To Cuff or Not to Cuff?
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Generally…
-Bootcut : no cuff
-Straight cut : cuff
-Denim that has same color inside (over dye or else): no cuff
-"Regular" blue jeans: cuff -
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Of course it is personal taste, I'm not arguing, do as you like, no one cares right? Point is people we are wearing vintage styled clothing made on old vintage machines using traditional methods, following traditional cuts and stitching, why, because it works and we dig that. And ALL jeans traditionally were worn with cuffs (some say so cowboys later bikers could put their ciggies in the cuff within reach while on horseback/bike) and they would only ever have one turn up so you can see the union stitching and of course the selvage colour, Levis had red, Lee blue and Wrangler green, we IH red. Turn-ups went through mods, hippies, sharpies, californian skaters, skins, punks, new wave. Outlaws, bad guys, the common man all wore denim and they ALL wore them turned up. Wear yours turned down and blend in, you will for sure. Wear them turned up and instantly stand apart and feel what denim and all that history feels like and what it stands for. Peace.
I never cuff and don't really like the look, but this just made me think twice, haha
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that is a great post by simonc.
thanks for reminding me about it nerkg, great times
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Well….looks like I'm not needed anymore
7tacos said exactly what I would have said. And that old post of Simonc's is a brilliant one.
btw. before I got my SugarCanes (1947, double cuffed) 1½ year ahead of my IH's I wore uncuffed bootcuts for at least 20 years or so...My first IH's were a second hand pair of 461 bootcuts, which are worn ofcourse uncuffed.
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I was reading his thread because it seems I as a stacker/recovering single-cuffer am in the extreme minority here. I was stricken by the post claiming cowboys and bikers used to cuff their jeans, so we should too, as it is philosophically interesting but not at all how I think. I wanted to probe this and see how others think on the matter–it was a cool post and well-received, but I differ with it. When I cuffed jeans, it was because I liked the look or was wearing light shoes that I wanted to protect from indigo. Not an homage to anything.
Many cowboys also bloused their jeans, tucking them inside their boots, to reduce the amount of dirt they would pick up. This is also true of bikers in the early 20th century. Should we follow that tradition as well? What about tucking shirts in? (Not THIS cowboy!) Must wearing "period costumes" necessarily follow from an appreciation of vintage styled and constructed clothing, or have we selected a subset of vintage style that is timeless and thus can be worn many different ways in many different eras? It's an interesting thought. For this iconoclast, vintage style clothing and how it was worn within the era of their invention are orthogonal, and I can appreciate and wear vintage clothing without trying to recreate, say, a fifties greaser look or some other "costume." Though I think the "costumes" generally look cool.
Forgive my idle martini-fueled thoughts in the airport waiting for my flight
