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hoping a denim expert can answer this.


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I'm new here and before a couple of weeks ago was new to the fact that there is a whole group of people fascinated with all things denim, I am finding it fascinating myself. I do have one question that I'm hoping someone can answer. Does anyone know if there is a shortcut to getting the cool hige effect that happens on the back of the knees, besides just wearing the hell out of them?? Does anyone know if there are any websites, books etc. that have info on how to apply worn effects on jeans ie.. hige, whiskers etc. Thanks alot and hope the way i asked these questions isn't too ignorant.. any guidance is appreciated.

honey, you're my religion

Even though you haven't yet expanded

To include a heaven after

Even though I have demanded it

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Well there are lots of things you can do, the quickest being rubbing it with sandpaper or pumice stone. The problem with this is that you get highs, but you dont get the lows in the same areas so the look of your jeans comes out unauthentic and two-dimensional until you've worn them in for a good year or so. They'll still be "accelerated" as far as wearing them goes but there is a real difference between that and natural wear, the latter looking much better. I would recommend rubbing them just a tiny tiny bit until the blackish indigo turns into a darkish blue indigo and let the rest come naturally. Doing it that way at least knocks off about 3 or 4 weeks of wear.

The other thing you can do is mist them with starch every 3-4 days in the back of the knees and on your lap. This will make it a bit stiffer and will wear faster (although they'll be more uncomfortable to wear).

Subjecting them to extreme heat can also help. Laying them out in the sun for a day in your backyard or on the roof of your car or something will also help the worn areas become lighter.

The other option is of course, to buy pre-worn jeans :)

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The tighter the jeans, the faster it will get creases and wear out, the high tension areas wearing out sooner. I should say wearing really tight pants is bad for your health and can cause infertility, nerve and circulation problems. Not sure how tight that extreme point is but, many years ago, in Russia, men wore tight pants to stop having babies. One thing that also helps making the creases is rubbing them with your hands and defining them with your fingers.

I was wondering, perhaps someone can answer me: if I wear my jeans dry for a year or so, then wash it with vinegar, woolite black, or something to conserve the-way-it-is, can I just wash my jeans from that point like a normal jeans (every week) without compromising (much) the previously achieved effect?

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Does anyone know if there is a shortcut to getting the cool hige effect that happens on the back of the knees, besides just wearing the hell out of them??

Wear your dry jeans for a few days to make lots of creases behind the knee. You can even dampen the jeans and let them dry on you to get more creases.

Then pick a very fine sandpaper. Tear off a small piece and fold it in half and pinch it keeping your index finger in the middle of the fold. Then whilst sitting down, lightly rub the 'ridges' of the creases behind your knees. You may need to stretch out your legs a little to 'get into' all the ridges. Follow the ridges round to the knee, so that you aren't just don't the back of the leg. You want a 3D 'wrap around' effect on the homeycombs like in the pic of the Denime XX below. (most industrial laundries only work on the front and back of jeans, so you rarely get any whiskering that follows the knee round both sides - it's a giveaway for pre-distressed jeans)

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http://www.biwako.ne.jp/~tm-nm318/denime-9.htm

It should only take a few swipes to change the colour from dark blue to a slightly lighter blue (as Whiskey pointed out).

Go easy. You're just speeding up the natural abrasion process a little. Better to do too little than too much. After a few months wear and a few washes, they should look good.

Edited by ringring on Jun 3, 2005 at 02:02 AM

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heres what i did to get the hige behind the knees and the, is it fat cows or something, on the sides of the knees. i have APC english jeans that are a bit baggy in the leg so i knew i wasn't going to get real definite lines and creases. i wet the back of the knees a little bit, and sat indian style till they dryed (pop in a movie or something). when they dry their should be some nice preformed creases.

now take the jeans and put them on backwards. i pulled the back of the knees section up to my thigh right above my knee where it would be nice and taut, and i scrunched up the preformed creases up. then i took some very fine sand paper and rubbed off the indigo. when you pull em off you should hopefully have some nice wearmarks.

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Those denime look great. I think they've been washed very infrequently. I used to dry-clean my Lee selvage jeans for the first year or so... then start washing them, usually at 30 degrees, and they looked a lot like this. But not quite as good, ie quite as high contrast. I'd be interested to know what others think...

