Denim Blunders, Reflections and General Nonsense.

[ATWM]

I love espresso, and have gotten my basic breville barista express - (with the stock grinder even!) down to the point that I usually pull better shots than most cafes I go to, or anywhere, for that matter. It brings me a lot of happiness to get up each morning and make my wife and my drinks, and sit down and write for awhile. I know a few local or Chicago area roasters that make wonderful espresso blends - medium roast, and consistently get nice creamy shots with very little bitterness or sourness. I know it gets deeper than that, but no need for us to do that. When I travel I’ll use a picopresso with a st Anthony millwright grinder and it’s more finicky for sure, but I get good results more often than not. I’ve gotten a few really good shots from it but the average is probably a little below what I get from a cafe. Still, for a travel set up, fantastic. 

I initially switched to espresso because I just can’t drink a lot of coffee without getting too anxious and feeling my heart pounding - usually a doppio a day and that’s it - on occasion a doppio or a moka pot of half caf (neither ever as good of course) before noon - and it was easiest to consistently dose my caffeine by pulling shots as opposed to Chemex or drip as I used to do. 

Every few months or so, I try to take 4-8 weeks off from caffeine as well. Tapering down helps minimize with the headaches. It’s a great way to understand how much of a psychoactive stimulant this thing really is and even though I tend to sleep well anyways, after a week or two of no coffee I get some of the best sleep ever, usually just about until I start drinking it again. 

[Cold Summer]

On 1/6/2025 at 10:58 AM, ATWM said:

I initially switched to espresso because I just can’t drink a lot of coffee without getting too anxious and feeling my heart pounding - usually a doppio a day and that’s it - on occasion a doppio or a moka pot of half caf (neither ever as good of course) before noon - and it was easiest to consistently dose my caffeine by pulling shots as opposed to Chemex or drip as I used to do. 

I get that, I usually just make one mug of coffee per day (usually 21g coffee/340 ml of water) and that hits the sweet spot for me. I used to drink two or three mugs per day but I had the same issue with feeling anxious and weird.

[Double 0 Soul]

Together at last.. he bastard love child of my 3 favourite pursuits in life.. cycling, camping and selvedge denim.

Top button is a Nitto bar cap

 

https://shop.circles-jp.com/en/products/ral-jeans

[Maynard Friedman]

^ Will you size down on these or go for your usual size?!

[Double 0 Soul]

2% elastane so size down for sure!

Save £££s on the chainstich hem by simply cutting the fkers off..

[Maynard Friedman]

They should really be elasticated hems anyway to save wearing cycle clips

[Double 0 Soul]

They are.. but only 2%

[smoothsailor]

They missed out on the brooks leather patch

[Hopethisoneisnttaken]

18 hours ago, Double 0 Soul said:

2% elastane so size down for sure!

Save £££s on the chainstich hem by simply cutting the fkers off..

Are those Bedrock clogs?

[Double 0 Soul]

Hmm.. they look like Crocs to me.. but i'm no expert with this kind of footwear.

[Hopethisoneisnttaken]

5 hours ago, Double 0 Soul said:

Hmm.. they look like Crocs to me.. but i'm no expert with this kind of footwear.

https://bedrocksandals.com/collections/bedrock-mountain-clogs/products/mountain-clog-leather

It was only when you replied that I realized it wasn’t you in the picture. 

Edited January 14 by Hopethisoneisnttaken

[Double 0 Soul]

🤣

[jeash90]

On 1/6/2025 at 10:45 AM, rbeck said:

Not a coffee nerd but my brother is and after I expressed a tiny bit of interest in fancy coffee he went and bought me an aeropress for Christmas so now I gotta learn how to use this thing lol. Afraid I might become one of you guys. 

Nice! Great way to brew, quick, easy to clean, lots of ways to do it. Some cool attachments too (like the Prismo for making something close to espresso).

[jeash90]

On 1/6/2025 at 8:46 AM, Cold Summer said:

I'm a bit of a coffee nerd. I brew mostly with a Hario V60 but sometimes Chemex, using a Fellow Stagg kettle and a 1ZPresso K-Max grinder. It's a pretty simple setup, but gets tasty results without much effort. Thank goodness I've never been particularly into espresso.

My go-to roasters here on the east coast US are George Howell (Boston) and Black And White (North Carolina.) Currently drinking Howell's Dota, a Costa Rican light roast I've gone back to over and over. I tend to prefer washed or natural process coffees with some combination of chocolatey, berry, or wine flavor notes. I'm not a big fan of the various wacky and weird anaerobic process flavors that are in vogue for the last few years, to me this is like the coffee equivalent of 25 oz hyper-slub rainbow weft gimmick denim.

