Earnest Sewn Launches Vintage Exchange
Earnest Sewn announced their Vintage Exchange program asking their loyal customers to bring back their well worn, well loved, original Earnest Sewn Jeans to any of the brand's retail stores, in exchange for a discount on a new pair. I paid Benjamin Talley Smith, Earnest Sewn's Design Director, a visit to check out the life cycle of a pair of jeans in the Vintage Exchange.
Earnest Sewn graphic designer, Jared Seavers provided the first Exchange to be put into production. Starting with the Kyree.xx, the dark denim on the left, Jared wore his jeans for over a year and a half before putting them in a cold wash and hanging them to dry. In their lifetime, they've seen the laundry only three times.
Emphasising denim's personal nature, seen in the middle photo and with the orange loop, every mark and repair on Jared's jeans have a story. He keeps his pen in his right front pocket; cell phone in the left. His keys have torn his back left pocket requiring only one repair while his wallet has destroyed his back right pocket requiring mending three times. While walking me through this yearbook of denim, Jared coined the name of the wash inspired by his own jeans: the Watson, after his DJ persona.
The final product will be style FULTON.337 in Watson, as seen on the right, and hits shelves for Holiday 2009.
To participate in the Vintage Exchange program, bring any worn Earnest Sewn jeans to one of their three retail locations. They'll tag it with the dates you've owned it and your name and then give you 30% off a new pair of your choice. If the wash hits stores, it will be named after you and given a tag marking the history of the jean. And of course, send us a picture!
'Do It Yourself' Jeans - Bleach Wash & Studs
Some of the new fashion washes in the stores this Spring look strangely like they were done at home by the designer playing around in their kitchen, with their studs, tie-dye, ripping and marbling. One of our favourite fashion bloggers, Mimi Jung of BrookandLyn, is an expert denim d.i.y.-er and has great instructions for achieving the crushed/tie-dyed bleach look currently retailing from Siwy and others. Doing it yourself means you a guaranteed a unique pair of jeans. Just take care with bleach and sharp tools, and perhaps try the technique out on an old pair of jeans before attempting to alter your beloved J Brands! Mimi has bleached-out her jeans at home, and we love the addition of the studs, but these jeans would look as cool with just the bleach wash. Her instructions are really simple, and for bleaching, we recommend trying five parts water to one part bleach as a starting point, but let us know how you get on!
First take a pair of dark beat up jeans and wrinkled them into a tight ball. Then fill a bucket with water plus bleach (preferably with a top so you keep the smell contained) and dumped the balled up jeans into the bucket. After about one hour you should start to see some bleached results (cheap jeans bleach out faster but really well made dark denim takes a long time to bleach). Once you reached the desired color and pattern rinse them as much a possible to get the smell out, warning the bleached color that is left on the jeans will come out so wash alone. Once dried stud them on the sides with 1/4″ metal studs as desired.
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Matthew McConaughey in Levi's Jeans
Matthew McConaughey wears his Levi's Jeans while he and his son Levi go shopping in Malibu. Matthew McCoanughey recently confessed to Rachel Ray that he loves taking his 8-month-old son Levi with him wherever he goes. Collectively now, awwwwwww!
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Shenae Grimes in Levi's Denim Shorts
The new 90210 actress Shenae Grimes wears a pair of Urban Outfitters Urban Renewal Levi's Destroyed Denim Shorts when buying some artwork from 'All That Jazz'. What a nice smile. I love that!
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Chuck's Vintage Guide To Vintage Levi's
But the REAL premium denim, and the denim that demands small fortunes, continue to be vintage. One of kind pieces that serve as inspiration to today's denim designers and Holy Grail collector's items to enthusiasts worldwide. What makes "old" jeans, vintage? What are the major things to look for, the key elements that turn your grandfather's old work pants into historically significant collector's items? Here are a couple of the big ones:
Selvage 501 LevisSelvage Denim: Selvage denim refers to denim that has been loomed on the now-outmoded shuttle loom. These looms were the standard machinery for making textiles from the mid 1800's through the 1970's. Fabric made on these looms are narrow off the bolt, usually right around 30" wide, and have finished edges (Shuttle looms were once known as "Self-Edging" looms...which later became the term "selvage"). This type of denim, produced on the old looms are often times more irregular and grainy, a result of the natural imperfection in the engineering of the old machinery. This irregularity, known as yarn-character, gives vintage denim it's tell tale look. As shuttle looms were retired, and replaced by contemporary projectile looms, subcultures developed that valued the superior quality, and natural beauty of the original, selvage fabrics. The first major hurdle for denim to be considered of significant vintage is to determine if its selvage: Check the out seam.... Woven, finished edges, or raw edged fabric with over lock stitching??..... Finished edges?...Good.... Keep reading.
WWII LevisContinued (with more photos)...
A Vintage Year for AG Adriano Goldschmied
AG Adriano Goldschmied's line of AG-ed vintage-washed jeans has become a huge success story, despite the economic downturn. The line features vintage looking denim, aged as if it had been worn from 3 to 30 years. With price tags of $225 to $325, the AG-ed line has grown in just a year to account for 40 percent of AG's total sales. They say their most popular wash is the 10 year, a medium vintage wash. Above and below are a couple of our favorite picks from this line, all are available at RevolveClothing.com.
