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Ignoramus with a dry denim question

Bona Drag

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Drum roll for the big inaugural post...

I've actually been a lurker here for some time, so I'm not completely ignorant - just a bit confused. On the advice of LA Guy, I scoped out some Iron Hearts and am just about sold, but saw something on their site that seemed to fly in the face of prevailing dry denim wisdom. Check this out:

http://www.ironheart.co.uk/html/Worn634simages.htm#

It says the pair pictured were worn five or six days a week for five months and "washed hard, inside out, once every couple of weeks". The consensus here, and everywhere else I've looked or asked, seems to be that this is dry denim sacrilege, and that a new pair should go unwashed for at least six months or so. Is this just because this pair are the heavier 21 oz. type? What's up? To wash or not to wash?

Anyway, regardless of what I do with them once I get them, some sizing advice would be stellar. For reference, an Earnest Sewn Hutch in a 32 and a Nudie Slim Jim Dry in a 33 both fit me just about perfectly (I should point out that I don't actually own the Nudies, I only tried them on; I know they're great and all, but the stitiching is a little too in your face for me).

Thanks lads.
 

whodini

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I think it was over on Superfuture that had a thread where a raw denim company (Blueblood?) had a competition between the president, stocker, and floor salesman in terms of wear. The president thought he would "win" by washing the jeans a bunch of times when in reality all it did was lighten the color of the indigo. The other two didn't wash theirs as often and wore them in more, thus the effects were more dramatic.

It really all depends on how you want your end product to look. If you'd like a lighter color as shown on the iron heart site, feel free to wash them per their recommendations. Most people on here, however, prefer to only wash theirs after months and months of wear so that the contrast is more striking upon first wash. Want to save that dark indigo color as much as possible? Dry clean.
 
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Originally Posted by whodini
(Blueblood?)
Flathead. expert nutshell.
 

cheapmutha

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ok... you wash jeans when they are dirty. washing only removes loose indigo. the real key is not time not washed, but the intensity of wear on the jeans. i wash my canes evey couple of weeks, and they are fading beautifuly.
 
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Ironhearts (and other top tier japanese jeans) can stand more frequent washes better than say, Nudies, or whatever-whatever.
 

Maharlika

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I bit the bullet and ordered a pair of straight leg selvage Iron Heart from Self Edge yesterday. I should get it next week--- I'm excited. LAGuy's thread on 10 best jeans compelled me to get a pair of Rag and Bones ( RB 11 ) last week and have been wearing them everyday ever since.
 

drizzt3117

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It just depends on how you wear the jeans, how you want them to look etc. If you want them to stay nice and dark, and have higher contrast fades then don't wash them for a long time if at all. If you want them to be lighter with less contrast, wash less often. Personally I like my jeans to be dark with no fading, so I just rotate many pairs of dry denim and don't wash any of them.
 

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