We don’t mean green jeans like the color of Kermit the frog.  By green jeans, we mean reduced, reused, or recycled denim. Yeah, like… paper, plastic, denim, aluminum…  Wait, what?  Bingo.  Recycled denim.

No matter how organic the cotton on your new jeans, no matter how environmentally friendly the denim company office practices, no matter the lengths a plant goes to in order to produce a green jean, the energy needed to create a new jean is still much more than the energy you’d be saving by finding a new, household use for an old pair that would otherwise be thrown in your wardrobe waste bin.

To us, being green when it comes to jeans doesn’t necessarily require purchasing anything at all.  You don’t even have to pay fifty cents for that pair of cutoffs at the Salvation Army reserved solely for your desperate housewives car wash drive or splurge on EBAY for those vintage jeans that just turn up on the side of a mountain in, oh, I don’t know, Reno somewhere.  No.  We’re talking about recycling your old jeans to help create a brighter future for denim!  Literally.

Ever wonder where we send returns?  Last year, indi diligently amassed a collection of denim scraps, returns, and sample swatches to donate to Cotton Inc’s COTTON. From Blue To Green.

The result was 150,000 of insulation helping Habitat for Humanity Volunteers build 12 new homes in

“the largest-scale, highest-profile, and biggest-budget rebuilding project to have gotten underway in New Orleans post-Katrina”.

Besides sending your old indi jeans back to us to recycle, there are tons of other ways to turn your old blue jeans green.  Here are just a few ideas we’ve come up with:
1.  Hand em’ down.  If you have a younger sister, or a boyfriend who wears tight jeans, you know what I’m talking about…
2.  Make a quilt
3.  Become this guy

We know that it’s not easy being green, but luckily for us, green is the new blue, baby, and we’re all for it!

posted by: Amy D on March 3, 2009 at 7:18 pm
filed under:Happenings at indiDenim
TAGS: recycled jeans

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Stretch jeans appeal to different people for different reasons.  Nowadays, it’s hard to come across a jean that doesn’t have stretch.  Your mom may like a stretch waist band because her waist size varies depending on which “lifestyle” she’s choosing that week and she’d rather die than use one of these, while your little sister seeks out stretch jeans to hug her hips and form fit for that guy in her physics class. 

But what is it about certain stretch jeans that cause the household washer and dryer to be visited again and again (less for cleaning purposes as for their ability to shrink denim back down to its original form)?  Ah yes, not long after the introduction of stretch jeans in the eighties, women everywhere discovered the denim cultural phenomenon now not-so-lovingly referred to as butt sag.  Luckily for everyone who has lived through a scenario like this, butt sag is nothing that a mid-day trip to the local coin-op can’t remedy. 

Today, in part thanks to denim innovators, ahem ahem, not unlike ourselves, women worry less about sagging and resort less to doing morning yoga sessions in jeans in order to get them to fit their figure.  In fact, our built-in stretch fit factor calculates how much flexibility is going to be needed to get our denim pattern to fit your body just right.  Our special 2% two-way stretch denim keeps its shape and integrity, while maintaining a great feel. 

No doubt, there are many more elastic innovations to come in stretch jeans, and indi will be here to make each new stretch fabric fit your figure for good.

posted by: Amy D on February 20, 2009 at 6:24 pm
filed under:Misc Musings
TAGS: stretch jeans

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If you’ve ever found yourself on the hunt for extra long jeans, you would know that finding extra long jeans and actually buying extra long jeans are two very different challenges.  So why does the price tag grow as the inseam grows?  Does it really cost that much more for jean companies to tack on an extra inch?

The Answer: simple supply and demand.  Since there are fewer people out there who need extra long jeans, there are also fewer denim companies who will make extra long jeans, and so it goes, the ticket price matches the rarity of the commodity.  Ouch.  Economics hurts sometimes, huh?

The first time I met my future mother-in-law she commented to her son lovingly, “Well, her legs go all the way to the ground, don’t they?”  Yep, somewhere in the middle of the-hip-bone-is-connected-to-the-knee-bone-and-the-knee-bone-is-connected-to-the-ankle-bone, I got stuck with these lengthy legs.  Now, I’m not complaining (these babies come in handy now when reaching for things on top shelves at the grocery store and jumping over puddles), but is it just me or do twiggy, tall teenage girls seem to go through an abnormally long awkward stage before arriving at their adult statures?  I mean, really.  Tall skinny girls, I’d say between the ages of 13 and 16, have a really hard time finding jeans that fit their waist and their inseam.  I will confess that I, too, have been caught in high-water jeans and have burned many an elementary school picture in fear that I may be found out as the criminal of fashion high-treason that I am.

Well, there’s good news for all of us.  indi enables you to design your own reasonably priced pair of custom-made premium jeans tailored to fit your inseam and your wallet.  In fact, we are no strangers to orders for extra long jeans whose inseams reach upwards of 37 inches. After you place your order at indi, pick a heel height for your jean so that, regardless of how tall you are to begin with, your extra long jeans go all the way to the ground along with those extra long legs!

posted by: Amy D on February 13, 2009 at 10:40 pm
filed under:Fit Jeanious
TAGS: custom jeans, long jeans

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I’d like to take the time to talk about body shape, and how to make yours work for you.

