Denim Blunders, Reflections and General Nonsense.

[Maynard Friedman]

In times of uncertainty it’s wise to diversify

[Double 0 Soul]

On 2/11/2023 at 3:06 PM, LazyS said:

That was well done, I started watching "Can't get you out of my head" now and remember watching "Century of the self" years ago

I started watching 'Can't get you out of my head' (again) on Saturday... i've just finished it.

What an incredible 8hrs of television!

[LazyS]

Do nothing by The Specials is still stuck in my head.

I was just about to reply to your post that mentioned your swanky new scissors, Are they Richards? are they still made in Sheff?

[Double 0 Soul]

There's a lot of good tunes on it.. I was typing lyrics last night trying to find out what this was..

My old scissors, which i've had for decades were Richards.. the new ones are from a small kinfe maker in Sheffield called J.Adams

https://www.sheffieldknives.co.uk/acatalog/Scissors.html

I just knocked on the door of their workshop and asked if i could buy a couple of pairs

The large set were £22 the small set were £18

Edit- Taylors not Richards

Edited March 8, 2023 by Double 0 Soul

[Hopethisoneisnttaken]

@Double 0 Soul this whole album by Bright Eyes is really good, if you’re not familiar yet. 

[Double 0 Soul]

Nope.. it's a new one for me.. i'll check it out though.

I was riding to work this morning heading downhill in the bleak snowy darkness.. freezing shards of icy snow felt like needles hitting me in the eyes.. i kept having to close each one alternatley for a few seconds to take the pain away.. the roads just a blur through the tears.. all the while singing this... Thank you Adam Curtis

 

[oomslokop]

i modified this question from another hobby's forum:

what's the one pair of jeans that sealed your love of jeans? share a comment or a pic! 

[Hopethisoneisnttaken]

7 hours ago, oomslokop said:

i modified this question from another hobby's forum:

what's the one pair of jeans that sealed your love of jeans? share a comment or a pic! 

That's a nice question. So my first pair of "proper" jeans was from RGT, which is very far from the style that I wear today. I can't say it was the one that sealed my love of jeans but it was an extremely fun project at the time. I wore it for a year straight, maybe 2 or 3 washes throughout (I live in Israel. The no washing thing was brutal). I think the one pair that sealed my love of jeans will be TCB 20s. It was my first encounter with unsanforized denim, and the first time I started to enjoy subtle fading, development of fabric, different types of mending etc etc. I'll try to find an updated picture and will edit this post with it. 

[ColonelAngus]

8 hours ago, oomslokop said:

i modified this question from another hobby's forum:

what's the one pair of jeans that sealed your love of jeans? share a comment or a pic! 

My first real pair were the SL-120 shadow selvedge from 3sixteen in 2014. Still have them and they’re beat to hell and in dire need of repair. Haven’t looked back since 

[unders]

Great question!

LVC 1933 - first saw them in a shop in Birmingham called A2 (now sadly closed) and knew they were special straight away. The wonky arcuates, buckle back, NRA tag and the rigid denim. First time I’d ever seen anything like it. I had no clue how to look after them though and washed them like regular jeans. Also back in them days I used to let jeans drag under my trainers, so the hem turned to rags after a while. 

[AlientoyWorkmachine]

Complicated question here. 

The jeans I loved most were nothing in the way of what's on this forum. An old skate brand called XYZ made the first jeans I shredded to bits back in high school. I had some more typical baggy skater jeans from Droors, but the XYZ jeans were a bit slimmer and tapered and at the time that was sort of novel. I wish I still had them but they were in rags at the end. The next pair was some similar fitting Rip Curl jeans I got on discount in NZ from a surf shop - they were a light wash and those took me through most of college and then finally a pair of slim Hurley jeans from TJ Maxx took me through grad school. Once those were ending their life I basically could.not.find. jeans without stretch, and I've never liked stretch denim or the skinny cuts that went with it.

