Jeans Leans Peas
Researching Levi Strauss has hit many interesting doors. Kim Jin thinks Gregory Colbert might be too obscure to actually be counted a design icon, and then I thought of Levi's.
To actually tell you the truth, those pair of blue denim pants you have right now inside your wardrobe, be it from Lee, Superfine, Cheap Monday, J Brand, Acne or Gap, it all came from this dude Levi Strauss. He was the father of blue jeans and will always be it.
If he had not funded the patent for riveted jeans, then there would never have been denim pants to begin with. Here's some facts about Levi's that I never knew, and it might be interesting for you. :] He was not the creator of the material denim. It was rumoured this fabric came from a town in France called Nimes. He never tailored, designed or make a pair of jeans. Levi Strauss was a devout Jew and was fervent about his religion.
I'm not an extreme denim fan. I only have a Levi's and a Lee Cooper. Both straight, and I'm not fashionable enough to waste good jeans, for the new skinny ones that most people are trying to fit into. Which is actually kinda cool... but right now looks more of an emo trend locally than anything else.
Its All About Your Jeans
Some ground rules from Denimology.com - it helped tons on my research:
- Do not wear skinny jeans unless you are in a band (it's an under-the-age-of-25 piece)
- Do not wear baggy jeans unless you are in a gang
- Do not wear carpenter jeans unless you are a carpenter
- Do not wear tapered jeans. Ever. Self explanatory I think, haha..
Try not to wash your jeans regularly. According to resources, overwashed jeans might turn brittle, dry, and tear more easily than jeans worn for a longer period of time. It's the dirt and muck I tell you, haha it's the dirt and muck. Oh, and here's an article that's very interesting and enviromentally concerning:
How washing your jeans might cost the Earth
Quality Denim Brands (other than Levi's):
Claude Maus has extremely simple and basic jean designs that are rarely seen. It's not something that most people go for, but I personally dig their simplicity. Problem is it's hard to get it outside of Australia.
Nudie Jeans is probably one of the leading commercial denim wear companies in the world. Wearing a nudie shows some standard. The philosophy of Nudie jeans is to become part of your dreams. "The more you wear your jeans the more beautiful they get." is their life statement to you. Although Nudie markets more of men's jeans than women's, I'm sure anyone would dig their Fit Guide layout.. :]
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Some thing about the brand Cheap Monday you might like to watch out for. Their company logo is a skull with an inverted cross on it's forehead. Cheap Monday founder Bjorn Atldax insists he has a purpose beyond selling denim - to make young people question Christianity, which he calls a "force of evil".
Yeah, even though they have quality apparel for reasonable costs, I think we have to look behind the price tags sometimes, and see the agendas the designers lead and take before we accept their products. How sometimes leading worldly lives and christian lives can come down to the most minute of things like buying and choosing what to wear.