the huge nudie trend, see a few dudes rocking RRDS and SSDS. But still don't see too much of the LVC, and it's mainly asian dudes who are rocking evisu. Yet to see a pair of SugarCanes, and it's pretty rare to see any other obscure japanese repro brand...

Keep the Funk alive

[red]

selvage is everywhere in okinawa. at local thrift shops and flea markets, selvage (and military surplus) is everywhere. its so common that i believe most at the flea markets are fake.

[Roland]

Quote:

i live in nyc and i'll tell you that selvage is still very rare. i would say the highest occurence is in soho. second highest occurence, believe it or not, is in the hood, where you are seeing a lot of (bootleg) evisu and red monkey.

--- Original message by mizanation on May 15, 2006 06:26 AM

Yeah Miz you're right on the money. I usually see selvage in Soho too. The hypebeasts milling around Bape (usually a 2 block radius) usually rock Evisu with 2 inch + cuffs. Ocassionaly, you'll see some stylish guys in soho with cuffs showing off selvage, although according to my Mom only farmers cuff their jeans (yes I know jeans are workwear, but I thought this quote was kind of funny). Sometimes I see redlines/greenlines on the rockers in the LES and E Village too.