After first wash. How often?

[petng]

Hi guys.

I have spent 6 mths wearing in my Edwin Greenvilles. Have washed them 3 times already. There is great contrast and wear marks, but still they look too dark. I want them to look really aged. My Q is can I now wash them after every 5-10 wears or should I wash them every 3-6 mths. My aim is to make them look really worn in?

Also how do manufacters get their worn look? Do they actually wash their jeans numerous times of do they do it by chemical process? Do they sand between washes?

[minya]

Wash them however often you want.

Industrial laundries use lots of different processes: laundry processes, chemical processes, and physical processes (i.e. abrasion, washing with pumice, sanding, etc.)

[petng]

Im just worried that my jeans will turn into the type of cheap stone washed jeans which dont have any whiskers or contrast if I wash them too often.

[minya]

The less often you wash them, the more contrast you'll get.

[Corbin Law]

wash em when they get dirty thats the point of a wash to clean.

chwa?

[wild_whiskey]

If you want them to look VERY aged, best to continue wearing them and just beat them up as best you can. They will fade over time, but it usually takes a good year or more for them to really lighten up.

Wash once a month or so for about a year, and yea, they'll be nice and faded. Gonna take a good two years if you want them to be sky blue w/ white highlights.

[Denim R]

the less you think about it the quicker the time goes so just wear them hard wash as little as you can stand

Edited by Denim R on Mar 8, 2006 at 03:59 PM

[Guest Fade to Black]

Quote:

the less you think about it the quicker the time goes so just wear them hard wash as little as you can stand

Edited by Denim R on Mar 8, 2006 at 03:59 PM

--- Original message by Denim R on Mar 8, 2006 03:59 PM

This is a good point...ever since reading more posts on superdenim about washing jeans I've been thinking obsessively about my jeans and it feels like wearing them for months at a time feels like an eternity.

[sneakeraddict]

yeah - best solution is to just forget it about it.

I just received some new Nashvilles from my supplier for myself today, and have started wearing them.

Mix it up a bit and wear different jeans if you get bored.

Best idea I think is to only wash when visibly dirty - or if they stink. (If you smoke or have pets in the house etc)

I guess you could sleep in them if you're absolutely desperate to maximise wear? But that is somewhat obsessive!

[ringring]

Wash them whenever you like. No rules.

I'd just wash them in a simple soap (no enzymes, no phosphates or bleaches).

Otherwise you could dry clean them or use a specialist detergent, like the Sugancane 2 step detergent (second step is an indigo 'fixer').

Hygiene first, whiskers later.

[Paul T]

Denim R has a good point. The less you obsess about your jeans and how quick they're wearing, the better they will look. My best jeans were the ones where I decided I liked them dark, so I washed occasionally, or dry cleaned. Ones where I tried to wear them in more quickly never looked as good. Learn to love them dark, and before you know it they will look great. It's a zen thing.

[sneakeraddict]

So did they start out 'black'? (I mean black looking dary navy denim)

If so, hell - thats certainly a good example!

[Paul T]

They started out like this.

[sneakeraddict]

good stuff.

Have you just bought those, are that is a photo of them years ago before you 'started out'?

[Paul T]

They were a pair I bought when they stopped doing the selvage reissues, and kept for a few years. Flogged them on eBay, as I have another new pair without tags that I'm laying up, i think the word is, like a fine wine... they are exactly the same as the l/h ones in the pic, the two others were an earlier reissue. Incidentally, they're similar denim to a lot of the Edwin stuff.

all that said, I don't worry too much about my jeans, i just wear the things, that's what they're for.

Edited by Paul T on Mar 10, 2006 at 05:38 AM

[Geowu]

How long did it take for those to fade, Paul T?

[obsessis]

i think he said two years of drycleaning....

[Intermission]

wowzers

yo!

[Paul T]

It didn't take THAT long! I would say that most of the wear comes in the first six months. THen I try not to wash too often, but i don't worry about it. Simple as that.

Most of those jeans will only have been dtry cleaned once, i only worry about keeping washing to a minimum for the first 6 months or so. I always wash at 30 degrees to minimize further shrinkage, and use hand wash soap to scrub the hems etc.

Each of those jeans maybe had 12-18 months wear. These lees do wear very nicely, I suspect it's a combination of well-applied indigo, that doesn't wash out too easily, and the fact that as the jeans didn't get an initial soak they were stiffer, which gives you better-defined wear.

[chadler]

Paul T, are those all the same style? if so, how come you only wear those?

[Paul T]

They were my main jeans for a long time, plus vintage Levi's. They were a good vintage cut, good quliaty denim, cheaper than LVC and better than the first Levi's reissues. I wear a lot more LVC now, but still have three or four lees that are pretty worn, not quite as much as the ones shown here...

[chadler]

oh i see. well, they look SICK. how about posting pics of some of your other jeans?