Denimology

Real Men Wear (Denim) Blouses

For men, wearing a jean jacket is like shaving with a straight razor: The high degree of difficulty scares away the faint hearted, but those that do it well appreciate the air of nonchalance it affords them, and the stylishly-iconic company they find themselves in.

Lately Mr. West (pictured above...not the prophetic Princeton Prof.) has been seen wearing a vintage Big E Levi's jacket.... Now, while the bowtie is a bit avant garde for your average lunch meeting at California Pizza Kitchen, we are of the mind that the time is right for every American man to buy the denim jacket he's always wanted, but wasn't sure he could pull off.
Men: Appreciate the history of what you're wearing. The more you know the more comfortable you'll feel about wearing it, and the more confidently you'll rock it. You think Kanye knows his jacket is a "Big E"?.... You're damn right he does..

The earliest denim jackets came to be around the same time as the development of the classic 5 pocket blue jean. They were called "Work Blouses" and were worn more as a heavy weight shirt than as a jacket. The high waisted pant and shorter jacket were favored by cowboys as they were more saddle ready than the high-backed bib overalls worn by their mine-bound blue collar counterparts. The jackets had pleats in the front that were often let out by their cowboy owners, so heavy wool sweaters could be worn comfortably underneath. Jean jackets were the worn for work because they were durable and comfortable. Remember those key points when you put yours on... Are you exuding rugged confidence yet?

Great American men have worn denim jackets as far back as they've worn chiseled jaws and broad shoulders. But for the street, you're aiming for Steve McQueen (see above), not Roy Rogers. Buy your jacket raw, dark and stiff. It should fit trim and smart. Start yourself off with the idiot proof look: Dark denim jacket, white t, Khakis and Jack Purcell's. It's no fail, and you can wear it often to get the break in on your jacket started. Once you've got a little wear on your jacket, you can brave the waters into hot denim on denim action. Keep you jacket and jeans at least three shades off from one another. A dirtier lighter jacket with darker, newer jeans at first.... Brand new, dark jackets with old faded jeans can be a little awkward sometimes, tread carefully. Perhaps even more importantly is that you wear your jacket like it's YOURS. Throw it on to add an extra layer to whatever you'd otherwise wear. DON'T fall into the dude ranch trap and add in any more western wear that you'd otherwise put on. Keep it simple, keep it classic.

Remember guys: Your goal is to look like you got dressed purposefully and deliberately that morning, and you haven't given what you're wearing a thought since then. Good Luck!

This post was written by Madeline Harmon of Chucks Vintage in Los Angeles and Bill "Broken Twill" Sack

The Brotherhood of the Traveling Denim Pants

38-year old Brit Eaton has a particular interest in denim workwear from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His company's name is Carpe Denim, and he sells his finds to clients, including Hollywood wardrobe departments, private collectors, and companies like Levi's, Ralph Lauren, the Gap, and Dickies.

For the last decade, he has found thousands of vintage clothing items, and in particular, vintage jeans. He once sold a pair of pants with links to a soldier from the Spanish-American War to a collector for $12,000, his personal record for a single piece, and he's discovered as much as $50,000 worth of clothes in a single day. In 2008, an eBay seller auctioned a pair of circa-1890s, candle-wax-encrusted Levi's that he claimed were found in a mine in California's Mojave Desert. On July 30, the bidding closed at $36,099. In 2001, an anonymous person sold a pair of 100-plus-year-old jeans, discovered in a Nevada mining town, on eBay through Butterfields, a San Francisco-based auction house. The jeans were purchased by their original manufacturer, Levi Strauss & Co., for $46,532.

And you thought your jeans were expensive! Check out more of Eaton's finds on his website - some of which are for sale fairly inexpensively. Grab a piece of history if you like vintage finds! (Source: Outside Online).

Earnest Sewn Launches Vintage Exchange

Earnest Sewn announced their Vintage Exchange program asking their loyal customers to bring back their well worn, well loved, original Earnest Sewn Jeans to any of the brand's retail stores, in exchange for a discount on a new pair. I paid Benjamin Talley Smith, Earnest Sewn's Design Director, a visit to check out the life cycle of a pair of jeans in the Vintage Exchange.

Earnest Sewn graphic designer, Jared Seavers provided the first Exchange to be put into production. Starting with the Kyree.xx, the dark denim on the left, Jared wore his jeans for over a year and a half before putting them in a cold wash and hanging them to dry. In their lifetime, they've seen the laundry only three times.

Emphasising denim's personal nature, seen in the middle photo and with the orange loop, every mark and repair on Jared's jeans have a story. He keeps his pen in his right front pocket; cell phone in the left. His keys have torn his back left pocket requiring only one repair while his wallet has destroyed his back right pocket requiring mending three times. While walking me through this yearbook of denim, Jared coined the name of the wash inspired by his own jeans: the Watson, after his DJ persona.

The final product will be style FULTON.337 in Watson, as seen on the right, and hits shelves for Holiday 2009.

To participate in the Vintage Exchange program, bring any worn Earnest Sewn jeans to one of their three retail locations. They'll tag it with the dates you've owned it and your name and then give you 30% off a new pair of your choice. If the wash hits stores, it will be named after you and given a tag marking the history of the jean. And of course, send us a picture!

'Do It Yourself' Jeans - Bleach Wash & Studs

Some of the new fashion washes in the stores this Spring look strangely like they were done at home by the designer playing around in their kitchen, with their studs, tie-dye, ripping and marbling. One of our favourite fashion bloggers, Mimi Jung of BrookandLyn, is an expert denim d.i.y.-er and has great instructions for achieving the crushed/tie-dyed bleach look currently retailing from Siwy and others. Doing it yourself means you a guaranteed a unique pair of jeans. Just take care with bleach and sharp tools, and perhaps try the technique out on an old pair of jeans before attempting to alter your beloved J Brands! Mimi has bleached-out her jeans at home, and we love the addition of the studs, but these jeans would look as cool with just the bleach wash. Her instructions are really simple, and for bleaching, we recommend trying five parts water to one part bleach as a starting point, but let us know how you get on!

First take a pair of dark beat up jeans and wrinkled them into a tight ball. Then fill a bucket with water plus bleach (preferably with a top so you keep the smell contained) and dumped the balled up jeans into the bucket. After about one hour you should start to see some bleached results (cheap jeans bleach out faster but really well made dark denim takes a long time to bleach). Once you reached the desired color and pattern rinse them as much a possible to get the smell out, warning the bleached color that is left on the jeans will come out so wash alone. Once dried stud them on the sides with 1/4″ metal studs as desired.

Matthew McConaughey in Levi's Jeans

Matthew McConaughey wears his Levi's Jeans while he and his son Levi go shopping in Malibu. Matthew McCoanughey recently confessed to Rachel Ray that he loves taking his 8-month-old son Levi with him wherever he goes. Collectively now, awwwwwww!

Shenae Grimes in Levi's Denim Shorts

The new 90210 actress Shenae Grimes wears a pair of Urban Outfitters Urban Renewal Levi's Destroyed Denim Shorts when buying some artwork from 'All That Jazz'. What a nice smile. I love that!