Well-traveled, indeed. I may have been to about half the places those Levi's walked around in (the most notable omissions for me: Africa and South America) and I did my traveling in 501s, as well. But the video was meant to illustrate how Levi's fade... about which, this:
While much of the raw denim craze might seem academic, the romanticized ideal of jeans becoming an individualized canvas does at least hold up in practice. This short video by Japanese video director Takayuki Akachi perfectly illustrates the raw denim dream.That's an excerpt from a piece called "I didn't wash my jeans for 7 months—and it's the Internet's fault" from The Daily Dot (via Digg). The article might just as well be titled "More than you EVER wanted to know about hipster jeans" because it goes into more esoterica and ephemera than I ever knew was possible about my 501s. Well, check that... 501s are waaaay too mainstream. What you REALLY need are jeans made from 22-ounce "dry" denim woven on antique American looms currently living in Japan. And don't wash 'em for a while, either.
For the uninitiated, the fading of jeans over time can look like a fairly unremarkable process. But the various patterns that form around different parts of the garment are distinct, with some individuals prizing certain types of fades over others.
The piece was an interesting read... seriously. That said, I'll keep my 501s, thank ya.
Heh. At first I thought you said "antique American loons living in Japan". I had to run outside to make sure I was still in 'Merica.
ReplyDeleteYou're still here, right? ;-)
DeleteI remember a time when if my 501s were washed, I wouldn't wear them again.
ReplyDeleteLet's just say that was long before the Beatles ever made an appearance.
It was only a few years after that that the more the denims faded, the better I liked them... even to the point of tying a line through belt loops and having them through the ship's wake to help age them.
One of THE most lamented artifacts of my past lives is a pair of 501s I owned for well over ten years. They were faded, patched, re-patched, and patched yet again, not to mention the embroidery done on them by a hippie girlfriend I had before I met TSMP. I literally had people offer me a hundred bucks and more for those jeans back in the day... they were a work o' art. Srsly.
DeleteSo: I understand what you're sayin'!