I think Ringring's suggestions are exactly right. I've found also that if you brush the creases with a stiff, wet nailbrush, even with soap, that gives a similar look with a smoother transition from light to dark. But I've gone deep into the realms of nerd-dom now, and will back away slowly...

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Paul T : I used to dry-clean my Lee selvage jeans for the first year or so... then start washing them, usually at 30 degrees, and they looked a lot like this. But not quite as good, ie quite as high contrast. I'd be interested to know what others think...

I think it's normal for most people to experience less contrast on their jeans. The vast majority of worn/second-hand selvedge jeans I have seen, have far less extreme contrasts on them than many of those shown in various pictures on the net.

eg. Like the various jeans in these links:

Lots of pics of 45rpm, Evis, denime, dry bones, sugarcane etc

http://hk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sylvianhammillfan/my_photos

45rpm's seven years old, washed very infrequently:

http://www.45rpm.jp/denim/detail.jsp?id=009

Most people, unless they are in manual labour jobs won't place enough wear on a pair of dry jeans in 6 months to create super-high contrast fades naturally. So it wouldn't surprise me if sandpaper, pumice etc is used more often than is mentioned.

It does make you wonder whether claims like "this pair has been worn for 6 months and washed only once" might be a wee bit exaggerated, especially when they often look even more worn than real vintage Levis that have been on the arses of miners and cowboys.

I wonder how many people have worn a pair of dry jeans in for 6 months and thought "hey, mine don't look anything like those photos I've seen"? icon_smile_wink.gif

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There's no substitute for physical activity.

Cycle, skate, work on your house, whatever. Why go for authentic looking damage when you can inflict actual damage? I can't stand the idea of people sitting on their ass, sandpapering their precious dry selvage in front of the TV. What if your buddies saw you?

Tip: get caught riding in a downpour for wicked 3-D creases.

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I can't stand the idea of people sitting on their ass, sandpapering their precious dry selvage in front of the TV. What if your buddies saw you?

LOL. Can't be any worse than if they saw you conversing with a bunch of guys on an internet forum about fashion.icon_smile_wink.gif

Edited by ringring on Jun 7, 2005 at 11:35 PM

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there is no way to speed it up without screwing up a pair --yes sandpaper works and is what is used industrially but in a completely different setting

just ride an exercise bike or something in front of a tv instead of using sandpaper, 30 minutes of that a day should get you in shape and age your jeans nicely

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Yo ringring, or anyone else, where can I get those denime's and how much are they? Would I have to go through Celga? The wash is killing it...

XX's are one of Denime's basics and are reasonably easy to find. I guess Celga/Rinkyo are a good bet if you want to get them Japanese site, otherwise they sometimes crop up on Ebay. Outside of Japan, Aeroleatherclothing sometimes has a few pairs, then there's Take5 in Hong Kong (who also usually have a selection of second hand Denimes) and Global Contrast in Shanghai.

there is no way to speed it up without screwing up a pair --yes sandpaper works and is what is used industrially but in a completely different setting

I respectfully beg to differ. Whilst I'm in agreement that just wearing your jeans is a great way of creating fading, you can definitely speed up wear without screwing a pair of jeans up. For example rubbing your jeans with your hands or a cloth whilst seated is a low-risk way of speeding up fading or 'accelerated-natural-abrasion' like shifting your arse around more whilst sitting on a park bench, wall or carpet. Doing hundreds of squats every week will speed up the wear process without screwing up your jeans.

Regarding sandpaper and it's industrial setting - the handbrushing in an industrial laundry is set up for speed and consistency probably more so than for pure quality. There's nothing you can't do with sandpaper in an industrial laundry that you can't replicate at home. Whilst a DIY handbrusher may lack experience, there's also no time pressure. Ten minutes is a long time for a good industrial handbrush treatment (which is why many treatments look heavy handed) - at home there's as much time as you like. You could spread the sanding over weeks/months and use it to complement natural wear. You can take time and gently accelerate the wear around the belt loop edges, fly edges, the sides of the knees and hips etc...subtle, detailed stuff that is expensive to do on an industrial scale.

Whilst it's easy to screw up a pair of jeans with sandpaper, if you manage to curb natural tendencies to 'do a little bit more', it's pretty simple to get very good results.

Edit for typos, thanks Geowu.

Edited by ringring on Jun 7, 2005 at 11:35 PM

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