There's no Such Thing as a Stupid Question
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What is the secret behind the diehard IH folks in Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Thailand, etc) that their heavyweights have so much contrast? Is it the humidity? Being closer to the sun year round??
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@popvulture said in There's no Such Thing as a Stupid Question:
All I know is that I’d be dying if I wore my IH in a climate like that, haha.
I really don't understand how folks do it...walking around in dirty, damp heavy denim all day long. That's gross imo. I guess it's worth it to some people for the fades.
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I cannot imagine wearing 21oz beyond 27C/80F along with humidity but that's just me.
I'm sure like Alex said these guys are acclimated to the climate.I know that sweat is a huge contributor to blowouts and other tears so that's why I'm confused on how these guys are able to go so long without washing.
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@jonpwn I’ve thought about this a lot. There are a few things I’ve come up with personally. The first and probably the most important is that they stick to one pair at a given time and wear it all the time. Depending on the labor of a given denim head, this greatly speeds up the process. We have a few here too, my mind comes to @Cutlasshound and @Jcaz6996 and @RoxRocks86 for working in your workwear folks.
Secondly I think is the washing techniques. Since it is hot and humid along with being worn, jeans get washed quite a bit. Differently than in the west. There are a few common ways. The hose down and dry. The bucket wash with powder detergent. And the sea/sand wash. Unless they live by the sea, chances are that this isn’t happening too often.
Lastly, there is a culture of preservation. Buying expensive denim isn’t in the cards for everyone. So when someone commits to a piece, it will worn for many years. It will be taken care of and repaired when needed. So over time with heavy wear and maintenance one can get super wild fades.I am speaking from mostly a Vietnamese perspective in this post. I certainly don’t speak for the people themselves. Just observations from the daily life of friends and monastics. Hope this helps!
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I tend to wear mine for a bit and then simply just wash them when they need it! In a good old fashioned washing machine nonetheless!
Have a pair of 21oz jeans that I turned into shorts and I actually find them to be more breathable/comfortable than the IH wabash painter pants that I turned into shorts.
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I’m in the same camp as @Cutlasshound - wear & wash as needed. 21oz softens up quite a bit and gets more breathable as it gets worn and torn imo. When I started getting into denim I definitely couldn’t understand how anyone could wear such heavy, thick material, but you adapt to it.
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I deffffffinitely agree with that. IH stuff blew me away with the weight at first, but now I feel like I'm wearing no pants if I go below 18oz
. And although I don't do it exclusively by any means, I've worn XHS in the summer plenty of times and been just fine. -
I’m sure this question has been asked many times, so one more time if you don’t mind… Why does it seem like a lot of people don’t like to wash their denim? Is it for the high contrast fades? structural reasons? Etc.??? I see people posting things like ‘320 wears, 1 wash and 2 soaks’ Please enlighten me.
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It's a facile construct promulgated by Nudies and Levi's. Call me old-fashioned but my mum taught me to wash shit when it got dirty or smelt, I still do that. Having said that, I do try and delay the first wash for as long as possible to set combs etc. Not washing will give you high contrast fades but will also mess with the structural integrity of the constructional stitching and the denim itself.
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@Denman-John I used to be this way inclined (less so nowadays) but I got into denim around 2008 when the guy at my local store told me not to wash my jeans for 6 months when I purchased a pair of Edwins. He drew my attention to his faded jeans and explained the whole idea of fading and creating a unique piece of 'wearable art' and I thought it was cool as hell.
Went and joined some denim forums and follow related accounts in the early days of Instagram and everyone seemed to subscribe to this 'wash as little as possible' mantra, so I followed suit and spent ten years of my life in stinky, dirty, but incredibly faded jeans
It wasn't until joining this forum that I realised that people still had amazing looking jeans when they washed them more regularly, so I relaxed my dogmatic views on washing and started to appreciate the fabrics themselves rather than how drastically they were faded.
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Next question … indigo transfer. I’ve had some indigo transfer from my jeans to boots and white shirts. Is there a way to stop this indigo transfer from happening, or do we wear it like a badge of honour? For reference, the jeans haven’t been washed yet … will it stop once they are washed?
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@Denman-John in my experience, usually takes 2/3 washes for it to stop completely.
Can also depends on the way the jeans have been dyed and wether they have been pre-washed.
