The Color of Denim

[austinvry]

--This thread will be for all things related to the color of jeans--

I have many pairs of jeans which are all from Levi's and are all at about the same place as far as fading goes. Recently when I looked at them all laid out next to each other, I realized that some were a totally different type of blue than others. I'm not talking about the darkness of the blue, but more the type of blue since they were all faded equally. So how can this be if they are all dyed from the same dye (synthetic indigo)? They may be finished differently, but that wouldn't affect the type of blue would it?

Also, is it okay to wash jeans with anything other than laundry detergent, is OxyClean okay and why or why not?

[fndmybetterhalf]

generally speaking at a raw state, ive noticed huge differences in the hue of the denim

some have a reddish/purple hue to them while others are grey or green. depends on how the synethtic indigo is made...complteely diferent from natural indigo which tends to be a bit more lighter and greener.

[midnight]

Just thought I'd take a pic of some of my jeans hanging up together to show the differences between the shades of indigo. All of the jeans are in a one wash state besides those that are sanfordized

from left to right: Dior black selvedge, dior mij indigo, seXfh, pbj 008, pbj 007, dior mij raw blacks

[Skeese]

--This thread will be for me to grow my red peen

I'm sure it's working

[salaami]

anything repetitively produced by humans will have some form of variations...it is what it is.

[amlai]

I did some investigating into why this is the case. And the answer is quite complicated. I found the following article, which goes into great detail the various parameters:

Xin JH, Chong CL, Tu T. Color variation in the dying of denim yarn with indigo. Journal of the Society of Dyers and Colourists. 2000;116(9):260-265.

I will try to summarize their findings below. I mostly skimmed the article and my chemistry is a bit rusty, so hopefully what I say is accurate.

The hue of the resulting denim yarn depends on the dye concentration, number of dips, pH of the dyebath, the immersion time, the oxidising temperature, and soaping temperature.

With increased dye concentration and number of dips, the yarn will be have a redder hue.

Conventional dyebath pH is in the region of 12-13. Deeper shade depths are achieved when the pH is between 10.5-11.5, but the hue will also tends towards red. (With the pH being adjusted with either phosphoric acid or sodium hydroxide.)

Immersion time is typically 20-30s for rope dying and 10-20s for slasher dyeing. The immersion time doesn't have a strong effect on the hue, but very short immersion time 5 seconds will have a greenish blue hue.

The oxidising temperature (after removal from dyeing) also has an effect. When the drying temperature is raised beyond 40C through to 52C, the hue of the dyed yarn will also tend towards a reddish hue.

Sometimes, the yarns are washed with soap to improve the color fastness of the product. When soaping at 40C, no significant changes occur to color depth or hue. However, increased temperature causes a lighter shade depth, with a more market effect when soaped above 80C. If soaped at 98C, the hue will also look redder (while reducing shade depth).

Apparently the chemical structure of the dyes remains the same through all of these variations. It is believed that the hue difference is attributable to the physical morphology on the yarn. Some of these could be due to the size and shape of the dye crystals or the distribution of the dye on the surface of the yarn.

[enatoka]

midnight just wanted to show his collection off.

[midnight]

Or maybe i would've just posted my collection in a thread where people just post pictures of their collections.

[the bandanna almanac]

Natural indigo is a tricky dye to work with. It's not a very strong dye, you can even taste it.

Depending on how the dye it self is made can alter the shade from greens to almost black. "Japan Blue" indigo dye which is only produced in Shikoku provides the darkest natural indigo color. But, it takes time to let the dye oxidize and absorb into the fibers. Some of the deepest colors takes more than a week to acheive, depending on the yarn or fabric being dyed. Plus there are several techniques to use and make indigo dye the color variations are immense.

[alexryb]

Just thought I'd take a pic of some of my jeans hanging up together to show the differences between the shades of indigo. All of the jeans are in a one wash state besides those that are sanfordized

from left to right: Dior black selvedge, dior mij indigo, seXfh, pbj 008, pbj 007, dior mij raw blacks

So, these pics just turned me on more

than any of the plethora of broadband internet porn

I've looked at in the last month.

[andrewisdope]

Just thought I'd take a pic of some of my jeans hanging up together to show the differences between the shades of indigo. All of the jeans are in a one wash state besides those that are sanfordized

ive noticed that my f310's had more of a purplish-blue hue. would you say this was true for the collabo pair as well or is this a completely different color? :confused: