japan, denim, and other stories.

[taskforce]

ok. so im moving to japan and so i thought i ought to take advantage of it. im considerably new to the denim game, i read plenty of articles on here, and i was wondering how to tell if the denim is good or not. other than selvage, what else should i be looking for. does the slubiness of the denim determine the quality. or should i just memorize a whole list of brands and buy by that. how can you tell that 45rpm pair is better than a lets say evisu pair. how do you know that evisu in japan is better than evisu in USA. is it just a solid fact, or can you actually tell which is better through personal observation. what im basically asking is what to look for when you buy an excellent piece of denim. have a nice day.

[minya]

The first and foremost thing you should be looking for is how they fit.

[aitsuka]

moving to japan is an adventure

what are you doing there?

-don't hate, appreciate-

[taskforce]

my dads in the military. ive lived there before for 6 years or so but i never paid attention to their clothing because it was much too expensive. and because i was in an ecko phase. now im ready to spend lots of money for theyre clothes.

[minya]

If you'll be living near some nice stores maybe you could ship a pair to the USA for me.

[Phrederick]

I would also be interested in knowing what details to look for to see if the denim or stitching is higher quality.

[Geowu]

A clean and compact weave, a deep blue color (usually a very very dark blue also means high quality), double ring-spun (should be easy to spot), strong stitchings, chainstitching...

Copper rivets and hiden rivets on the back pockets are a plus. Slubiness, unevenness, selvedge.

If you have specific information about the company and it's production methods, you can look for:

Zimbabwean cotton, cotton harvested only once a year, yarn dyed cotton, how many dips to dye, what's the method of dyeing (mass-produced or artisanal), 100% cotton stitching, besides the things you can see like attention to detail, good construction, etc. Felled inseams are also a plus but not very common on vintage repros. A right-hand twill (diagonal lines from bottom left to upper right) means more durability and better fades (if I'm wrong someone correct me).

If you don't want to get into all these details you can just ask for the best Japanese brands because they're pretty much all top quality. It's not always the case, but mostly the garments completely made in Japan with selvage and copper rivets are great.

[taskforce]

thanks for the informative response. ive still got some questions though. first off, what exactly does double ring spun look like. how exactly do you find "strong" stitching. and whats Felled inseams.

[adsurgo]

http://styleforum.net/showthread.php?t=21815

i think it answers your question there... i may be wrong tho.

double ring spun is pretty much just when both the warp and weft threads/ yarn are both ring spun.