#rugged threads

Time to check on how the jeans are doing after a whole year of wear - along with all the hiking, biking riding, skating and adventure I’ve put mine through.

Authentic denim fades are a must.  If you want to spend decent dough on a pair of jeans, be sure that they’re raw.  There’s nothing more satisfying in a pair of jeans that age just as nicely as you do.  You’re more likely to keep them longer AND buy less in the long run along with actually saving $$.  

Give consumerism a big F U !

You’ll also be saving water ~~ Loads and loads.  You’ll avoid a bunch of chemicals too.  These are applied in the factory for all the washes and artificial fading. 

When I first bought the jeans.

After 1 year + of wear;

Naturally, I thought it would be something amazing to get his thoughts and ideas out there.  When I started my blog I had in mind to include his perspective from the very beginning.  So, I did this interview with him.

Wabisabi – definition; a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi

When did you first get into denim, Americana and vintage?

The first time I got interested in clothes in general was when I was 13 years old.  I have an older brother and he once brought back a japanese fashion magazine.  Japanese fashion magazines used to be completely different.  They focused more on ‘detail’ rather than ‘general fashion’.  Of course, there were so many vintage related things out then like jeans and old Levi’s, but one thing that struck me was the American MA1 military jacket.  What I liked about it is the way that there was a meaning for why everything was constructed the way it was – why the buttons were in a certain spot, the shape of the pockets, the colours, why the zip is in a certain spot why it’s a certain shape…  Everything had a meaning for why it’s there.

MA1 Flight bomber jacket

I initially thought fashion was more of everything on the surface and didn’t have much meaning.  However, those military designs were really about nothing else but necessity.  I found jeans next and everything there had a meaning too; why the coin pocket is there, why the rivets are placed in certain spots, why there are 5 pockets.

After this, I started to really get into more of American history when it came to clothing.  I wanted to understand why american clothes were so boxy and why french clothes were so tailored in comparison.  There is significance for all of this; American clothes were so boxy back then because they were made for mass production.  America of course, was the first country to start the production line infrastructure.  Everything that America did before this was all tailored.

At first, I used to hate American clothes because they didn’t fit me.  And of course they didn’t fit me, they were made for American workers and bigger people!  Afterwards, I started collecting vintage clothing in Japan when I was about 18 years old.  At that time Japanese magazines were really focusing on all the detailing of vintage jeans and other items.  They would explain things like “this is a 1950s detail” side by side with detailing from other decades.

Back then, Japanese people (especially the men) would have this ‘education’ in a sense, from as early as high school.  From very early on, they already knew it.  So, if you find japanese people who live in the city and are around my age (36) they usually know about the detailing behind jeans and most vintage clothing.  So that is a really big difference between Japan and other countries.  The japanese really know all about this!

Was this encouraged by friends and your peers, were they all into it as well?

Yes, I had good friends that were all into jeans around the time when I was 17.  At that point, we would all buy the exact same jeans, (raw denim) and we would wear them out and compare – mine versus theirs and we’d ask “why is it wearing away like that!?” or “how did yours fade like that!?”.  One of the times, I got some different fading from theirs because I soaked mine with green tea.  We were really hardcore about jeans; how to give them wear patterns and how to fade them.  We were so into it that we sort of invented this idea where one of us would dig a hole, put the jeans inside, let them stay there for three months and then bring them back and wash them.  We would do a lot of this kind of stuff.

I remember all those years when we were 16, 17, 18, we would focus on getting cool jeans and fading them.  I was even sleeping with my jeans on.  I would never take them off!

Why do you think Japan in general has been obsessed with denim?

I think now that I’ll get into the idea of ‘Wabisabi’ aesthetics…

I think that in general, we are always looking for something very simple.  Simplicity, I think is an aesthetic of the Japanese culture.  So back then, there was a very strong ‘wabisabi’ aesthetic.  It’s very hard to describe what this is, but for example… This rail here – it used to be new but it’s getting older and getting more and more textures.  In the past, Japanese poets would say that this wearing and texture ‘comes from the inside’.

People believe that there is ‘life’ under this layer and that the weathering and wearing away has caused the life to come out.  Of course, they know the process that has caused it to go like this (rain and weathering), but they see this as an artform.

