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Denim Blunders, Reflections and General Nonsense.


cmboland

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Here you go, they've doubled or tripled in price over the last few years. When I tried to get some via proxy about 5 years ago, they didn't have my size. One of my regrets too.

http://www.furugiya.net/?cmd=original&PHPSESSID=b979fd385e12368635b97b94bcae1e58

Some more from me:

- Fullcount contest 0105s

- Denime XX (pre McCoys)

- Sugar Cane purple denim western shirt

- Not taking the plunge on Ande Whalls earlier than I did

Edited by Maynard Friedman
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Interesting topic!

Like almost everybody my main regrets are related to wrong sizing.

1st mistake: Red Cloud 425H, I went for the slimmest cut in their books, and sized down because I could cope with the waist. The waist indeed fits fine but everywhere else these are so constricting that I don't wear them anymore. A pity because the denim is amazing and it fades beautifully.

Here they are after only 3 months an one wash

red%20cloud%20front_zpsqgfjgywq.jpg

I'd be happy to give them away to a worthy bro, maybe in exchange with something that I might appreciate, be it denim related, photography books, a bottle of whisky, coffee or whatever! Holler me if you're interested.

2 mistake: UES 400t. I didn't want to make the same error I did with RC so I went the opposite side of things, sized up! How smart. Ues are probably the worse fit ever on me. They were huge i the arse and thighs and even after tailoring them they're still huge. I'll keep them just in case I'll gain a few kilos..

General mistake: I tended to be stingy haha! I bought lots of cheap stuff rather than concentrate on a few important pieces. So I ended up with a good few lesser pairs that I don't wear. Life is too short to invest time fading lesser denim!

Edited by volvo240thebest
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Haha! Not quite, although we do share a first name, I have met him a few times and he's a decent bloke. He's a bit shorter than me too!

Now if you'd said Morgan Freeman...

Edited by Maynard Friedman
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Here you go, they've doubled or tripled in price over the last few years. When I tried to get some via proxy about 5 years ago, they didn't have my size. One of my regrets too.

http://www.furugiya.net/?cmd=original&PHPSESSID=b979fd385e12368635b97b94bcae1e58

Some more from me:

- Fullcount contest 0105s

- Denime XX (pre McCoys)

- Sugar Cane purple denim western shirt

- Not taking the plunge on Ande Whalls earlier than I did

That a bit of an increase :)

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Everything I've said a million times...

Wash your jeans up front to get shrink out of the way, wash at least once a month, don't get slim cuts if you're not slim in general.

And enjoy!

 

 

This is true. I think more people need to understand that sizing for thighs may be more important than sizing for waist. Waistbands stretch and shrink like crazy but thighs dont usually stretch

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Yes, also that fit is most important. I'd rather have a pair of Levi's 501 that fit perfectly than some too tight natural indigo hank dyed whatever any day.

 

This! I've sold off lots of Jap denim due to thigh/hip fit. Tried on a pair of 501CT on sale and they're the best fitting jeans I've had in an age.

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as a relative newbies my main regret is having spent those $$$ on pre-washed, 'fashionable' jeans in the days of yore, those diesel, lucky brand, whathaveyou. always feel a tinge of remorse thinking i could have bought Denime XX, Samurai, SDA, LVC, etc. etc. and i still could have those pairs, and might even still wear them in the present. oh well. 

 

as far as sizing mistakes are concerned i have had a few. my first pair of sanforized raw denim, from a brand not associated with Superdenim (Maison Martin Margiela, gulp, my favourite brand outside of the denim/workwear/amerikaji scene, and they make good stuff) were about 2 sizes too big, and i did not think about moving them and get a new pair, so i ended up having to altered them twice, which resulted in the kind of weird shape they are in (fits alight though). 

 

Then came LVC '33, my first pair of unsanforized raw selvedge denim. I was size 32, so the guy at LVC shop in HK recommended 2 sized up per LVC booklet recommendation. As you can imagine i literally swam in them. I boiled soak them 3 times hoping they would shrink more. eventually i settled with the 'historically accurate' fit and rocked them for a year before moving on. Worth it though, as they now serve as my lounging pair and pyjamas haha. 

 

So, fit's definitely important, but having a variety of fits for every occasions couldnt hurt either. Incidentally, all my subsequent purchases has been spotted on with regards to fit, notwithstanding my weight loss which required me to tighten my belt by a hole. i think my body shape ('athletic thighs') has a lot to do with my able to either size up or down one and still look ok fit wise.  

 

and Ben's rigth, wash your darn jeans!

Edited by DhaDha
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...my main regret is having spent those $$$ on pre-washed, 'fashionable' jeans in the days of yore... 

This.

 

I cringe at thinking of how much I've spent over years of buying fashion crap. eBay'd them at a fraction of what I paid, but that in turn funded quality purchases. 

 

For quite a few years i was also into (EEK!) boot-cut jeans. Ugh! Thank god that's over with.

 

The GF used to be a DJ and played some small raves. She was into boot cut/bell bottoms when we met. Finally in the past couple of years she's moving on. Such a bad look on any one to have excessively long pants dragging on the ground and stepping on the cuffs. She's still still into cheap stretchy fashion crap jeans, tho. I tried to get her into some 3Sixteen's, but she complained about how stiff and scratchy they were. She's very athletic and has large thighs and most girl cuts don't fit her. 

