Diet & Denims don't mix...

[kevinsoofly]

New member of SUFU.

Not sure if I'm supposed to post here, if this isn't the right place for this post, sorry & lock it! =)

So, first pair of denims, must admit great pair of jeans! So I've been wearing these for month and a half now, and I'm running into some trouble. I was fat, well not fat but chubbier than I am now month and a half ago. And when I purchased these imperials at Selfedge I had to get a sz. 32 waist. Now that I lost 15 pounds, the waist is bigger than they should be, and it looks kind of weird when I wear it. WHAT CAN I DO TO FIX THIS PROBLEM? =/

I hemmed off 4 inches, and got it tapered at a local tailoring store, turned out pretty good.

They were never soaked or washed, let me know how I'm doing!

[Bradapalooza]

Wear a belt? If everything looks good besides the waist band itself thats no big deal because nobody ever sees that unless your wearing your shirt tucked in. If you really hated it you could do a hot hot soak and hope for the best. make sure you wear a belt after the soak to prevent the jeans waist from just stretching to normal.

[kevinsoofly]

Thanks for the suggestion! Would it be better if I only soak the top half or the whole thing? Sorry, newb when it comes to these things lol.

[Bradapalooza]

Either way will work - I'd recommend you just go ahead and soak the whole thing to keep things consistent - but keep in mind the whole jean will shrink some that way - however it will stretch back out in a fairly short period of time (~ a week of wear).

Your fades look good btw.

[kevinsoofly]

Thanks man! okay I promise, last question(s). When I do the hot soak, should I do a sit in soak? And how long should I soak them for? And hang dry after? LOL kind of clueless when it comes to jeans...

[Bradapalooza]

The best thing to do would be either be something that measures about the size of what you want the waist to be (if you want it down to thirty - a hanger measuring 15 inches side to side would be perfect) You could also sit in which is somewhat preferable. Because these are sanforized (afaik) you may not get very much shrinkage - the higher heat = more shrinkage. So you'll want it pretty hot. The length of time people do is somewhat variable. Lots of people just take a hot bath in the denim. Others force it under the water and leave for thirty minutes. If you aren't wearing they have to be forced under the water by some method.

Hang dry after. Some wear dry but on a tight fit like yours thats usually not a great idea because you'll get some killer kneebags.

You will get some bleeding. You've already loosened some of the indigo through wear - so while most high quality denim won't bleed (and imperial is high quality) the areas that have wear will release indigo. However, the final effect on the contrast of your fades will be fairly minimal so don't worry about it too much. Fit is more important that ultra high contrast sufu fades anyways.

Edited January 22, 2012 by Bradapalooza

[dawei94]

The best thing to do would be either be something that measures about the size of what you want the waist to be (if you want it down to thirty - a hanger measuring 15 inches side to side would be perfect) You could also sit in which is somewhat preferable. Because these are sanforized (afaik) you may not get very much shrinkage - the higher heat = more shrinkage. So you'll want it pretty hot. The length of time people do is somewhat variable. Lots of people just take a hot bath in the denim. Others force it under the water and leave for thirty minutes. If you aren't wearing they have to be forced under the water by some method.

Hang dry after. Some wear dry but on a tight fit like yours thats usually not a great idea because you'll get some killer kneebags.

You will get some bleeding. You've already loosened some of the indigo through wear - so while most high quality denim won't bleed (and imperial is high quality) the areas that have wear will release indigo. However, the final effect on the contrast of your fades will be fairly minimal so don't worry about it too much. Fit is more important that ultra high contrast sufu fades anyways.

Pretty sure the sexi14's are unsanforized and would shrink quite a bit when soaked

[kevinsoofly]

Thanks a lot for all the information!

[blackfuture]

they look just fine. hell, i bet they looked worse before you lost 15 pounds. wear a belt until you choose to wash them; the waist will shrink somewhat. continue to wear a belt. don't do any of that silly "wear them in the tub" shit. try the "put them in the washing machine" approach instead.