Japanese gardens are also very simple but in the gardens there are rocks, and on the rocks there is moss growing which can be a green or a red.  We like that.  Obviously there is a scientific reason why this is happening over time.  However, Japanese poets see this moss as something that is coming from inside.  It’s a really different way to look at it, but they see this under layer or second layer as a kind of ‘life’.  It’s also something that doesn’t happen right away – you need to be patient for it to get like this and you need to keep it in the right conditions.

Another example is the Bonsai.  Bonsai is like a smaller version of nature.  The tree is usually very big but they want to keep the tree small as it ages.  To do that, you need to maintain it very carefully.  You need to know how you want to make it 15 years from now and then appreciate that process.  We don’t want anything instant.  We want to live with it and then years in the future, to observe the result in a very authentic and natural way.

So with jeans, this is kind of the same.  In the beginning, they are very stiff and uncomfortable especially with the raw cotton and dye making it that way.  It doesn’t feel the same way as modern jeans in the modern era, but I like it because the jeans I wear are getting more fitted and comfortable to me as time progresses.  The fading is also different for each individual.  This means that it is more personal.  I think also that the way that it fades connects to the idea of how jeans have this ‘life’ and that this life is expressed through this fading.  It’s also a projection of me and my lifestyle on the jeans.

What are you favourite denim items that you’ve had over the years or even recently?

I like these ones here – This pair of Double RL jeans is made with 16 ounce Japanese denim.  I like the cut and I like the selvedge.  It has a cinch fastening on the back and is loosely based around the 1930s Levi’s.  it’s not as wide though, so it has a bit more of a modern cut.  It still has some innovation along with details inspired from the past e.g the crotch rivet and the cinch.

I like these other jeans too but the denim isn’t as thick.  When I wore them out, they started to develop holes.  The repair here, I had done by a Japanese specialist for jean repair.  And you can’t really tell right?  He changed the colours of the stitching according to the fading already on the jeans.  There really is no-one in New York or in the world like the guy that does these repairs in Japan.  Have a look at the type of stitching he did –

He really is a genious.  I love how precise the japanese can be about their craft.

He actually asked me, “how would you like them to be fixed?”.  I told him that I wanted them fixed in the most natural way possible.  He would say that some people want to have a very ‘obvious fixing’ look. I wanted something that looked clean and to hide the damage.  He was able to do it very well.

The repair fabric he used is super thin.  If it’s thicker, it’s more likely to create another hole.  He uses the thinnest fabric so as to create the thinnest gap between the fabric and the denim.

This other repair I didn’t like at all.  The colour is different and the stitching is contrasting with the natural grain of the denim.  This other repair, I brought to the guy and he took out all the threads and he completely re-did this repair.  So, I’ll let you know when you need repairs.  You should go to Japan anyway.

What is your kind of aesthetic these days in general?

It don’t buy much stuff at all.  What is important to me is to buy things that last forever.  I want to wear these jeans until I’m 80 or until I die.  Of course, I’d even like to pass them down to my son.  I’m not sure If my son is going to like them as much!  But I’m more than prepared to give everything to him in the future.

I think that’s really important as an aesthetic for me.  And I can say this for everything.  From a couch, to other furniture, dishes and everything.  I really see all the things I get as things that I’ll want to keep in the future up until when I die – long term goods and things that will get passed down.

I think that also similar to denim, British tweed jackets have the same idea of wear and fade.  With tweed jackets, they would often pass them from generation to generation – grandfather to father to son.  It’s another thing that seems to get better with more and more wear.

Before, I didn’t know why tweed jackets would have patches on the elbows, but I realised that it’s not just for fashion that they’re there.  In the past, since someone’s father or grandfather would wear out the jacket so much, holes would develop in the elbows and that’s why they would need to put a patch on them – it was necessary.

Right now this has become a thing of ‘fashion’ but back then, generations of wear would cause them to be so worn out.  That’s why you need to have the patching.

Since I learned this fact, I got into tweed more.  I saw tweed as being something that’s good with jeans, because it gets better with more and more wear.  So I have some tweed things at the moment and I think I would like to get a really good tweed jacket in the future which I can wear forever.

Image of MA 1 Jacket  “MA-1 Jacket in petrol” by The original uploader was Spuggie at English Wikipedia – Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons.. Licensed under CC BY 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MA-1_Jacket_in_petrol.jpg#/media/File:MA-1_Jacket_in_petrol.jpg

mossy rocks – https://mimianddi.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/dscn0751.jpg