It’s been 8 months and we’ve been wearing Evisu’s wrangler-inspired jeans pretty much every day since, without a single wash. The Japanese selvedge Green Caste denim with broken twill weave has worn in beautifully, creating a rich patina with weathered fading.
&uotThese Evisu Lot 2001 No. 2 jeans are from our friend Deus in Sweden. Worn from a raw state, the indigo has faded and threads have broken to capture the imprint of their wearer. The charm of raw denim lies in its potential: the fabric fading and twisting to a unique and unpredictable state. As time goes on, a pair of raw jeans will continue to transform and fade, telling an original story molded by the essence of its wearer. What follows is Deus’s account of what he and his jeans have been through.
I got the jeans back in 2005 in the middle of June. They were sent to me from a good friend in Asia, and I started wearing them every day. I did not soak or wash them for about nine months. After a while the jeans got really dirty and smelly as I wore them both at work and at home. So I gave them a cold soak inside out, with a small amount of soap. I did not want to ruin the nice dirty looking color that I really love.
I continued to wear them for about six months after the first soak before I gave them the next one. Over this period, the jeans were a bit repaired, as they started to get small holes from hard wear in certain areas. I patched them up and soaked them, this time in hot water with the jeans on me but only with normal soap, no washing powder. I tried to shrink them back a bit in size, as they had stretched a lot from the hard wearing at work, and they did shrink a bit.
In the winter of 2007 I wore the jeans on a three-month travel to Thailand, where they got really hard wear from the sand, dirt and traveling lifestyle. While I was there, the jeans started to get two really brittle areas on the lap, close to crotch area. They got repaired in the crotch at my friend’s denim store, and i patched up the lap when i got back home to Stockholm.
I gave them the last soak in April 2007 in hot water with a small amount of soap.
I had so many new jeans that i wanted to start wearing, so these lovely jeans got a bit of a retirement. They deserved it.I now only use them at special occasions, or at home. Though that is only because I want to start wearing-in my new jeans. They could, however, live for a couple more years of wearing.
They have been a good friend and treated like a family member, and I would never sell or part with them.
- Deus
Next season, Evisu gives a nod to Wrangler’s celebrated role in denim history with our 60s vintage cowboy-inspired jeans.
These rugged jeans feature Japanese selvedge, Green Caste denim, a broken twill weave, and a 60s style slimfit, inspired by the classic cowboy jeans cut.
Wrangler famously invented the broken twill weave in 1964. Designed to combat the troublesome twisting of jeans that occurred in regular twill jeans, Wrangler created a technique to balance the tension in the yarns. Rather than running to the right or left, as does the weave of regular twill, broken twill is weaved in alternating directions, resulting in a random zig-zag pattern. The distinctive pattern can be seen on the reverse side of jeans, identifying this unique weave. Because of Evisu designers’ love of denim, they have the luxury of exploring each style’s potential by wearing-in the prototype jean months before it appears in stores. The patina that develops from wear without wash is a personalized expression of one’s daily activities, adventures and attitude. Here is a gallery of some of the Wrangler jeans that have been worn for a few months. As expected, the jeans haven’t been washed and have developed the desired look of fading and wear.