[Madder_Lake]

Keep 'em. In two years you'll have put the weight back on and then you'll have a nice pair of faded jeans to continue to wear.

(In the long term always bet on weight increasing — cause that is just the way we are.)

[kevinsoofly]

So... basically don't soak or wash?

[dawei94]

If the waist is loose, soak the waist. If the whole thing feels loose, cold soak it for a little shrinkage, hot soak it for more. You should have soaked all of it as soon as you got it. You can't keep them from touching water forever (unless you plan to just wear them until they're unwearable, but they'll smell like shit long before then).

[Madder_Lake]

Also wearing the jeans so that they dry on your body is a really good thing — it's amazing to have the jeans fitting that perfectly. To avoid knee bags just don't squat down — simple as that.

My method is to hang the jeans upside down on the line so that the legs dry but all the water drains into the top block. So I wear them with the top block still damp/wet until they dry (works best in summer of course unless you want pneumonia!).

[Madder_Lake]

If the waist is loose, soak the waist. If the whole thing feels loose, cold soak it for a little shrinkage, hot soak it for more. You should have soaked all of it as soon as you got it. You can't keep them from touching water forever (unless you plan to just wear them until they're unwearable, but they'll smell like shit long before then).

I respectfully disagree. A researcher in Australia recently did the experiment of having people wear jeans continually for three months. There was no smell. If your jeans do start to smell then it is just a microbial infection. Kill it by refrigerating overnight. Freezing temperatures do not damage cotton. But heat does. Cotton frizzles at temperatures over 25 degrees Celcius. (You can confirm this on Wikipedia.) So by all means wash your jeans to shrink them and wear to make them mold to your body. But don't do deep squats while they are even damp.

HTH

[dawei94]

Sure, you could do that. But why bother? They're just a pair of pants. they're supposed to be shrunk before wearing, so shrink them. Then wear them. Wash them when they look dirty/smell dirty/when you think they need to be washed. There's quite a few pairs that look really great, even though they were washed regularly, so there's no need to treat water like it's going to destroy your jeans. Refrigerating your jeans is pretty ridiculous in my opinion, I don't refrigerate any of my other clothes when I think they smell bad, I throw them in the washing machine or handwash them. Don't see why you need to treat denim any differently

[kevinsoofly]

Thanks a lot madder lake!

[Madder_Lake]

Sure, you could do that. But why bother? They're just a pair of pants. they're supposed to be shrunk before wearing, so shrink them. Then wear them. Wash them when they look dirty/smell dirty/when you think they need to be washed. There's quite a few pairs that look really great, even though they were washed regularly, so there's no need to treat water like it's going to destroy your jeans. Refrigerating your jeans is pretty ridiculous in my opinion, I don't refrigerate any of my other clothes when I think they smell bad, I throw them in the washing machine or handwash them. Don't see why you need to treat denim any differently

Can I suggest you try the refrigeration thing. It works for all clothes — but is particularly effective on that sweat smell on tee shirts etc (because that smell is generated by bacteria and nothing else). Refrigerated clothes smell so much better than washed clothing. I do it a lot now, and it saves water.

As to why treat denim jeans different. Well, I believe that indigo and the way it fades is magic. That high contrast look is a living work of art to me. Indigo can look good in many different states so I don't say that there is just one way to make it look good. I saw a girl an hour ago in well faded Lee jeans and they looked great. But for me the high-contrast fades are the pinnacle. (I also love the look of the blue and white in Giotto's Padua chapel paintings — which have a similarly distressed aesthetic.)

[dawei94]

Can I suggest you try the refrigeration thing. It works for all clothes — but is particularly effective on that sweat smell on tee shirts etc (because that smell is generated by bacteria and nothing else). Refrigerated clothes smell so much better than washed clothing. I do it a lot now, and it saves water.

As to why treat denim jeans different. Well, I believe that indigo and the way it fades is magic. That high contrast look is a living work of art to me. Indigo can look good in many different states so I don't say that there is just one way to make it look good. I saw a girl an hour ago in well faded Lee jeans and they looked great. But for me the high-contrast fades are the pinnacle. (I also love the look of the blue and white in Giotto's Padua chapel paintings — which have a similarly distressed aesthetic.)

