Wash & Wear pt. 1
I want a pair of cool, awesomely-fitting jeans as much as the next guy, but I’m not obsessed about it.
I do have a pair of (my first) selvage jeans arriving in the mail today (more on those later) and I did wear a pair of dark rigid denim twenty-plus times this past year before giving them their first wash because voices on the internet told me to. But that’s about as bothered as I’ve cared to get over the whole do-it-yourself denim perfecting game.
But a perfect storm came upon me this week that’s tempting me to play. An article by Simon Roe from Inventory’s premiere issue, along with these $50 buck 501s from the Levi’s store and the quirky clerk who sold them to me seem to be telling me it’s finally time to take the denim perfecting plunge.
My photos don’t quite show it, but the denim I chose isn’t a traditional inky indigo. They’re a lighter, almost train engineer blue, halfway down the track to actually being gray. In person, they’re just odd enough to seem like precious deadstock.
Looming together the advice of Mr. Roe and the dude at the Levi’s store, the key to killer shrink-to-fit 501s appears to be buying them an inch to two inches too large in the waist, wearing them while wet until they dry entirely, and then….
Well, we’ll see where that gets me. I’ll be near a western Wisconsin lake this weekend, so I’ll take a denim dip in my lighter-than-they-seem Levi’s and let them dry right on me.
After that, some advisors claim the jeans will have shrunk to my body already and to wear them as-is a few more weeks before machine washing them. Others suggest I’ll need to launder and dry them after the drench/air dry adventure to ensure a proper fit.
I’ll just take it step by step and see how things seem. Fresh from the store, they fit baggy and bunchy like a toddler’s favorite jeans, but the Levi’s clerk assured me that would be the perfect start to my self-shrinking process.
If nothing else, hopefully we’ll all be info-tained.
TO BE CONTINUED…
August 20th, 2010 at 8:04 am
What color are those, exactly? They don’t look like the stock too-dark 501s I always pick up, try on, and then never, ever buy.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:45 am
My receipt says they are “Light Blue Rigid STF” and although they are definitely lighter than indigo, I’d call them a medium blue. Below is a link to them on the Levis site, 10 dollars cheaper than what I paid in store even!
http://us.levi.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3631317&cp=3146842.3146844.3146854.3194290.3692024
August 23rd, 2010 at 11:45 am
My personal recommendation is Levis 505 (LVC 505 1967 to be exact) – very close to perfect non trendy fit. 501′s were always way too baggy for me.
Also just like APC’s these need to be sized down a bit when purchased. They will shrink, but not too much. And also because Levi’s in its original brand is not using too much of a high quality denim (to say the least) they will stretch within month or two after being shrunk. APC’s do the same thing.
So no matter how much I like my LVC’s I will stick with my japanese made pairs for as long as I wear jeans.
August 23rd, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Yes, I am sensing these 501s might stay a bit too loose near the outer hip. But maybe machine drying them will shrink them in an extra bit, and the 1970s-ish light blue shade of them was too good to pass up, whatever their shape.
August 23rd, 2010 at 12:18 pm
I highly not recommend to ever tumble dry raw denim no matter the make or the weight. Yes, – It might help you with shrinking, but tumble drying, and for that matter spin cycle in a washing machine, might create unwanted creases with unnatural worn out spots on them. And those do show pretty well on the fresh raw denim surface. I learned my lessons. I never spin cycle or tumble dry my denim. Just regular cold wash in the machine with jeans being inside out and drying them on the clothing line. If you have a line outside, on the sun, in your backyard – its the most desirable scenario.
– Just watch out for indigo dripping all over your floor.
With the fresh pair – don’t even put them in the washer – get some hot water in the bucket or the bath tub and soak them of 2-3 hours. Make sure add hot water so it wouldn’t get cold. I actually boil water in the tea cattle and add in twice or three times. Afterwards dry them on the clothing line.
Or go old school and wear them while soaking. Walk around with them being wet on