[SJC]

A thread devoted to the evolution and care of your denim.

Firstly your denim will be "Raw" this is also known as "Dry" or "Loomstate".  Your SJC denim (in most cases) has had zero post weave treatment done to it; no washing, sanforizing, anti-skewing, soaking, ie your denim has had none of this and is exactly how denim was originally made and sold. 


Info on Denim







Modern denim is treated/washed to prevent shrinkage, using above methods, usually for commercial reasons to remove the chance of returns or customer confusion with sizing.

More Raw Info

SJC being a heritage based company has decided to sell denim in its purest state, raw, this is because of the advantages of raw denim actually far outweigh pre-washed, or sanforized denim.  How?  When raw denim has the best possible chance of forming to your shape as it wears.  SJC denim is sewn dry in a loomstate and then once you get it, and soak it, the seams will twist and rope and fight with the sewing, chain stitching bite into the denim, seams will pull together and tighten.  Then as you wear it and stretch it, it will give and stretch back out to your form.  It will develop texture, shape and character, and fades at points on your body where pressure points naturally occur, while the piece continues to mould around your body, and this of course is due to starting with a raw material and thus a very good thing.

 


NOTE: SHRINKING
All vertical measurements will shrink at the same ratio as the inseam shrinkage
All horizontal measurements will shrink at the same ratio as the waist shrinkage
So say the shrinkage of the inseam in 2" over 36", that is 5.55% shrinkage  

We aim for all SJC denim to finish at the size chart you buy it at, which means we are overcompensating by 6%.
Jackets will shrink 1.5cm in the arms, length and 1.5cm across the chest, ergo we will increase the sizing by 6%. 

Leg Twist (a good thing if you are lucky enough to get one)
TWIST AWAY

Washing.  There is a multitude of nonsense out there about when to and how to and not to wash.  Here is the answer: wash when dirty. Just as you would wash anything else, including yourself, hygiene people, hygiene.  Warm Wash 30 degs, and turn inside out, including shirts.  Hang to dry.  Don't iron, denim is something that should upset your mother, especially when worn wrinkled.



Please post questions, answers, and pictures of the evolution of your denim.

[M/M]

Excellent news!

Nothing better than raw denim!

Here is my take on the stuff ( not looking to disagree with the above -but this is my view - take it or leave it).

Washing:

Lots of folks advocate not washing denim for like a year or so. There's a phrase for those folks. Starts with "dirty" and ends with "bastards".

And the word "smelly" is in there somewhere.

And don't believe the hype that if you can't smell it, it must be OK. The human nose, back whenever, was a defence mechanism, which is programmed to ignore local smells. So you might not pick it up, but believe me, if you don't wash your jeans, you WILL stink.

So if you want to minimise shrinkage, but not make folks feint from the stench of your crotch and your underarms, wash your denim cold. Seemples.

If you hot wash it, then the normal shrinkage is around 10%. If folks tell you less, they are lying!

If you find that you've ordered too big, wash it on 90 degrees. It will f***ing shrink!

Ironing:

Do you think the folks back in the 30's and 40's went out without ironing their clothes?

Of course they didn't. They wanted to look their best. And that ironing helped the fading process of their denim.

So, if you want your denim to gain "patina" (and you don't want to look like a tramp) iron your denim with the hottest iron you can find.


Boiling:

This, unfortunately, is not an option for most folks, these days.

But if you can find yourself a clothes boiler ( my dear old Mum, bless her, had a fabulous one that boiled all my denim once a week back in the 60's), then you can get the most fabulous fades on your denim.

Unfortunately, most modern denimheads wouldn't know a clothes boiler if it attacked them in the street - or is that just a grumpy old Lee Rider freak having a moan?

You be the judge 

[Spritle]

What ever you do, avoid the Spin Cycle!
It leaves faded "lines" on your denim. Washing in the machine is fine as long as you pull out before the spin.

[Edward]

Aren't those lined 'fade's what the denimheads are all after? I've never tended to drop the spin cycle, but then I live in a flat where for much of the year I can't even dry on the balcony... no spin cycle = smelly denim cause it didn't dry out fast enough....

Great thread! Don't think I've owned raw denim before - Freddies are all sanfordised. Not sure about the Soldier of Fortune jeans (I wore those for a couple of weeks from the off before washing, and they turned my legs blue as a smurf! :lol: ). Were the first run of SJCs sanfordised, or just one wash? I'm still not quite clear on the differences there.

Any pictures of leg twist? Is that what Levis were trying to emulate with their "Engineer" jeans of about fifteen to twenty years ago?

[Spritle]

I will post a picture, but No, they are not the desired kind of fading.
These come from where they get smooshed against the side of the washer. Arbitrary lines going any-which-way. Nothing "lived in" about 'em.

[Unkraut]

I think he means smaller lines randomly splattered all over the garment. Only an issue with heavy weight stuff lightweight denim won't get those as visible.  I got them on vintage non-denim cotton garments too sadly.

"Fades" are bigger and on stress points and folds.

Edit: I wrote too slow 

[Spritle]

This happened first wash. It is Not from ironing or how I store them.
No more spin for me.

[Edward]

I washed a pair of current British prison-issue jeans recently, spin cycle and all. Where they'd been lying folded in the washpile, it's produced fades that look like lightning forks. I'm really not into this fade voodoo normally (much rather keep the colour straight and uniform all over, if I had the choice), but these do look kinda cool.

[SJC]

Yes Edward me too.  BUT.  If you turn your denim inside out you prevent this web effect very simply.  The other option of course to maintain the indigo count in the denim is just dry clean your denim once a month.  Perhaps do one wash, to shrink to fit, then dry clean.  Just sayin'. 

[Unkraut]

Yes Edward me too.  BUT.  If you turn your denim inside out you prevent this web effect very simply.  The other option of course to maintain the indigo count in the denim is just dry clean your denim once a month.  Perhaps do one wash, to shrink to fit, then dry clean.  Just sayin'. 

Not true. I turned it inside out and still got the lines. Maybe it depends on the machine (spinning rate) or the denim. I washed the big B and another lighter pair together and the lighter pair shows less of it.

[M/M]

If these kind of lines are bothersome, then just don't use a machine.

Just immerse the garments in COLD water, with some low temp liquid cleaner.

Leave to soak, and lightly agitate every ten minutes or so.

Do that for around an hour.

Then rinse a few times, again in COLD water.

Then hang out to dry.

It is a bit more time and effort than using a machine, but your denim will look darker for longer.

[Unkraut]

I know. But saying "just turn it inside out" for machine wash would be plain misleading.

That's the point I wanted to make.

[M/M]

I know. But saying "just turn it inside out" for machine wash would be plain misleading.

Dead right  

[SJC]

I was referring to avoiding the lines one gets from spinning.  You will get the lines but on the inside.

[Unkraut]

No, on the outside too. Trust me. I really turned it inside out. They are not too bad but to avoid them completly I would just advice hand washing. It's the savest bet.