Do good jeans have to be selvage?

[josepidal]

A number of the jeans talked about here are, but quite a number aren't, too. Same thing with a number of entries in LA's top ten list. I confess I don't really understand what makes good denim yet, so could someone enlighten me as to why these non-selvage jeans are still good? Is it just that the cut is not available otherwise?

[Geowu]

Search for the topic 'Selvage Denim'.

Selvage just means it was expensive to produce, therefore, it probably will be focused to a demanding consumer, and it probably will have higher quality. It doesn't mean that non-selvage has to be lower quality, although 99% of the jeans out there are non-selvage and a good percentage are lower quality. So a selvage means nothing per se, but it usually comes together with quality.

So, Nudie Jeans for example, their selvage dry denim is produced on Japan. Their non-selvage dry denim is not. The first has a better quality than the latter, when it comes to the fabric (denim). Considering the cut is somewhat subjective, here are some factors that account for quality: first, dual ringspun cotton (recognized by the variations in size on the warp and weft of the denim - the horizontal and vertical, indigo and white parts, and by the slubs)... cotton from Egypt and Zimbabwe are usually very high quality, they have a long and lustrous fiber... then there's the construction of the denim, the stitchings and so on... the dyeing method and the dyes used (natural indigo dye, as opposed to synthetic dyes, usually costs up to U$100 more, although the difference is a bit subjective)... there are various aspects of the denim that represent quality, such as compactness (as opposed to spongyness), methods used such as sanforization, etc. and even the weight of the denim accounts for durability = quality.

[josepidal]

Thanks again.

I guess what confuses me is whether selvage is different from ringring. I've read up on the threads, but got the impression that selvage is the best, so I was confused when people said they liked a lot of non-selvage as well.

[Geowu]

Selvage has nothing to do with ringring. Many non-selvage jeans use ringring. Hope this helps.

[josepidal]

Okay, now I'm confused. What's the main difference? How do you look for both to check that you're buying quality?

[Geowu]

Here.. this image above shows both selvage (the green and white edge, but the color varies a lot) and the ringring denim (see there are variations in the thickness of the white and indigo lines)

Image provided by Biggow, these are Uniqlos.

Edited by Geowu on Jul 25, 2005 at 09:53 PM

[josepidal]

Okay. Thanks.

I hate my older jeans even more now.