What is your Denim/ Clothing Life Story?
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My story started when I was in my early 20's and I would see the most amazing pair of jeans. I'd say where did that guy find those Levi's I'v never seen them. I would go and search but could never find them. eventually giving up. It took me 15 years to figure out what fits i liked and that no pre distressed denim turns out like that guy i saw in my 20's. So I just recently hit the internet typing and searching for how people get such great jeans. I stumbled on this website and so goes my journey to the perfect pair of jeans I saw in my 20's
http://denimhunters.com/az/guide-eng#more-5559 -
When I was 17 and in high school, My friend awakened my thirst for shoes. I spent countless hours looking at shoes all day from these shoe websites, to which I learned about raw denim via the people from the forums. I researched about raw denim and found it fascinating how people could show so much character through their denim.
I knew that I had to get started on wearing raw denim. My only problem was money, I had no job and no one to give me money, my dad is very frugal and does not enjoy buying expensive garments so he is always out of the option to ask for money. So I saved my lunch money sometimes, and recycled aluminum cans to get money. Since my dad was frugal, we often went to thrift stores to look for deals, I kept my hopes up and prayed that I would stumble upon a pair of vintage Levis or Wranglers but alas I was not lucky. I looked into second hand stores until I found Wasteland which is basically a higher quality version of a thrift store. In that store I was able to find ACNE's that was a 32/34 which was my size. My world was full of joy and I rushed to my house to soak it once and wear it, this was the turning point of my life, to which I swore not to buy jeans from the mall ever again. Today I have 3 pairs of exquisite denim ;D. Yes, I'm young.
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Great story mate…Ur love for denim will only get
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All right I'll bite, my first specific denim I have any memory of sentimental attachment to starts when I was about 13. My step dad having hit his 30's spread passed on a pair of Levi's 505 to me. I wore the dog out of them, boots, shoes, tight roll cuffs, you name it, I rocked it in this pair. By the time I hit 15, and my first job, this pair was toast. It was at this point I began my first foray into the denim market as a buyer. The problem with me is I have always been thin, so 501, 505, and other regular fit thighs have always just swallowed me whole, despite my love of my previous 505.
With this in mind, and the western love running rampant in the early to mid 90's, I found my first pair of Wrangler 936DEN. Rigid as hell for what I was used to, this pair would set the tone for the rest of my life. As High School progressed, I bought everything in that cut Wrangler made, however a problem emerged. As popularity grew, my favorite manufacturer started messing with where they were producing their garments. So by my senior year, I had already started reaching toward other brands. My next choice would be from a new company who was offering a new model at my favorite retailer, Cinch. Logic would tell you that a relaxed fit Green Label is even farther from my typical slim fit than was the straight legs I started with, but this is the 90's, little made sense.
I moved from these to Diamond Cut jeans, to other Cinch models, to Levi's 501's and 527's, to Lucky's but absolutely nothing was leaving me satisfied with my purchases. I remember quite vividly the conversation that would lead me to where I am today. In 2010 I had set a buddy up with a place to stay,and being of similar dimensions we would always scope out what the other had on. I remember lamenting my issues with jeans to him, as I could average six months in a pair before the back pockets started peeling and it mattered not if I spent $20 or $100. His reply would eventually change the game for me, "You could always spend $300 on a pair of raw jeans like the hipster kids do". My reply was along the lines of 'if you see me spend that much on a pair of jeans just fuckin shoot me'. Fast forward a couple years, and add a couple years of discontent with my purchases, and we get together with the same cat. Only this time he shows up in a brand new pair of 634s. After a lot of admiration, I put the thought behind me, thinking he's insane for footing such a hefty price for a pair of jeans.
That is, until I finally did it. Did what you may ask, after all of this, what led me to pull the trigger on my first pair of quality denim? A calculator! I sat down and figured up what I had spent in 5 years on jeans and it scared the shit out of me. By the estimates I could see, I had spent $300 more on inferior quality goods than I would have spent buying the high end stuff to begin with, and this was based on my most conservative estimates. Setting my mind to correct such an egregious error, I found IH was absolutely the pinnacle of quality for the money. Finally after months of comparative shopping, searching the net, and asking everyone available, I purchased my first pair of 666XHS on Rakuten.
After a week in, I knew I wasn't turning back. My wife loves them, which is marker 1. The fit both in comfort and aesthetics is spot on, marker 2. The weight and quality is beyond what I could dream, marker 3.
I am saving money long run, marker 4. The companies' business model meets the ethical conundrums I kept running into with other brands, marker 5. The ethics of both the proprietor and distributor are admirable, in a way I never thought I would find. If anyone ever wonders why I am so enthusiastic about this forum, this brand, these people, remind them to read this. -
Back in the days I skated a lot, I sucked so I did a lot of faceplants and stuff like that
I always was on the hunt for quality jeans, but I looked for them in Streetwear and Skate shops, so I owned a lot of Carhartt and Levis. Then, some years ago, I bought a Selvedge 501 Levis, then a 13.5oz Norse Projects jeans and then my first 634S (Dec 2011). Thank you Google
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I've always worn jeans, as far back as I can remember. I remember being a kid in the 1970's and wearing Levi's and Wranglers, and I pretty much stuck with them through my teens in the 80's (mostly 501's). I do remember the whole "stonewashed" craze, and I shudder to think about walking around in public in those, but hell, it was the 80's. I do know that it was about that time that I started being dissatisfied with the way jeans were fitting me– I was pretty skinny, and jeans were pretty high rise at that point.