Highly recommend Sey out of Brooklyn based on what you mention. Always super good light roast stuff; got a washed Ethiopian from the subscription last month and it's been great, as is everything I've had from there.

Not sure if there would be interest/if allowed, but a coffee exchange could be fun. I could try to set it up if there is some interest.

[jeash90]

On 1/13/2025 at 8:11 AM, Double 0 Soul said:

Together at last.. he bastard love child of my 3 favourite pursuits in life.. cycling, camping and selvedge denim.

Top button is a Nitto bar cap

 

https://shop.circles-jp.com/en/products/ral-jeans

did I read it wrong, or are the rises on these super small, <9 in.?

[Double 0 Soul]

I didn't check the sizes but i'd expect a lower rise if they're cycling specific.. they're not repros

[jeash90]

Haha, makes sense! The bar cap is cool for sure.

[Double 0 Soul]

It's Sheffield Derby tonight..

Just up the road from here at the worlds oldest recognised football ground.. the worlds oldest football club, Sheffield FC (c1857) take on their old foes..  the worlds second oldest football club, Hallam FC

Tickets for the princely sum of £6

Edited January 21 by Double 0 Soul

[Maynard Friedman]

I bet your son told you that! Are you going?

[Double 0 Soul]

I'd love to.. i've never seen a proper footy match before but It's sold out!

Folks have travelled from allover the world for it.

There was a group who'd flown in from Argentina sat outside the cafe earlier ..

[Cold Summer]

On 5/3/2020 at 12:10 PM, Cold Summer said:

I originally was going to post this rant in regard to the current discussion in the Conners thread, but it felt off topic and like it better belonged here.

I understand we're all maybe looking for something different from our jeans... but that being said, why does it matter if jeans are exactly like vintage Levis from a specific year? I see why you'd want that if you're paying CSF money for a pair of jeans that allegedly gets everything exactly accurate. But why, exactly, does that accuracy matter to you/us in the first place?

...

I guess it just seems weird to me that seemingly microscopic details like correctly replicating a wonky stitch from a specific pair of jeans from October 1946 really matters that much or is worth paying double the cost of some Warehouse. 

...

 

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.

 

[Hopethisoneisnttaken]

@Cold Summer I’ve only been in this “scene” for about a decade, but from what I read it’s seems like the Japanese have been doing the wwii reproduction and Americana reproductions for more than 4 decades now. While progress might happen, I still think the usual suspects of the repro world are going to be iterated to eternity (at least, relative to a persons lifetime) for the sake of tradition. 

Edited January 22 by Hopethisoneisnttaken

[ATWM]

20 hours ago, Cold Summer said:

where do we go from there?

They’ll just start over again - whatever they haven’t made in awhile. Whatever they figure they can sell, whatever seems to fill a gap. The idea of progress is sort of anathema to the whole thing, no? I like this stuff as much as the next person here but this really all just boils down to marketing. One tiny change - a slightly different denim, different buttons, a slightly different pattern, a few details here and there - something imperceptible almost everyone but some people here - is enough to call it a new thing. Novelty in the tiniest of ways is all that’s needed. And sometimes that novelty is just the right thing. To my mind it’s not going anywhere at all. In circles. That’s fine and all - I think we can just call it what it is. 

[Cold Summer]

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.

[ATWM]

I’m not great at detecting tone online, my bad. 

But yea, I think that brands like Kapital and 45R, and maybe even Tender (though different) are sort of in that mold - there is a lineage of such brands. Love makers like this. I’ve picked up a couple of Kapital coats over time and I really love them - just unique designs, sort of crazy but also completely practical and wearable and obviously inspired by traditional designs from that time period.  

[tg76]

1 hour ago, ATWM said:

I’m not great at detecting tone online, my bad. 

 

remember back in the olden days when sufu was like the wild west and people used sarcasm brackets so people didnt get confuddled by tone, it was great (4)

[CSL]

Regarding Japanese heritage denim brands, I'd say the narrow focus on WW2 era Levis is a recent phenomenon. 

When I first saw Sugar Cane & others in Japan in the mid 1990s, it was a more diverse array of styles, some repro, some their own spin on old styles.

I have a Full Count catalogue somewhere that offered jeans & other denim items with white stitching, and some Levis style pieces in chino twill type fabric. It was all very cool. I scanned & shared it on Denimbro a while back. If I can find the files I'll share here.

[mlwdp]

Tag that was recently found in one of my Nonnative shirts.

 

[Double 0 Soul]

Nice^.. reminds me of Fuct tees.. but it's wasted on most of us

[Cold Summer]

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.