Sure, but the fades are supposed to reflect your lifestyle and what you've done in them. Why would you change what you do just for better fades? That (to me at least) is as unnatural as sandpapering it. Refrigerating them and never washing them are really unnecessary steps for what are supposed to just be heavy duty workwear.

edit: Also i'm not going to try the refrigeration thing. When my clothes get dirty, then go in the washing machine, not the fridge. They don't need to be frozen, they're just clothes. Might as well get some radioactive waste and use the radiation to sterilize them, the way they do it for medical equipment

Edited January 23, 2012 by dawei94

[Bradapalooza]

Just fyi - refrigration will not kill bacteria. It can reduce the smell but it will absolutely not kill anything. It will slow reproduction and activity of the bacteria. (Heat on the other hand does kill - but that is neither here nor there in this disscussion)

Thats why your fruits and food take longer to spoil in the refrigrator vs outside the fridge - but note that will still spoil.

Long story short you should have soaked from the start because they are unsanforized, sorry I was not aware of this with my intial advice. They will now lose a considerable amount with you soak. I'd recommend a cold soak as stated in the imperial thread. Hang dry upside down to minimize inseam loss (there will still be some but with your stacks you should be fine).

If your worried about gaining weight later as others said - keep in mind it doesn't take much for denim to restretch so thats not a big deal.

Not soaking will suck in a few months time because your wash will cause a shrinkage and then the fades won't match your body - which is the whole point of raw denim vs predistressed in the first place.

Edited January 23, 2012 by Bradapalooza

[Madder_Lake]

Sure, but the fades are supposed to reflect your lifestyle and what you've done in them. Why would you change what you do just for better fades? That (to me at least) is as unnatural as sandpapering it. Refrigerating them and never washing them are really unnecessary steps for what are supposed to just be heavy duty workwear.

edit: Also i'm not going to try the refrigeration thing. When my clothes get dirty, then go in the washing machine, not the fridge. They don't need to be frozen, they're just clothes. Might as well get some radioactive waste and use the radiation to sterilize them, the way they do it for medical equipment

Well, I guess we just have different aesthetic values. Indigo jeans aren't work-wear to me. Good clothes are art, and jeans especially — one of the greatest art innovations of the 20th Century. But that's me.

[Madder_Lake]

Just fyi - refrigration will not kill bacteria. It can reduce the smell but it will absolutely not kill anything. It will slow reproduction and activity of the bacteria. (Heat on the other hand does kill - but that is neither here nor there in this disscussion)

Thats why your fruits and food take longer to spoil in the refrigrator vs outside the fridge - but note that will still spoil.

Long story short you should have soaked from the start because they are unsanforized, sorry I was not aware of this with my intial advice. They will now lose a considerable amount with you soak. I'd recommend a cold soak as stated in the imperial thread. Hang dry upside down to minimize inseam loss (there will still be some but with your stacks you should be fine).

If your worried about gaining weight later as others said - keep in mind it doesn't take much for denim to restretch so thats not a big deal.

Not soaking will suck in a few months time because your wash will cause a shrinkage and then the fades won't match your body - which is the whole point of raw denim vs predistressed in the first place.

Some bacteria are resistant to very high heat, some to very low temperatures; freezing generally renders bacteria dormant, but it kills some by rupturing the cell wall with the frozen internal structure. Tee-shirts that smell from that normal sweat smell do not suddenly begin to smell again when taken out of the freezer. So something very effective happens that is not re-initiated. Try it and confirm it yourself.

The problem of early and frequent washing of some kinds of heavily inidigo-dyed jeans is that the indigo bleeds all over the fabric. But it is dependent on the amount of excess indigo in the fabric. In my view that indigo bleeding looks awful and I have seen more pairs of jeans ruined by early washing of unsanforized denim than the shifting of maybe a fraction of an inch of the fades as the material shrinks (since remember it is proportional on the length of the leg. It is insignificant in the top block.) But I guess it depends on what you value and on the depth of the dye in the jeans.