I had some Levi's I never loved in interim, and then I had a job photographing Cone Mills White Oak and Raleigh Denim Workshop in the same week. A week later I found some Raleighs made from (in hindsight, a rather wacky) chevron indigo/black denim at Nordstrom Rack. They were basically just a super dark denim when new. See a trend? I was cheap as hell with my jeans, but at that point I knew those Raleigh's were a steal even at the crazy expensive $40 or so that I paid at the Rack. I still have that pair of Raleighs, the fading was interesting but the cut isn't for me anymore. That's what started it for me, meeting the people that worked the looms and stitched the jeans - but even when I got my first pair I was in no spot to spend real money on clothes. I never was on any internet clothing forums, so the instructions on them that said I shouldn't wash and that the indigo would bleed were weird for me and I did some research to find out what that was all about and then found a world of well made, non-stretch clothing open before me. Pics of those Raleighs below, sadly the rest is gone, I tend to try to keep my footprint light so not much is preserved over the years. 

Edited March 9, 2023 by AlientoyWorkmachine
Pics

[Geeman]

Not my first pair of raw (nudies  )   , but my first selvedge/ Japanese denim was RRL. They really cemented the  ' obsession' with the crisp feel, fading , moulding to shape etc etc. 

I still have my nudies , my decorating jeans. 

@unders Atoo was great, I still speak to Ming.

[LazyS]

Levi's STF. Heres some pairs from like 10 years ago.The second 2 are the greencast denim they offered for a bit.

[Double 0 Soul]

Double 0s money saving tip of the day.. 

Leaky wellies?

..no worries!

..puncture repair kit

..don’t go full Astroboy 

[Dr_Heech]

^l've done that before on my steel toe dunlop wellies - cheap as chips mate but does the job.

 

[bartlebyyphonics]

On 3/9/2023 at 10:08 AM, oomslokop said:

i modified this question from another hobby's forum:

what's the one pair of jeans that sealed your love of jeans? share a comment or a pic! 

these... stf non-selvedge 501xx, bought in nyc same time as flat eric was beating the tv waves back in '99 ... after that it was all 1870s lvc and evisu; but this pair was the thin edge of the wedge...

[oomslokop]

mine were these dry bones slim red-d (dw-580?) from self edge. i've waxed lyrical elsewhere on this forum about them. still getting worn occasionally, on slim-feeling days. 

[beautiful_FrEaK]

Mhh...good and tough question.
I kinda always wore jeans. Usually some cheap mall brands (Levi's is not a cheap mall brand here in the EU or at least it wasn't). I remember my dad bringing some real Levi's back home from a business trip in the mid 90s. They were orange tabs 505 I think. I was happier about the Anaheim Mighty Ducks t-shirt he brought along though  
One pair I really remember wearing was the 512 which was a bootcut model back then. I think I never wore the 501s. But honestly I didn't care too much about jeans. Then I had a phase were I only wore cargo pants or cordury pants and after that I somehow wanted to dress "better". I looked again at jeans and came across Nudie Jeans.

Through that I discovered the whole raw denim stuff (all jeans you could usually buy here were pre-distressed). So going by this, Nudie was the entry drug to what became my obsession. I am not sure I could link it to one specific pair though. Each step was important. My first Japanese jeans, my first pair of Denime, the Samurai jeans I had with the slubby and heavy fabric. All the other quirky pairs...nearly all had their impact.

 

[bod]

On 3/9/2023 at 10:08 AM, oomslokop said:

i modified this question from another hobby's forum:

what's the one pair of jeans that sealed your love of jeans? share a comment or a pic! 

A pair of Evisu around 1994 from Aspecto in Manchester and then a pair of Red Ears from the Paul Smith shop back in 1996 or 1997. Happy days.

