Lino
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- Apr 17, 2006
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Between the time I was in 5th grade and until I was out of college, I wore jeans and only jeans day to day. To give some perspective, I graduated college in 1991.
Back in elementary school I was a Wranglers kid, but at some point in Jr. High I switch to Levis. Back the oprions for me were simple 501 or 505, straight leg, "pre-shrunk" or not. Levis came in basically one color of bue too. Both the "pre-shrunk" and non-pre-shrunk started out stiff as a board, the only difference was the you did not have to worry about sizing issues as much (btw, both behaved the same way when it came to fading and breaking in). Also, unless my memory is failing me, the non-pre-shrunk version was sized so that it would fit correctly after you washed it"”unlike the "Shrink to Fit" Levis of today where you need to buy two sizes larger (great example of markting gone wild).
In the mid-80's stone washed hit, which was OK, until the color started getting lighter and lighter (let's not talk about acid washed, which I can honestly say I avoided). It seems that around that time pre-shrunk and what would now be called raw were totally eclipsed by stone washed, which seem to have reined supreme in Levis-land for qite a while.
The thing is, over all of that time, and even up to about 2002, things do not seem to have changed much, the denim seemed to remain about the same weight, quality took a bit of a dive around 2000 (not as long lasting, but visually the same and the weight still there), cut seems to have stayed consistant as well.
But now, OY! The weight is lighter, the cut is different (from rise to pocket depth, everything seems to have been tweaked) and worst of all the demin is well crap. The demin is lighter, colors just plain weird, and there is something wrong with the texture of the demin (rather than the usual perfect tight diagnal twill line, the rows are not even and there is a streaking common to most demin today that I find hideous"”it started with chain store (like J. Crew) jeans for women, but now seems to all over).
So, where oh where should one turn for:
1) a basic "classic" (as in pre-stone wash era jeans) that are pre-shrunk, so I can try them on and be relatively sure they will still fit and I can live in and make my own (fading caused by me, my rips and wear, etc.) and is still hard wearing. And is low enough in cost that I would actual not blink at doing a days garden work in them...oh my!
2) same as above, but if I was willing to spend some money to get what I want.
Thanks,
Michael
Back in elementary school I was a Wranglers kid, but at some point in Jr. High I switch to Levis. Back the oprions for me were simple 501 or 505, straight leg, "pre-shrunk" or not. Levis came in basically one color of bue too. Both the "pre-shrunk" and non-pre-shrunk started out stiff as a board, the only difference was the you did not have to worry about sizing issues as much (btw, both behaved the same way when it came to fading and breaking in). Also, unless my memory is failing me, the non-pre-shrunk version was sized so that it would fit correctly after you washed it"”unlike the "Shrink to Fit" Levis of today where you need to buy two sizes larger (great example of markting gone wild).
In the mid-80's stone washed hit, which was OK, until the color started getting lighter and lighter (let's not talk about acid washed, which I can honestly say I avoided). It seems that around that time pre-shrunk and what would now be called raw were totally eclipsed by stone washed, which seem to have reined supreme in Levis-land for qite a while.
The thing is, over all of that time, and even up to about 2002, things do not seem to have changed much, the denim seemed to remain about the same weight, quality took a bit of a dive around 2000 (not as long lasting, but visually the same and the weight still there), cut seems to have stayed consistant as well.
But now, OY! The weight is lighter, the cut is different (from rise to pocket depth, everything seems to have been tweaked) and worst of all the demin is well crap. The demin is lighter, colors just plain weird, and there is something wrong with the texture of the demin (rather than the usual perfect tight diagnal twill line, the rows are not even and there is a streaking common to most demin today that I find hideous"”it started with chain store (like J. Crew) jeans for women, but now seems to all over).
So, where oh where should one turn for:
1) a basic "classic" (as in pre-stone wash era jeans) that are pre-shrunk, so I can try them on and be relatively sure they will still fit and I can live in and make my own (fading caused by me, my rips and wear, etc.) and is still hard wearing. And is low enough in cost that I would actual not blink at doing a days garden work in them...oh my!
2) same as above, but if I was willing to spend some money to get what I want.
Thanks,
Michael
