First high-quality jeans purchase advice needed - jeans for business

Hello Forum Members,

I've been reading many threads here and learning. Here are my questions.

I'm a single guy in my late 30s. I work in computers. You can guess that I've never spent much time picking good clothes and so on. Time to change it. It's time for me to pay attention.

I work in a professional office environment, and I love jeans and I have discovered that the Japanese are making some awesomely high quality jeans these days. I'm perfectly willing to spend hundreds of dollars on a single pair of jeans so I think I should have many to choose from. I love that they are hand-made and super-high quality.

Here's my question: I can't wear excessively faded jeans to work. I absolutely cannot wear any jeans that look ripped or worn. I can't wear jeans that have excessively large logos or painted-on stuff. I can wear jeans that look clean and neat. Which brands / styles should I look at that will keep looking "neat" the longest? I saw some Sugar Cane jeans that looked great, as well as some other Japanese brands, just wondering what I should go for. I guess what I'm asking is, which are the high-quality Japanese jeans that are suited to a conservative look.

I'm pretty excited to get into my first pair of $300 (or more) hand-made top-quality Japanese jeans.

Btw, I discovered this world through William Gibson's recent book which made the concept of high-end jeans make sense to me.

Are you planning to wear the jeans outside the office? If you aren't I think any pair might do - especially if you treat them like the business-appropriate pants you wear now around the office. I think Iron Hearts might be a good option, I'd stay away from the lighter fabrics that Nudie and APC offer as they are notorious for having a short lifespan.

Edit: Which book was it?

Originally Posted by dro-_-

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Iron Heart, Samurai, or Flat Head

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I read somewhere that Flat Head in particular was somewhat meant to fade with high contrast..

buy a pair of deep dark indigo jeans and pair it with a blazer for work, you'll be fine.

Originally Posted by NotTooLate

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Hello Forum Members,

I've been reading many threads here and learning. Here are my questions.

I'm a single guy in my late 30s. I work in computers. You can guess that I've never spent much time picking good clothes and so on. Time to change it. It's time for me to pay attention.

I work in a professional office environment, and I love jeans and I have discovered that the Japanese are making some awesomely high quality jeans these days. I'm perfectly willing to spend hundreds of dollars on a single pair of jeans so I think I should have many to choose from. I love that they are hand-made and super-high quality.

Here's my question: I can't wear excessively faded jeans to work. I absolutely cannot wear any jeans that look ripped or worn. I can't wear jeans that have excessively large logos or painted-on stuff. I can wear jeans that look clean and neat. Which brands / styles should I look at that will keep looking "neat" the longest? I saw some Sugar Cane jeans that looked great, as well as some other Japanese brands, just wondering what I should go for. I guess what I'm asking is, which are the high-quality Japanese jeans that are suited to a conservative look.

I'm pretty excited to get into my first pair of $300 (or more) hand-made top-quality Japanese jeans.

Btw, I discovered this world through William Gibson's recent book which made the concept of high-end jeans make sense to me.

You're probably going to need something on which the indigo will not fade easily - brands like The Flat Head or Samurai won't be any good to you, since they fade and wear very fast.

I could suggest the permanent indigo dye jeans from Pure Blue Japan or Triple Works, or a pair of Studio D'Artisan jeans (most fade and wear rather slowly).

Alternatively, if you have $$$ to blow, buy a pair of hank dyed (not rope dyed) natural indigo jeans...they will fade much slower, generally speaking, than most synthetic indigo, and the blue is infinitely better.

For raw denim newbs it's discouraging when they start out with slow faders. So I recommend against it. Even fast faders will fade slowly because of his job. So Flat Head, Sammies were good recommendations

^ Judging from his post I don't think he's very interesting in the fading process. I would seriously consider the PBJ permanent indigo though, it has the advantage of no back pocket stitching, which will probably be more suitable in the work environment.

Originally Posted by david3558

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Edit: Which book was it?

Zero History. Anyone who is into Japanese denim may be interested in that book. Very well written in my opinion.

Originally Posted by mikecch

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You're probably going to need something on which the indigo will not fade easily - brands like The Flat Head or Samurai won't be any good to you, since they fade and wear very fast.

Thanks for the pointer on that. That's the kind of info I need. I don't want to spend $$$ on jeans and then find out that they fade quickly.

Originally Posted by mikecch

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I could suggest the permanent indigo dye jeans from Pure Blue Japan or Triple Works, or a pair of Studio D'Artisan jeans (most fade and wear rather slowly).

I'll look for those.

Originally Posted by mikecch

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Alternatively, if you have $$$ to blow,

I do...

Originally Posted by mikecch

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buy a pair of hank dyed (not rope dyed) natural indigo jeans...they will fade much slower, generally speaking, than most synthetic indigo, and the blue is infinitely better.

Ok, which brands or types are that? That sounds like the info I'm looking for.

Thanks, this forum is cool! I post and within an hour get half a dozen good responses!

C'mon, dudes... we've already been over this.

In a professional work enviroment, especially if you're looking to get ahead, I think you should stay away from wearing jeans, even if they are acceptable.

Also, if you don't want your jeans to fade too quickly, stay away from very skinny fits, (though i doubt you would be wearing those in a professional office enviroment!) they tend to whisker and fade faster than their looser counterparts.

Just curious, for people that spend $300+ on raw jeans but dont want them to fade what do they do when they eventually end up fading? Sell it?

Originally Posted by Vaio

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In a professional work enviroment, especially if you're looking to get ahead, I think you should stay away from wearing jeans, even if they are acceptable.

Jeans are perfectly fine. It's a creative type of business, but with some very big customers, so conservative jeans work fine.

Originally Posted by Vaio

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Also, if you don't want your jeans to fade too quickly, stay away from very skinny fits, (though i doubt you would be wearing those in a professional office enviroment!) they tend to whisker and fade faster than their looser counterparts.

Definitely, no skinny jeans for me!

Originally Posted by clarksdb

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Just curious, for people that spend $300+ on raw jeans but dont want them to fade what do they do when they eventually end up fading? Sell it?

No, wear them on weekends, and also I do lots of "adventure" travel and can wear them when I'm visiting Caracas or Morocco or similar places!

Studio D'Artisan is probably making more natural indigo pieces than any other brand at the moment.
My only complaint is that they tend to stick to indigo from only a few areas.
Also could keep an eye out for the higher end Sugar Cane jeans if they ever decide to release 100% natural indigo models again - they tend to use interesting variants of indigo from a few different places.

Get some Iron Heart 634s. They will outlast you, and for as heavy as they are, they are super soft.

Helmut Lang raws. Very clean design and a super slow fade.