[Cold Summer]

My first pairs were all Nudie, I was pretty smitten with raw denim right from the start so it's hard to say which had the biggest impression on me. But I can say that when I got my first pair of Japanese jeans, Pure Blue Japan XX-011, I really fell in love. I never wore those for a super long time, just a matter of months since the fit was a bit too snug for me, but the quality of the fabric, details, and construction really impressed me. I would still love to wear that same denim, in a straight fit.

[Broark]

My first pair was either from Left Field or Rogue Territory back in ~2011 as they were available locally. I was inspired to start dressing more presentably after kinda exiting a big stoner phase. Felt like I needed to get my shit together and at the time that meant I needed to wear something besides band tees and flip flops then somehow ended up on Styleforum. But The Flat Head is what originally sparked my interest in Japanese denim. I did a lot of trial and error shopping early on trying to find the right cut (spoiler alert: I bought a bunch of shit that didn't really fit my frame at all as I was just trying to fit in with what was popular at the time and my weight was fluctuating) but eventually became enamored with Roy's stuff, so I'd say the KS1001 was the pair really got me deep into it.

[Broark]

Quick double post: road tripping to Santa Fe this coming week (we always try to leave town during SXSW), anyone here familiar with that city?
Looking for suggestion / recommendations on stuff to do. I've never been, we already have a few things planned. I'll do my best to take photos and share with y'all!

[Duke Mantee]

18 hours ago, bod said:

A pair of Evisu around 1994 from Aspecto in Manchester and then a pair of Red Ears from the Paul Smith shop back in 1996 or 1997. Happy days.

Ah - Red Ears … we might have been in the shop at the same time 

[ColonelAngus]

I’d also like to add that my interest in denim was piqued when I kept seeing pics of selvedge. I thought it looked kinda unique and cool and started researching brands. Nowadays my interest isn’t nearly as pronounced as before. I haven’t bought new denim in awhile and I’m making the effort to wear all the cheap jeans I bought years ago. 

[Double 0 Soul]

7 hours ago, Duke Mantee said:

Ah - Red Ears

Left for love.. right for spite!

[chicote]

@Broark I lived in Albuquerque for a couple years and know Santa Fe & the surrounding area decently well… pm me if u want any more detailed recs. But for starters I have to recommend Jambo Cafe in southern Santa Fe, amazing pan-African foods, and always a really beautiful family communal vibe inside. Bring ur 1890s repros if you want to do some miner cosplay and I can send you pins of some ghost towns & mineshafts in the area! And def make it out of town to cerrillos and abiquiu. plus I heard there’s a standard and strange in Santa Fe, I never went there but maybe worth checking out. Have fun!

 

edit: omg, go to tinkertown museum. it’s this crazy place all made by one dude over the course of his life, stucco & homemade cement layered with beer bottles & salvaged old-western detritus on the outside, and on the inside several dozen unbelievably elaborate miniature scenes from 19th-early 20th century us history, from mining towns to carnivals, plus all kinds of other wild folk art stuff. these are some really bad pictures from it… really u should just go and see for urself, pics do not do any justice…

Edited March 11, 2023 by chicote

[julian-wolf]

The S&S in Santa Fe is a good time, very different aesthetic (& corresponding collection) than the Oakland shop

Lots of good walking around that whole old part of town, especially since you won’t be there during tourist season

&

It seems like the sort of thing that would be completely played out, but Meow Wolf is honestly a very good time

[shredwin_206]

The Wrangler 13MWZ was my first foray into denim.   
I remember watching my grandfather crease and starch his wranglers each morning before heading out to work the horses and the orchards. That taught my that wrangler was the cowboy jeans. 
For $30 you can’t find a better pair of jeans. This pair is 3-4 years old and has faded beautifully. 
The broken twill is tough as nails. These have only needed a couple small repairs so far. 
My wife tells me every time I wear them to sell off the expensive Japanese denim and just wear these because they fit me so well…

[oomslokop]

what was the purpose of yr grandad starching and creasing his wranglers every day?

[pomata]

getting sick fades obviously