[Bradapalooza]

You do realize by definition your refrigrator is above 0 degrees celsius or 32 degrees farenheit? Making it highly unlikly you are freezing anything? (don't go quoting random substance which revert to solids at above this temperature - irrelavent to the conversation) You are not killing the bacteria. I'm not denying you can reduce the smell but the reason why that is happening is not at all what your quoting. Bacteria are both resitent to high temps and low heat - it is however far more difficult to get bacteria cooled to the point to "rupture the cell wall with the frozen internal structure" than it is to raise them to a sufficent heat to actually kill them.

Spout less psuedo-science - next time instead of trying to come off all high and knowledgeable about it you could try something like "put your shit in the fridge and it stops the stinking".

To reiterate what he should do. 1.cold soak 2. hang upside down to dry 3. wear to your hearts content.

This isn't shit denim thats going to be ruining in any way shape or form by a soak and it will result in a far better look later.

Edited January 23, 2012 by Bradapalooza

[blackfuture]

is it possible to petition a mod to have a thread locked

[Madder_Lake]

You do realize by definition your refrigrator is above 0 degrees celsius or 32 degrees farenheit? Making it highly unlikly you are freezing anything? (don't go quoting random substance which revert to solids at above this temperature - irrelavent to the conversation) You are not killing the bacteria. I'm not denying you can reduce the smell but the reason why that is happening is not at all what your quoting. Bacteria are both resitent to high temps and low heat - it is however far more difficult to get bacteria cooled to the point to "rupture the cell wall with the frozen internal structure" than it is to raise them to a sufficent heat to actually kill them.

Spout less psuedo-science - next time instead of trying to come off all high and knowledgeable about it you could try something like "put your shit in the fridge and it stops the stinking".

To reiterate what he should do. 1.cold soak 2. hang upside down to dry 3. wear to your hearts content.

This isn't shit denim thats going to be ruining in any way shape or form by a soak and it will result in a far better look later.

Take your own advice about trying to be high and knowledgeable. I know how much I know — I have a very decent degree thank you. And I can now tell how much you don't. Your post above is not much more than gibberish. (It has been known since the 1930's that freezing can kill some bacteria — though certainly not all.) And the freezer in my refrigerator is of course cooling to less than 0 degrees Celcius. So is yours, I'd hope — or you'd have no ice to cool you off when your temper gets the better of your judgement. And we can't raise the temperature of the bacteria to the point of destroying bacteria without destroying the cotton. Freezing works. That is why Nudies suggested it. They tried and found that it works. You seem to want to say that this is not because the bacteria are killed. I've agreed that it does not kill all. Some are only rendered dormant. Yes? Or do you have some other mechanism in mind that you just don't want to share.

Try not using the internet to express your inner feral douchebag.

[bluegoldblues]

lucky you I just had to soak-stretch a pair of jeans 2 inches!!

[Maynard Friedman]

madder, do you mean put them in the fridge or put them in the freezer? Please be clear.

Also, this whole thing has got me confused and I ended up defrosting my pies in the tumble dryer! Just going to give my peas a 60 wash now...

[Thor]

Ffs this thread is unbelievable.

Do you think Steve McQueen or Dennis Hopper refrigerated their jeans ?

Do you think Jackson pollock worried about washing his lees in case it fucked up his fades ?

There are shit jeans and great jeans , works of art ? My arse

[Maynard Friedman]

I agree with Thor. Any fool with a pair of legs and an aversion to washing can get decent fades on a pair of jeans but I doubt they could match Picasso's Guernica.

[kevinsoofly]

thank you everyone for all the information.

I think I've decided to do a hot soak, then dry upside down.

& Let you guys know how it turns out!

[kevinsoofly]

actually, last question.

Since my imperials are cuffed, so i uncuff them before soaking, or leave them cuffed while soaking?