 

Sizing has always been an issue with me. Until I was about 30, I was always pretty slim, weighed around 170-175lbs. Typically size L / 32-33.Then when I moved to CO, I just bulked up to 200-210. I started buying XL and XXL clothes, somehow thinking the oversized look was good. Now I'm steady-ish at around 185, and I'm more conscious about getting a good, tailored fit, regardless of tagged size. 

 

I agree w/ Ben & CM - slim jeans only look good on slim guys. Fit in the thighs and top block are more important than waist. 

 

B_F said somewhere that straight cut jeans tend to look a little boot cut, while jeans w/ a slight taper tend to look straight. Spot on observation. 

 

Proper hem length is also important, regardless of cuffed or un-cuffed. Too long looks juvenile, too short looks dorky. I think jeans should have a solid break, but not have 8" of stack that push up to the knees. 

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B_F said somewhere that straight cut jeans tend to look a little boot cut, while jeans w/ a slight taper tend to look straight. Spot on observation. 

 

Imo this is only true when the jeans are too tight and long... when they're too tight it makes the jeans look very small in the top block, but obviously the leg on any pair of jeans will be loose (hopefully  :ph34r2:), this = appearance of bootcut.  

 

Here you can see my 3005s don't have any bootcut because they're loose enough (from what I've seen they're usually worn even looser) and they are hemmed to a suitable length for cuffing or not, but don't have any pics without cuffs.

 

I'm always surprised that people judge how a pair of jeans fits when the inseam is like 36" long and it's unwashed...

 

puhyskf.jpg

 

nYzCaVy.jpg

 

noJGzu5.jpg

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yep, Ben is right!

When your straight leg jeans are snug/tight fitting in the top block (especially thighs) and you have a lot of excess fabric in the inseam you can easily get a bootcut-ish look.

IMO; the PBJ 005 is THE pair for a bootcut look although it is a straight cut. Because many people size them tight to account for stretching.

 

Well and the bunching of excess fabric at the ankles make them even look bigger. Stacking on a straight cut is hard to pull off, it's easier on a tapered cut (if you are into stacking, of course)

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I still, and always will, feel bad about not visiting the DC4 store in Berlin when I had the chance. I really think that they were into raw denim as much as I, maybe even more. And talking about German retailers, that is a rare thing. It's a joke, literally, how incompetent and ignorant most of my colleagues are. And how ill-advised the customers are. Still are. That not soaking, washing stuff is still a big thing.

Then again I am really happy I "met" Tilmann and that he directed me to SuFu and the likes. Without this huge hive of shared knowledge and experience I'd be as moronic as my fellow colleagues in this so called raw denim, heritage and rugged style scene are. I could fill pages ...

I am very happy about stores like RnH, SE and BiG, for their competence and passion. Especially in Europe, these treats are rare to find and I have to force myself not to headbutt some of my "colleagues" right away when they share their mad skills.

Right now, at least the German raw denim scene is changing rapidly, and I really hope to the better. I am not talking about fans and nerds like us, we're cool. Right now it's easier than ever to get a pair of Flat Heads, Warehouse DuckDiggers or Hellerscafe jeans, stuff from KAPITAL, Sugar Cane, RMC, ONI, SAMs, and many more. As a denim nerd into retail this is great, and I hope that people start to appreciate the effort. Although die hard non-mainstream raw Denim enthusiasts will like it the other way around haha. One thing is pretty clear (not on the customer side though), most of our beloved Japanese brands don't make it easy to stock them although they damn sure like to take our money....

I wrote a lot of general stuff, I hope you don't get it all as nonsense :-)

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^ Presumably, when you say ''colleagues'' you do not mean the people you work with at V&S? I can't imagine they'd want you proclaiming the urge to head-butt them on a widely read messageboard!

 

 

the people I work with at Vater&Sohn are my bosses, so I call them that way exclusively. when I am saying colleagues, I mean the people you meet at german/european trade- or odershows, so in the end, lots of shop-owners and their employees.

 

there is a 100% dead certainty that if my bosses read this thread and think I am talking about them, that I get head-butted right away. twice. from both of them.

 

if i would be more professional i would keep my mouth shut and say nothing about anything at all. but with denim, and my kind of work, i am first a nerd, a fan - and then (a) professional. and that is the thing, if some of my so-called colleagues start to call me at work and ask me not to liberately write this kinda stuff, i would be positively surprised....

Edited by Blue Nemo
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some different denim blunder/reflection:

 

when i measure my real waist size, where presumably my mid waist jeans sit, i get 32''. but i experienced that the jeans that fit me the best had a waistsize about 31'' (without being uncomfortable) and that usually jeans with a 32'' waist are too big for me.

 

anybody else "recognized"/experienced this? or is it common knowledge?  :D

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i get the same thing too. my 'real' waist, where the waistband usually sits, is 32, but size 32 jeans, or jeans whose waistband measure 32, are too big for me. has to be 31. i still dunno why that might be. 

Edited by DhaDha
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i dont understand can you explain it further?

 

 

sure! but before that... :-D

 

I measured my 66 three different ways and got 3 different results. old news, i know. but its crazy.

 

measured like SE. 30"

like IH: 30.5"

360° inside: 32.75" !!!!!!

 

none of the results is really close to my real waist, except maybe the last. but the Denime 66 sit really tight now, perfect even. can't get my head around that.

whichever result is the actual right one, i don't know, but that puts my earlier statement into doubt.... so there ya go, Ed! :-)

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