This continued through the 90's, I think at some point I started wearing Gap jeans because they fit a lot better than all the Levi's I tried on. In the early 2000's, my roommate's girlfriend started talking about Diesel jeans, and how great they fit, and how girls loved guys in Diesel jeans.
Well, she didn't have to tell me twice. I think this is where my jeans obsession truly started.
After I bought a few pairs of Diesels off of eBay, I started hearing about Seven and True Religion, and bought a pair each of those. Luckily, I figured out pretty quickly that I didn't like "fancy" jeans. Plus, now that I was spending more money on jeans, it was pissing me off that the quality and durability weren't improving. I started trying to figure out if there were better jeans out there, that fit well but were more traditional. I discovered Earnest Sewn, and went through about a one year fling with those. But somewhere during that year (probably 2009-2010) I started hearing about raw denim, and how much better a worn-in pair of raw denim looked compared to artificially worn jeans, and that raw denim lasted longer because they weren't already beat to hell from day one. Plus I liked the whole idea of your jeans being unique to you because they would conform to your body and fade in a unique way.
This research, of course, led me to Nudies and mynudies.com. I bought one pair (Straight Sven Japanese selvage, which I still have) before discovering Superfuture, which led me to PBJ (005, 007, and 005bk, all of which I still have and love even though I never wear them), then Samurai (710 and 710 Black Shadows, still have and wear both occasionally, the regular 710's were my HWDC1 pair and are my best fitting and best faded pair), and finally IH (BB01's and SEXIHXLSXA13's). I'm happy to have finally discovered true quality jeans with PBJ, IH, and Samurai, and that these jeans will give me years of wear and will only look better as time goes by. This has led me to an overall appreciation of quality clothing in general, I love the idea of having clothes that are rugged enough and timeless enough to still be a part of my life many years down the road.
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Just briefly, mine goes like this..
Wore 501's throughout my teens.. Dont think they were selvedge, but who knows. Didnt know what that was untill much later.
Bought my first pair of expensive jeans in my mid 20's - Ksubi. Then another pair.. Looking back now I can see what a rip off they were.
Late 20's I moved on to Nudie, buying a pair of Straight Sven pre distressed, and probably fking horrible looking, but liked the cut. Then another pair of Nudies, Straight Sven Dry Selvedge - this was when i first knew what Selvedge was and i fkn loved these jeans. Then another pair - Regular Ralf Organic Selvedge (or some such) which weren't as good as the SSDS's.
From there, in 2010 I think it was and now about 35 years old I moved on to Eternal 811, then a week later a pair of IH-634S, both through Rakuten vendors.
Since 2010 I now currently own (that I can think of) Iron Heart 634S, Eternal 811, SDA-101, LVC 501xx '55, PBJ xx010, Edwin Nashville, Edwin Sen, Edwin ED47, RJB106BSP, Skull 5000xx, Samurai s5000vx, IH-666D and maybe even more. On-sold other jeans from Iron Heart, SDA, RJB, Samurai and others due to sizing problems and the like.
You could say it was the IH634s that got all of this started proper. I havent added it up, nor will i ever do so. Addiction indeed.
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I've always worn jeans. When I was a kid, the brand was pretty unimportant to me. As I grew, and grew, and grew some more (I'm 6'1"), I couldn't wear girl's or women's jeans any more. I remember when I was in like the 8th grade in the early 90s, I "borrowed" a pair of my Dad's old Levi's 501s, and I wore the snot out of them almost every day pretty much all the way through high school. I also had a pair of Lee jeans, that I'm pretty sure were 101s, that I got in a thrift store. They were already worn and ripped all to shit, and I sewed a peace-sign patch over a hole in the back pocket. (Whaddya want, it was the 90s!?) Anyhoo, eventually I was lured into more designer denim. I went through a regrettable Diesel phase that was encouraged by my older sister, and again by my Dad's hand-me-downs.
I'm not sure how it actually happened, but I was living in San Francisco, circa 2009. I'm pretty sure I must have seen something related to Self Edge or Japanese denim on the internet, because I remember distinctly feeling excited about the idea of heavier, longer-lasting jeans, and discovering that Iron Heart was the heaviest. Then, I ended up doing a bunch of research and learning a bit about this whole world of denim culture that I had no clue even existed. This all culminated with a trip to Self Edge where I tried on a bunch of jeans, and finally settled on a pair of 9301s. They were so crunchy and heavy, they felt like armor! I felt invincible. I still sometimes feel that way when I put on that pair. Also, the inseam was so long, I had to cuff it! It was like Christmas.
Since then, I've dabbled a bit with other brands, but I keep coming back to Iron Heart.
