Your thoughts on manually distressing raw denim

ohmyamoose · Jul 6, 2007

Has anyone ever manually distressed their raw jeans? There must be ways to get raw denim to wear in quicker and still look cool/not fake.

I have had some ideas.
Using super fine sandpaper to gently sand the "honeycombs" at the back of the jeans. or rubbing small amounts of water on the honeycombs to help them fade quicker.
I guess I am thinking more of small things that may not be noticeable right away but quicken the natural break in process.

I just wanted to see if anyone else had these same (or different) ideas. Maybe this goes against the raw denim "philosophy." I haven't done anything to my jeans yet because I don't want to do anything stupid.

whodini · Jul 6, 2007

First time with raw jeans? Sounds like it.

A few on here have tried distressing jeans themselves but the results are usually pretty typical: looks artificial. One case in particular used sandpaper and although not horrible, it wasn't as clean as the real thing.

It begs to ask why you're in such a rush to get to the finish line. If the end result is what you're after, why not just buy your jeans pre-distressed? Or perhaps another option would be to simply purchase a brand with a reputation for quick wear.

Your jeans, do what you want.

apocalypse later · Jul 7, 2007

Go buy some Gap or H&M raw denim. They're both around $20 on sale. Do your experiments on cheap jeans.

By the way, I started off like you as well--always trying to get fast results on my jeans. Trust me, after about three weeks of wearing your jeans, they just become jeans rather than some kind of holy grail. You stop trying to make them fade and just wear them, and coincidentally they do begin to fade when you just wear them and stop caring so much.

Tarmac · Jul 7, 2007

people have been manually ******* up their jeans since the 70s. maybe the 60s. it's still stupid

ohmyamoose · Jul 7, 2007

Originally Posted by whodini

First time with raw jeans? Sounds like it.

A few on here have tried distressing jeans themselves but the results are usually pretty typical: looks artificial. One case in particular used sandpaper and although not horrible, it wasn't as clean as the real thing.

It begs to ask why you're in such a rush to get to the finish line. If the end result is what you're after, why not just buy your jeans pre-distressed? Or perhaps another option would be to simply purchase a brand with a reputation for quick wear.

Your jeans, do what you want.

yeah, I figured that anything I did would make the results look artificial. I guess I was looking more for things that might quicken the natural break in process, not "create" distressing. If that even makes sense.

I will admit that I took some very fine grit sandpaper to the leather nudie patch on my jeans. I very lightly sanded it a bit to take the shine away. I hate the way the leather of the patch looks.

Souper · Jul 7, 2007

you could take it all to the next level and sleep and shower in your jeans, and starch daily. Or some combination of these...

lowrey · Jul 7, 2007

I remember sandpapering some jeans about 6-7 years ago, werent raw or anything but it was fashionable to have broken jeans. well I guess in some circles it still is. anyways, sandpapering them wont fade them properly, it will rather break the surface a bit and it doesn't look good.

personally, I wouldn't try too hard cause you might just **** up the jeans. what I'd do is just wear the shiet out of them and get a real fade. it doesn't take that long.

PG2G · Jul 7, 2007

On my first pair of raw denim (Nudie RRDS), I got a bit impatient with them and decided I'd do some stuff to speed things up. I pretty much took a wet towl, sat down, started at the upper thigh and rubbed downwards to the lower thigh. I didn't too much of it, so the results were subtle and looked fine. Maybe I'll do it again for kicks now that I don't wear them anymore.

Rye GB · Jul 7, 2007

Unless you have access to an industrial machine to wash you're jeans after sanding your not going to get any respectable finish.

As Lowrey said, if your impatient find a place to hide the shame of wearing the same jeans 7 days a week and keep as active as possible. The results will be far more satisfying.

robbie · Jul 7, 2007

Creases are what will provide the desired fading , hot or cold soaking helps set in creases. Other than that, wearing jeans is the only way to get them to look 'worn in', anything artificial will look artificial.

robbie

whodini · Jul 7, 2007

Originally Posted by ohmyamoose

yeah, I figured that anything I did would make the results look artificial. I guess I was looking more for things that might quicken the natural break in process, not "create" distressing. If that even makes sense. I will admit that I took some very fine grit sandpaper to the leather nudie patch on my jeans. I very lightly sanded it a bit to take the shine away. I hate the way the leather of the patch looks.
Again, I'm perplexed as to why you'd want to use artificial means to speed up a process that will already happen naturally. And they're Nudie's. Hell, you look at them funny and they fade.

ohmyamoose · Jul 8, 2007

How do my self distressed jeans look? Good? Bad?

robbie · Jul 8, 2007

those nudies need atleast 4.5 months of hard wear imo.

I'll trade you my well worn, non-manually distressed rustlers for those nudies straight up. I'll even pay for shipping if you want? sound like a good deal, exactly! It is a good deal you get the look you are wanting and I get a pair of nudies, its a win-win situation.

ohmyamoose · Jul 8, 2007

Originally Posted by robbie

those nudies need atleast 4.5 months of hard wear imo.

I'll trade you my well worn, non-manually distressed rustlers for those nudies straight up. I'll even pay for shipping if you want? sound like a good deal, exactly! It is a good deal you get the look you are wanting and I get a pair of nudies, its a win-win situation.

seems like a fair deal.

whodini · Jul 8, 2007

Originally Posted by robbie

those nudies need atleast 4.5 months of hard wear imo. I'll trade you my well worn, non-manually distressed rustlers for those nudies straight up. I'll even pay for shipping if you want? sound like a good deal, exactly! It is a good deal you get the look you are wanting and I get a pair of nudies, its a win-win situation.
So you're willing to trade pre-distressed jeans for raw. Yeah, I think that would have saved a few posts.

Your thoughts on manually distressing raw denim

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