Denim Blunders, Reflections and General Nonsense.

[Geeman]

Yuichi is the man. Great guy to deal with.

[Iron Horse]

Okayama Denim's ugly website always screamed fly-by-night operation to me. Turns out we could judge this book by its cover.

[Megatron1505]

I've been reading through the Dry Bones/ Self Edge competition thread from 2009, in anticipation of my new jeans arriving, man Superdenim then was in stark contrast to how it is today.

 

Some things of note...

 

- MUCH more swearing and general shit talking amongst posters, people were harsh back then, I kinda forgot a bit about that. You got called out big time for the most minor of things, it was brutal.

 

- People went to serious extremes to get "epic fadez", guys were biking for 50 miles in their jeans to get crisp honeycombs.

 

- Lots of rich white kids affecting the personality and vocabulary of gangsta rappers and talking about their crazy lifestyle, most of which seemed to revolve around drinking, skateboarding and playing basketball. It reads like the movie "Kids".

 

- Some great knowledge being shared by old school denim freaks from the days when Japanese denim was still a relatively new thing to most folks.

 

I don't know if I would go so far as to say that I miss those days, I lurked back then, but reading it all again was a great trip down memory lane. I'd recommend that anyone goes back and reads some of those early threads to see what the dawn of denim felt like on the internet.

[Megatron1505]

Also, Europeans were a bit of a rarity back then it seems. Most posters were from LA, San Francisco, New York or different Asian countries with only a few Europeans scattered around.

[garden gnomes in space]

haha, I'll find myself in some old threads from time to time and Im like, where did I just end up?  How did I get here?  Some people would shit their pants because a single guy from Japan would show up in the thread and share his experience.  Suddenly he was a resource to be coveted

[Cold Summer]

 

- MUCH more swearing and general shit talking amongst posters, people were harsh back then, I kinda forgot a bit about that. You got called out big time for the most minor of things, it was brutal.

 

 

This is why I was very slow to get involved in SuFu, back in 09 or 10 I would check this forum every now and then and couldn't stand it, a lot of people were posturing dicks and it was a big turn-off. Even since I started posting in 2011, Superdenim has become a much friendlier forum, which I like.

 

On the flip side you have Reddit's Raw Denim, which could be fairly characterized as a namby-pamby hugbox much of the time. There's probably a good middle ground between the two extremes.

[Megatron1505]

It was amusing to read what were basically rich, privileged youngsters getting very macho-aggressive over pairs of jeans, but the general discussion is much more civilised these days. Back in those days SuFu in general was like the Wild West, these days it's more like a polite conversation in a nice, organic, locally brewed, coffee shop......until Eddie turns up 

 

Some things never change 

[tigerstrom]

Haha! ^

Edited May 4, 2016 by tigerstrom

[spitfiredealer]

I love reading the old threads. Love the epic stacks and the endless people wanting to size down on 710's. The thirst was real back then for high contrast fades where as now everyone seems to want "Dad" jeans.

[Megatron1505]

That is a good point SFD, tastes have changed in many ways. If you look at many of the faded pairs on Japanese blogs these days they are also more into the vintage "dad jeans" wear pattern.

Back in 08 to 10 it was the high time of stacks and combs, these days people seem to be more intent on either washing all the indigo out, or wearing their jeans to shreds.

[Max Power]

^if you look at heddels these things are still done.

 

On a sidenote: I got a refund from okayama and a 10% voucher. And I spent that money on ... Eternal 811 in 36. Will be probably to heavy for summer but the Resolute will fill that gap. But I find that denim too beautiful. And with my WH 800 I have a faded,  a dark and a bright pair to wear ithin the range from 13,5 to 14,5 oz. And they were about 100 bucks cheaper than hemmed 1101s.

Edited May 5, 2016 by Max Power

[karanimal]

max, 

 

can you post measurements when they show up?

 

My old pair of 811 had a real wonky waist measurement, they were a 38 with a 35" waist and some weird front/back rise/thigh measurements which mean't when i was lifting more they fit well. They were from a run from a few years ago where all the 38s ended up with strange sizing 

[Niro]

Dropped into Son of a Stag today to get my samurais hemmed, and ended up leaving with a pair of Momo's (G004-MB) that were on sale! 

 

The owner, Rudy, gave me some good sizing and soaking advice for them. If I had bought online from Japan, I would have sized completely wrong (again!).  

