The denim that started it all. This is the living history of Gustin's 16oz. "heavy" jeans (#27), made from USA denim sourced from White Oak Cone Mills.
December, 6, 2017 - Arrival, fit, and first impressions
In late 2017 I decided to jump into the raw denim game. The company that I started my journey with was Gustin, a San Francisco-based clothier who was doing some pretty cool stuff with denim, leather, and other craft goods (check out my experience with them here). After a long search and a hefty wait, I received my jeans.
As with any internet clothing (or footwear) order, I had no idea how these were going to fit. Gustin has a size guide on their website, so I used that and the measurements I took of some Levi's 511's and a pair of Nudie Lean Dean's to select my size (I'm 6' 175lbs and I ended up going with their 33 slim fit). I think I ended up ordering the right size because these were slightly tight in the waist at first and then broke in to be about perfect over time.
Some other aspects of the fit, however, have continued to bother me with Gustin's denim. As you can see from the picture, they're pretty relaxed in the hip and thigh and then taper from the knee - though the taper is not that strong. If I were to design these jeans for myself, I would have slimmed them up a bit in the thigh and hip and given them a slightly stronger taper through the leg to end at a slightly smaller leg opening - but what are you going to do?
Right out of the package these jeans felt different than any other pair I owned. Whereas "normal" jeans are soft, supple, and sometimes stretchy, this pair was stiff and starchy. At 16 oz. these are no joke. Though I would hesitate to call these "heavy-weight" per say, they definitely have a good heft to them. Consistent with what I've experienced with other denim coming out of White Oak, these have a very rugged hand feel. The story goes that the floors in the Cone Mills factory in Greensboro, NC are the original hardwood and have been warped over time. This level variation creates minor imperfections when weaving with a traditional shuttle loom and gives each yard of denim a completely unique texture and characteristic.
The final thing that caught my attention about these jeans was the color. Most vintage-style, raw denim that you'll find will be a classic indigo dyed warp over a white or off-white weft. One thing that has surprised me with each pair of denim I encounter is how much color variation I see in different pairs of denim of this same style. This particular fabric from Cone has a really deep inkiness to the indigo. You can see in some of the picture that it almost reads as almost black from a distance. On the other hand, the weft on these jeans is a very crisp white. Between this color contrast and the starchy texture, I'm very excited about the fade potential on these jeans!
July 8, 2018 - first soak
Having done my research on washing denim I decided that I would try to do a soak about every 6-8 months. If you're not aware of the debate surrounding this, there's a few schools of thought. First, there are those who think you should never wash your jeans. From what I've heard this is not a great philosophy because the small particles of dirt and grit that build up in the fabric lead to a higher rate of blow-outs. Second, there are those that wash their jeans weekly or so in a washing machine. In my opinion these people are awful and hate their jeans. Finally - and what I've landed on - there's the people that who do periodic washes with long breaks in between to give the jeans time to develop good fade lines, but reduce particle buildup (we put the denim in the freezer from time to time to kill any odor-causing bacteria).
And so, almost exactly 8 months to the day after I bought these jeans, I did my first soak. There's a lot of resources on the internet that explain how to soak sanforized, raw denim so I won't go into too much detail on the process. For these jeans I soaked them for about 2 hours in lukewarm water with about a cup of Woolite Dark detergent.
I was surprised (and to be honest, a little disappointed) at how well the color was retained on this pair of denim. You can see that, while that off-black look is reduced on these, they're still a very dark indigo color. I think that's a testament to just how dark these were to begin with and I'm assuming it'll be quite a few more washes before these really start to fade.
Something to note when doing your first soak: there will be some slight shrinkage. Mostly all of that shrinkage will break back in after a couple wears, but you will lose about 0.5" to 1" on the hem, so don't hem your raw denim too high!
And there it is - my first soak! You can see a few whiskers starting to come in as well as some honeycombs on the back, but I think I'm just starting to scratch the surface with these bad boys. Stay tuned!
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