Sugar Cane Denim

[ATWM]

@Double 0 Soul curious what the particular appeal of this series is to you? We’re all drawn to things for idiosyncratic reasons I understand. 

[nick682]

I'm not really familiar with the collectible series, what justifies the huge price increase from the normal Sugar Cane jeans?

[Double 0 Soul]

1 hour ago, ATWM said:

@Double 0 Soul curious what the particular appeal of this series is to you? We’re all drawn to things for idiosyncratic reasons I understand. 

It’s the recreation of period detailing, done well with minimal interpretation.. y’see, I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with Sugarcane, I love them more than any other denim brand for reasons ive waxed lyrical about.. but they’ve also disappointed me massively over the years.. one such time was when (I think) the 2010 catalogue came out, I couldn’t wait to see where they would take the brand after the 2008 upheaval, only to be confronted with their star jeans, 3, 5 & 10 year worn.. i was heartbroken and I didn’t wear SC for years after.. 

I continued to nerd out over their back catalogue while buying CFS.. the jeans I always thought Sugarcane should have been.. seeing snippets of past glories in their Junky 46 collab while they continued to disappoint me with their shitty line up.. but these Denim Collectables are the first thing in 20yrs which give me a pre 2007 vibe, if they would have done this in 2015, CSF might never have found their niche.

[beautiful_FrEaK]

1 hour ago, nick682 said:

I'm not really familiar with the collectible series, what justifies the huge price increase from the normal Sugar Cane jeans?

Smaller batches, everything made from scratch and exclusively for the particular model (denim, rivets, buttons, pocket bags). Detailed sewing to replicate the original one (although they overdo it on some parts).

Worth it? Your decision 

[MJF9]

I think they're making the 2nd batch of 1945 jackets atm Neal... maybe a chance to scratch the itch... life's too short

I'm still toe-tapping waiting for the '45 tux to come... however the '42 jeans should be with me in a week or so... equally I don't need them but I did want them and I'm otherwise pretty low-cost

[Double 0 Soul]

You know me better than that MJ

I don’t do a single 1945 jacket, I do the entire range.. with possibly a backup kept in a sealed bag.

[ATWM]

Need based purchases aside (lol, nothing to say here), I feel like I am struggling to see the distinctions still between some of the other things on offer in the strict repro scene. I mean, I take it that they repro a very specific pair from a specific year - and the marketing drives that home, but the end result is still something quite comparable to other things on offer - maybe a coin pocket stitch is different in a just so way, but at a higher price. Or am I wrong on this? 

And again, this might be my own biases, not being a historical purist - appreciating details for the sake of them more so than that they appear on an archived pair (though also admitting the way my favorite way all the details come together do tend to reflect jeans from 1937 through 1951 or so). 

[Double 0 Soul]

You’re right.. There isn’t any real distinctions between these and other repro brands who also do it well, they’re late to the party but if you’re a SC fanboy, we haven’t really seen this from the brand before.

This approach to repro is still relatively new in the denim world, there has always been a loose interpretation of period details and cut, unfinished fly, WWII restrictions et al but this focus on recreating date specific anomalies has only been a thing for the last decade or so.. the first time I saw a purposely wonky pocket was the RMC-003, when was that?.. 2013 or summat

Edited Friday at 03:51 PM by Double 0 Soul

[beautiful_FrEaK]

And Denime already did it between 1998 and 2004

I think adding to @Double 0 Soul: the specific developed denim is also a nice feature. The smaller brands like CSF, BOT and the like rarely have the chance to get custom denim. They have to buy what's available/offered. Or other brands just use a denim They already use anyway and make a WW2 out of it. How wildly different a WW2 denim of each year to another year is another question but this approach certainly adds to the overall costs for the Collectibles series.

[ATWM]

All makes sense. Specifically developed denim is a big selling point for me, maybe the biggest outside when it comes to the details. I really love the 1946 junky denim, for example, have nothing else quite like that. 

Edited Friday at 06:33 PM by ATWM

[JohnM]

Thanks to b_F's unintentional, but persuasive, enabling, I have most of SC's Collectibles series jeans, and love them all.  But like ATWN, I'm not a historical purist, which in my case means I lack the knowledge of year or even period-specific details, plus I'm somewhat colorblind, so barely notice things like thread color differences.

But I love the fact that there are people here who appreciate these details.  This, more than anything else, is why I tune in, though finding a nice pair of jeans that fits well is certainly a reason too.