So glad that London has two awesome stores, Son of a Stag and Rivet & Hide. Lucky! 

[setterman]

Dad jeans? It's not THAT bad. I don't see anyone going for the mid 90s stone washed look, yet. ;-)

I like seeing a wider range of approaches to denim, from fit, to wear. And tastes change. I gotta admit there's times I get bored with so many dark pairs of jeans, and wish I had more that where more worn in a faded.

[slowdownarthur]

Niro, I'd be interested to know a few more details about how you might have sized and what Rudy advised you.

(I've made a lot of sizing errors buying online!)

Edited May 5, 2016 by slowdownarthur

[Niro]

Niro, I'd be interested to know a few more details about how you might have sized and what Rudy advised you.

(I've made a lot of sizing errors buying online!)

 

 

Since I am waist 32.5, I would have ordered tag size 31. Last time, I had bought Momos online, I had bought size 30 and couldnt get it up past my hips.

As soon as I came out wearing them, he said I need tag size 30, which was pretty much perfect round the waist, not as I would have liked in terms of leg tapering.

Since waist was good, advise was to either give them a shower rinse in normal temperature water you would use for a shower or lukewarm soak for 20 minutes, to get a better fit. Momos only shrink up to 6% max, and will stretch back out.

Or alternately was to start wearing it to stretch a bit and then longer soak.

 

And of course, come back if needed for the free hemming.

 

I am going to do that 20 minutes soak and see how it goes.

[slowdownarthur]

^

thanks Niro. Sounds like really good service.

Nothing beats trying jeans on. I've got too many oddly sized jeans in my collection, from buying online.

I'd be interested to see how they work out for you, post soak.

[Megatron1505]

Check out my oldschool e-peen.

[beautiful_FrEaK]

And? Are you happy with them and the fit?

[Megatron1505]

I'll let you know when they dry. I tried them on and walked around in them for a while, the waist was a little big and the low rise will take a little getting used to, they felt great through the legs though.

 

Fit pics coming 

[d-rew12]

I totally forgot about the green rep bars! Looks damn good on the jeans!

[cmboland]

I totally forgot about the green rep bars! Looks damn good on the jeans!

I didn't even put that that together ....

[cmboland]

Here's my confession for the day... I bought a pair of APC's. I want some summer beaters and i'm curious.

[Iron Horse]

Return them! We need to get you in better jeans c-man.

[mondo]

APCs are good for work, I find.. I have a black MIJ pair that don't tempt me to put wear on them like I did with all the other jeans I justified to mrs mondo as "I just need a neat, new-looking pair for work.." (3 Sugarcane [4th "work" pair on the way], 2 Flathead [one actually is still pretty presentable], 2 Samurai, 1 Momotaro [2 more stashed away waiting for hemming]..1 PBJ that only stay new because they're seasonally tight on me..heh)

[kiya]

Return them! We need to get you in better jeans c-man.

 

Agreed. You want beater jeans for cheap you can buy so many other things than what APC produces.

[chicote]

I agree. Just off the top of my head, japan blue, sugarcane and kapital make nice light pairs that are probably around the same price as your apc. Apc seems to me a fashion house before it's a clothing brand, and that is an important distinction. It's why they can manufacture their jeans in Macau, with generally lower-quality materials, poorer QC, and harsher working conditions—again, I'm generalizing here—than do many of the Japanese brands in that price range.

[cmboland]

Well the price was cheaper than a bottle of whisky.

[dwilson123]

I don't know if the quality has tanked but my 6-8 year old APCs aren't the worst

[beautiful_FrEaK]

When I looked in the mirror today to see arcuate of my Flat Head 3009 I was thinking: “Man, they are quite loud…†In all fairness, the bright double stitched back pockets on a rather unworn pair are no help. But still…

 

So what’s your guys take on arcs nowadays? I for myself was a lot more interested to have some Levi’s-style arcs on the back pockets of my precious Japanese jeans some years ago than I am today.

I still find Samurai’s old arcs to be one of the best when it comes to ‘copying’ Levi’s but nowadays I prefer more plain back pockets or Levi’s arcs that are crooked and imperfect over big and bright arcs. An example of good arcs for me would be Full Count's 1920s pair or the arcs you get when you alter Warehouse’s double arcs. Also Full Count standards arcs are very nice and easily changed into Levi’s. Although at the rate those disintegrate by themselves there is no real need for it

Edited May 18, 2016 by beautiful_FrEaK