Skull Jeans by An Alchemist

[beautiful_FrEaK]

It seems that I have a faible for those brands that underwent a bigger change and after that, were bashed by some guys

The construction seems to be good so far. Stitching looks good throught nearly the whole pair, my only concern are the button holes. They were kinda tight (this pair was teh second worst I ever buttoned up) and here is the only point I encounterd loose threads / left over threads.

The details are nice. Raised belt loops done perfectly, nice buttons, the leather patch we all know has a nice touch to it.

Now to the denim. As you know, it is (partly) sanforized and you can really feel it. The surface, although there are some irregularities in the denim, is very smooth and nearly slippery. The denim bleeds a much. The denim should still be made from Arizona and California cotton which should be long staple cotton, so a softer denim. However, the denim is quite stiff, actually it really hurts at the back of my knees where the combs formed (possibly also an effect of the tighter fit).

Enough talk, fit pics after 1 day of wearing. Size 34

[Flash]

Realy like that fit , the legs are not super tight either just a nice slim fit

So are you happy with the fit mate ?

Edited January 17, 2013 by Flash

[beautiful_FrEaK]

Yes, I like the fit. They could have a tad smaller leg opening to allow for better stacking but overall...I like the fit through the legs

For now, the low rise is also wearable

[Flash]

Yea , the only thing you could do to make the fit better is a hem , other than that there pretty much perfect

What's the inseam measurement on them ? Must be pretty long

Edited January 17, 2013 by Flash

[beautiful_FrEaK]

yeah...or I try to let them settle on look how the stacks will look like. Inseam is freaking 39" long

[Flash]

39" and sanforized ..... That's gonna be super long even after shrinkage

[Maynard Friedman]

Beginning of the Skull revival on Sufu? Some day I'll start wearing my 5000XX anniversary pair...

[aho]

^would love to see evo'd 5000s...one of my regrets is not buying a pair when SE had them on sale...

Edited January 18, 2013 by aho

[jyoni]

Yeah I'd also like to see some 5000s.

noobedloser, I think you're s.o.l. on the rust so don't worry about it too much. It's the reason I hate red carpenter's chalk. Any ferrous elements that oxidize on the fabric are pretty much permanent.

Those jeans are gorgeous anyway, don't sweat it.

[Cold Summer]

Looks good b_F!

Yeah, it looks like Skull's reputation totally tanked once Self Edge dropped them. I've never seen a brand fall so far from favor on these forums.

[Max Power]

^together with Denime, you're right. The cut looks indeed not as tight as I expected, which is good. But a hemming job seems to make sense.

[beautiful_FrEaK]

Yeah, hemming could/should be an option but I want to try this out first.

I think Skull were already struggling when Selfedge dropped them. They didn’t produce regularly, they changed the denim and the factory (IIRC) and their new cuts were more ‘fashion’ than the old ones. This situation together with the bad press from Selfedge gave them their deathblow.

If I got it right, these new production runs were initiated together with Benny Seki from Take5 who backed FabFour monetary.

BiG still has the description of the denim with Arizona/California cotton. I don’t know if this is still the case but if they changed the denim again, I guess Gordon would have updated that.

Kiya speculated that the new denim they used was regular stock denim and not exclusively produced for Skulls, like the Texas cotton denim was.

[Somar]

Thought I'd share this faded 5010xx 6x6.

x post: Fade friday from rawrdenim.com

[beautiful_FrEaK]

After 2 days of wear (where I noticed stronger bleeding than usually on my other jeans) I gave them a shower soak. The water turned instantly blue. So a lot of excess indigo was left on the denim. To be honest I was surprised seeing so much indigo released without real agitation. That said, the denim was very dark from the beginning.

The jeans are nearly dry now and I have to say, soaking wasn't a bad idea. The surface of the denim got a bit rougher and the inseam shrank 1,5". Not bad for sanforized denim.

[LeftOfRitual]

I have a pair of 5010 6x6 purchased from SelfEdge in the summer of 2008 (and I am wearing as I type). From memory the cotton was described as Zimbabwean but reading the above discussion implies that the old Skulls were made from a Texas Cotton. Is my memory playing tricks on me?

[beautiful_FrEaK]

should be Texas cotton, yes.

Some pics of the 4 years old Skulls would be much appriciated though

[LeftOfRitual]

@b_F Thanks. I will put some pics up when I get a decent camera but they are nothing crazy.

[zippopotamme]

i just buy a 5010xx 6x6 directly on rakuten.

Waiting he arrive and i post pictures

[beautiful_FrEaK]

^looking forward!

So 2 days of wearing my new Skull jeans after the soak I have to say again: soak these when you get them. When I first received them, the denim had this slippery feel to it, like it was coated. That feel must have to do something with the sanforization. But it gave the denim a “cheapish†semblance.

Now after the soak this feeling of coated denim went away, leaving a rougher and tougher impression. The denim was also much stiffer after the soak/dry cycle.

The denim has the right amount of irregularities, a quite dark indigo color, some naps here and there. So far I can see no inferiority to other Japanese denim I encountered (unfortunately I can’t compare with the old Texas Cotton version) so the denim shouldn’t hold someone off to buy these.

Another reason for soaking: I only sprayed the jeans in the shower and making them completely wet. But the jeans weren’t submerged in water for longer timespan and there wasn’t any agitation apart from the water pressure of the shower. But still the inseam shrank 1,5†and I assume there is still shrinkage left!