At the risk of going overboard with compliments, I am sincerely impressed by the knowledge and appreciation for historical detail that comes through on threads like this.  My friends all think I'm a collector, and while the number of pairs hanging in my closet is damning evidence, I know that knowledge and appreciation for historical distinctions is a better indicator than volume.

[julian-wolf]

1 hour ago, Double 0 Soul said:

This approach to repro is still relatively new in the denim world, there has always been a loose interpretation of period details and cut, unfinished fly, WWII restrictions et al but this focus on recreating date specific anomalies has only been a thing for the last decade or so.

I don’t know that that’s true—I’ve been really impressed by how specific some of the early M-series (some of the Lee jeans, in particular) feel in term of seemingly zeroing in on the details of a single vintage sample. Of course we don’t have the catalogs or promotional material or YouTube review videos to confirm the designers’ intentions, but I would go as far as to suggest that it was probably all the more common, back when true vintage samples were much more readily available, to base a model on a specific sample pair than it is now, when we have much less access to high quality samples but much more access to high quality aggregated data about what the defining features were of each era. I agree that this approach seems to have gone out of fashion for a period of time before the current resurgence, but I don’t think the approach is wholly new.

[Double 0 Soul]

Hmm.. i like that theory

[Double 0 Soul]

Yes!.. the laurel button M41001, why would this odd war button detail be apparent on a late 40s repro unless it was a repro of an existing 'leftover button' period example.. albeit rare, it wasn't a mistake on the repro i had an old used M41001 laurel button example too

[julian-wolf]

^ Exactly! I’d forgotten about the 1001 case, but slightly outdated hardware on some models was the main thing I had in mind

[MJF9]

13 hours ago, Double 0 Soul said:

You know me better than that MJ

I don’t do a single 1945 jacket, I do the entire range.. with possibly a backup kept in a sealed bag.

I was thinking more the '45 tux but yes indeed your tendencies are noted 😉

I'm uncomfortable the SCSC '42 jeans don't have a matching jacket... yet, at least

@beautiful_FrEaK / @JohnM / other folks with some or all of the collectibles issued to date... you planning to build up the set if / when SC produce more? I heard they will keep going

Edited Saturday at 04:33 AM by MJF9

[beautiful_FrEaK]

Depends on what they will offer. I haven't bought every piece answer will only buy if I like it.

[tooth]

The s1945 arrived about 10 days ago. I purchased them raw and have soaked them in the tub followed by a trip through the machine and hung outside to dry. I’ve yet to wear them. The fabric, as @beautiful_FrEaK mentioned, is quite neppy and rough - it really came alive after the soak/wash. Comparing the fabric to the s43 and 46 that I have, it’s closer in hand to the s43, where the 46 is quite smooth with a more ‘regular’ feel/texture. The difference in the color and dye used is quite apparent, and with the s45, I like that the weft is in a more natural/undyed state (see image - s43 on left and s45 on right).

I really like the pairs I have - from the different fabrics, dyes, hardware, sewing, etc. I’m certainly no historian, but I really appreciate the effort SC has put into this line.

Here are my pairs from top: s43, s45, 46 (unworn), 46 (worn consistently since I got them at the ~beginning of 2024, can’t remember exactly).

 

weft comparison: s43 on left s45 on right

[beautiful_FrEaK]

Those 46 deserve their own post!

[tooth]

Here are some progress images of my ‘super denim collectibles’ 1946. I’ve never had 2 of the same pair to really to a side by side like this before, and kind of cool to see (IMO, of course). The worn pair is a sz 33” (up one from my usual size) and unworn 32”. I’ve been wearing since roughly the beginning of 2024 pretty much everyday for the first 8 months and after that wearing M-F and rotating different pairs on the weekend. I think I’ve washed 5 or 6 times - when I’ve felt like it.

This is typically the kind of fade I like, and the stage when I would stop wearing and start to break in a new pair, but I plan on keeping these going. I really like them.

[chicote]

Wow, those are perfect. Making me want to look for a pair now! Thanks for sharing

[redragon]

On 4/8/2025 at 6:49 PM, beautiful_FrEaK said:

Ordered when it was released but thanks to a held up in German customs for over 3 weeks, it arrived together with the jeans.

1945 jacket

Same pick up 

Notes: 

- Cinch back needle is very sharp, abit tricky when fastening into the appropriate position.

- Cuff's buttonhole ridiculously small, not sure if that is also part of the repro charm...

Overall, pretty rad jacket.