How To Take Care Of New Denim

Want to avoid inseam rips? Don’t like your denim bundling up in the back? Not only will knowing what style fits you best help you look better, but it will also help the longevity of your denim. Make sure you know your measurements because returning items, or worse, denial that something doesn’t fit, is never fun. Try on a few different cuts and grab what fits best, not what is trendy. Check the tightness in certain areas when you sit or do extraneous activities to see how much give you have or don’t have. Follow these an you’re on your way to a great bond with your denim because a great fitting pair of denim will look good and stand the tests of time.

While it’s a natural part of wearing in your brand new raw denim, “dry crocking” or “bleeding” of the indigo onto your oxford shirts, white sneakers, even your fingers, can prove to be a pain in the butt. Giving your denim a few cold soaks prior to wearing will remove a little of that excess indigo while still preserving most of it that’s ripe for the fading. It won’t complete negate the indigo bleeding onto other wares, but it will definitely help.

You want that Carmex blueberry lip moisturizer to be the lasting impression you leave on people with your denim? Probably not. While your wallet or cell phone will undoubtedly leave fades from general wear and are unavoidable, you probably don’t want to leave other silly objects in your pockets because they put a lot of pressure on your denim. This can leave embarrassing fades or loosening of the wefts, which can lead to tears. On the other hand, keeping something cool like brass knuckles or ninja stars in your back pocket can add some really cool character as your denim wears in a bit more and fades.

Andrew Chen of 3sixteen warns everyone to “repair them early on to avoid damages from getting worse.” Got a crotch blowout? If that isn’t taken care of early, it’ll turn into a torso blowout. “Darning” the denim is your best bet to repair as it weaves denim threads back into the damaged pair for a natural look with a cool effect. And if hems begin to fray, take care of it before the fray becomes loose and they have to hem them into jorts.

It’s always one’s first inclination to hit up the trusty cut ‘n sewer in town when your denim becomes ill-fitting. Things like saggy butts, bulging knees and stretched out thighs can drive a denim connoisseur crazy. But these things come with consistent wear, so prematurely tailoring may fix them for the time being. Then as soon as they touch water and dry, you may be left with some tight capris because of your impatience. So before you make any drastic tailoring decisions, see if a soak or wash can whip them back into shape and make all those stretched out places go back to the perfect fit you once knew and loved. But, if you’ve already made this common mistake, look on the bright side: your girl will probably love them.

Need to get a little funk out but aren’t really ready to give them a proper scrubbing? Put a steamer to them or hang them in the bathroom while taking a hot shower and let the steam from the water give them a “light wash.” The natural vapors don’t penetrate as well as a deep wash with soap, but it can definitely purify them a bit when you can’t fully commit just yet.

Hot drying your denim is a cardinal sin most denim makers try and warn you against unless you’ve completely worn them in. After you’ve given them their first or fifth scrubbing, air drying is still the way to go to make sure your denim keeps a good shape and avoid warping. Hot air causes shrinkage, while naturally letting the dampness dry away will help keep your denim’s shape and keep all of the subtle nuances you’ve been working at with them.

If you are folding your denim when you aren’t wearing them, or worse, tossing them on the ground in a ball, then why wear denim at all? By folding or balling up, you’re creating unnatural creases and essentially erasing all the hard work you’ve put into those great honeycombs and loss of indigo in those fades forming in the thigh and back of your knees. Hanging them by their loops not only helps keep their natural shape, but it airs them out, too.

We cannot reiterate this enough. Wash. Your. Denim. Yes, it’s okay to wear them to a point you feel like they’re pretty broken in, fit you like a glove and start to show those awesome signs of wear. But when they start smelling like you rubbed your dirty underwear on the outside of them, it doesn’t matter how great they look. You will be shunned. Give them a cold wash inside-out with them buttoned/zipped up to avoid and weird shrinkage. And if you’re worried about preserving the color, dry-clean ‘em. Nick Coe of RawrDenim.com also says that “by giving your denim a regular, healthy clean (frequency depends on how often and how hard you wear your jeans), you’ll avoid costly rips, tears, and blowouts and double—or triple—your denim’s lifespan.”

When push comes to shove, you ultimately know what you want out of your denim. How you want them to fit, feel, smell, look, etc. Ashley James from Ruell & Ray has a simple mantra; you wear them out of the store, soak/wash when dirty, then “hang dry. Do over.” It isn’t rocket science. Your denim is a part of you and your personality, so taking the proper precautions to ensure their longevity is great, but taking them with you on your daily adventures and not thinking twice about it can tell others where you’ve been. They represent you, so just like life, wear them until they can’t be worn anymore. But unlike life, you can then get them repaired and wear them some more.