[Jared_Lee]

Why do people yearn for the old Texas cotton version when Texas produces Pima cotton just like Arizona and California? I know some Upland cotton is produced in Texas, but the majority of Texas crops are Pima cotton, the same, excellent cotton produced in California and Arizona. I don't understand what the perceived difference is.

[beautiful_FrEaK]

I think when the term "Texas Cotton" is used it's generally assumed that indeed short staple Upland cotton is used. At least that's for the Samurai S0500XX and I think that's also the case for the old 6x6 denim.

[Jared_Lee]

I find that I prefer Pima, personally. Longer staples make stronger, softer yarns in the same thickness. Using Pima cotton for your yarns, you can make heavier weight fabrics that have a softer hand and greater strength than shorter staple cotton yarns in the same weight. I guess the coarse, rougher-handed fabrics could cause the indigo to chip more and fade faster. I don't know. I've just been curious about that for a while. Thanks!

[beautiful_FrEaK]

No problem. Yeah, long staple cotton (Pima, Zimbabwe, etc) is supposed to be superior (for the reason you mentioned) and also more expensive.

I think one problem here is, the old Skull denim faded very well & nice, with many example represented in this thread. But when the change happened, too many people were worried ( I "accuse" Kiya for amplify this feeling) and stayed away from the new denim resulting in less faded pairs that could convince people, these jeans and denim is also great.

But I also think the old Texas Cotton denim faded with higher contrast than the new&softer Pima Cotton denim. And high contrast is favored by many around here

[Jared_Lee]

Yeah, as I said, I guess the more coarse yarns could cause greater chipping and a higher contrast fade. I love whiskers and honeycombs as much as the next guy, but I'm getting beautiful contrast from my SExFHxRJB15 that uses Zimbabwe cotton.

It's unfortunate if people were swayed by an argument that Pima cotton would somehow negatively affect Skull's fabric. Pima and Zimbabwe are pretty comparable for staple length and Self Edge's collaborations typically, when divulged, use Zimbabwe cotton and in at least one instance tout cotton from the San Joaquin Valley (Pima).

[thewickett]

hmm. Skull switched to to 'new' denim and SE gladly brought it in. Because it was great stuff. The jeans sold well but eventually their stock ran low... and then Skull wasn't producing jeans in a timely fashion... I remember SE being out of stock for a while. Every so often people would ask in the SE thread when a restock was coming. There were various responses about Skull not being sure if they wanted to do denim anymore or thinking they were more of a shirt company ect... but there definitely weren't any restocks for a long time.

Then Kiya announced the sale of the remaining stock at SE - because he saw the new samples and was not impressed with where the brand was going - including the brand using stock denim from mills (not the previous Zimbabwe cotton denim). Some of the new Skull denim did appear at BiG a while after (the 666 models - 5% polyester????). There were no new 5507 or 5010 restocks during this time...

A great while later, Benny at Take 5 took it upon himself to revive the brand. The 5010 / 5507 models you see now are a result of this and should be solid.

tl;dr - Not so much Kiya, more so Skull not really being full in on making jeans/using stock denim when anybody who is anybody gets theirs custom woven/changing the cuts.

Edited January 22, 2013 by thewickett

[beautiful_FrEaK]

Right, Skull was slow on reproducing the wanted cuts...I remember Kiya said they only stocked up once or twice a year. Too seldom for a good selling pair of jeans and too much hassle for him.

And I also agree, the new models they introduced then ewre horrible (for my taste). Only BiG kept them all the time. And about Benni seki from Take5: yeah that's also what I remember, that he helped to initiate this new run(s)

edit: only one thing. there was never a "proof" (pictures and the like) that jeans were subpar quality. There has to be a reason why BiG kept the brand and I don't think Gordon would keep the brand if they would produce shit. And the thing with the stock denim was, AFAIK, also only an assumption.

One thing I'm sure off: there is certainly much more going on behind the curtain what we, as a consumer, would never get to know.

edit2: we shouldn't take too much about what/when/why might happen in the past. But enjoy the new jeans if we like to. I'm curios how they will evolve over the next weeks

Edited January 22, 2013 by beautiful_FrEaK

[thewickett]

Right, just figured I'd update the timeline due to this:

I think one problem here is, the old Skull denim faded very well & nice, with many example represented in this thread. But when the change happened, too many people were worried ( I "accuse" Kiya for amplify this feeling) and stayed away from the new denim resulting in less faded pairs that could convince people, these jeans and denim is also great.

... simply because it was inaccurate and really changes how the whole 'Fall of Skull' story line plays out.

That being said, I'm sure Kiya and Gordon made decisions that were best for their individual companies and I'd agree its silly to speculate the reasons why.

.. lastly, the new jeans do look great and the 5507 cut has always temped me... just dunno if I could ever get past the Ed Hardy patch

[beautiful_FrEaK]

You were right to do so, thanks!

Well, just burn the Jeans and the patch will be gone anyway or wear a belt

[Jared_Lee]

Good points all around and I agree, let's see how the new pairs break in. I look forward to seeing your results b_F. Thanks guys.

[zippopotamme]

5010xx 6x6 arrived today.

Soaking for the moment...

Pre soaking fit pics later.

just a thing, skull jeans say it' s a "super slim" but my edwin sen is slimer thant the 5010xx (before soak).

excuse my english