Some of you might have already noticed that when shopping for the “Ashbury” plus size jean, our body questions are a little different from the other styles. If the illustrations aren’t clear enough, here’s a quick guide to what each body type really looks like, along with a few do’s and don’ts to help you find the best fitting jean (even if you aren’t interested in plus size jeans).

The Inverted Triangle- The Best Fitting Jean

What it Looks Like: Top heavy, broad shoulders, large bust, narrow hips, thinner legs, wider waist.

What to Wear: Items that divert attention from shoulders and bust, flare or boot cut legs, embellishments that accentuate the seat and lower body. The goal here, especially for plus sized women, is to not give attention to what you already can’t ignore. You’re top heavy already, so try to give the illusion you’ve got more going on below the belt than you actually do.

What to Avoid: Straight leg or tapered jeans

Hourglass- The Best Fitting Jean

What it Looks Like: Symmetrical shoulders and hips, full bust, defined waist, shapely legs.

What to Wear: It usually isn’t very hard for you to find something to wear, even as a plus. Boot cut jeans are always safe, and rise is (almost) a matter of preference in this case.

What to Avoid: Ultra low-rise jeans, plus anything too tight or skinny.

Rectangle- The Best Fitting Jean

What it Looks Like: Straight up and down, if you have curves they aren’t defined, you gain weight pretty evenly across your whole frame, undefined waist, broad back.

What to Wear: Anything with a close-body fit, flaps on the seat, jeans with a fade (to give your thigh some shape)

What to Avoid: Straight cut

Circle (aka Apple) - The Best Fitting Jean

What it Looks Like: Fat distributed in the abdomen/chest, relatively slimmer thighs and upper legs, a “top heavy” appearance, full bust, waist and upper back.

What to Wear: Lighter washes, whiskering, high rise (contains the tummy without cutting into the stomach).

What to Avoid: Skinny legged pants, boot cut

Triangle (aka Pear) - The Best Fitting Jean

What it Looks Like: Shoulders are narrow compare to hips, large hips, smaller waist. It’s the opposite of the inverted triangle.

What to Wear: Boot cut, dark washes, a crease

What to Avoid: Too much embroidery, capri’s, flaps on seat

Average- The Best Fitting Jean

Luckily for the average girl, just about anything will work. There aren’t any pitfalls to be aware of! The average plus sized woman can use the style tips for dealing with specific areas, e.g. staying away from flaps if she has a larger seat. Otherwise, just do what feels right.

No matter what your style or size, indi has the look for you. By following these guidelines, the best fitting jean for your body type is easy to find. At indi, we’re all about helping you look and feel great

posted by: maggie on February 11, 2009 at 2:28 pm
filed under:Fit Jeanious
TAGS: plus size jeans, jeans that fit

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We are well aware that designing your own jeans can be ever so slightly scary, but if you look at custom and immediately come down with severe denim designer’s block, rest assured that you are not alone.  Every denim design showcases the details of the denim designer. Each pair has its own flare that makes the wearer unique and you are no exception. 

Ordering custom jeans for the first time can be like jumping off a cliff (our money-back guarantee gives you, like, 45 lives, but I digress…)!  If you need some inspiration, visit our recently launched Custom Fit Collection where you can see different looks available at indi.  You can use these Collection styles as a starting point for your own design or simply order the styles you see to be custom fit to your measurements.  If all else fails, browse some spring 2009 collections out there for inspiration and then come back to design your own jeans with your next big fashion statement in mind.  Thanks to indi, you don’t need a degree in denim design to create your own jeans.  Design your own jeans on indidenim.com today!

posted by: Amy D on January 30, 2009 at 6:41 pm
filed under:Denim 101
TAGS: custom jeans, design your own jeans

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Special thanks to everyone in Northern California who has visited our design studio in Emeryville to be among the first to try our Intellifit Virtual Fitting Room (TM) or VFR.  We’ve gotten a few really cute comments throughout this process… One woman came in and said that our custom jeans fitting room looked like something out of an Austin Powers movie.  Ha!  To me, its cylindrical glass walls and shiny framework would fit in perfectly as the glass elevator in Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. 

In any case, finding jeans that fit in the San Francisco Bay Area just got a whole lot easier.  Our VFR is helping men and women of all shapes and sizes find jeans that actually fit.  We’ve scanned female athletes with the ever-problematic Serena sisters’ quads, moms who don’t want to wear mom jeans, women who don’t fit their mom jeans like they used to, dudes who know how to dress, and guys with bellies who have sworn that they will never wear suspenders.  Yes, we’ve fit jeans on just about every shape and size you can think of.

I was recently asked how old this technology was and my answer was an “uhhhh…a few years?”  And actually, my guess was right!  Intellifit technology (around 200 mini antennas applied to a fitting room environment) has been around for exactly a “few years” and has scanned over 230,000 people since 2003. So, in actuality, the technology (i.e. antennas) has been around since the late 19th century, though I doubt that Thomas Edison would’ve ever thought to use an electromagnetic field to fit and fashion custom jeans.
 
The experience in the VFR is much like the wave of a magic wand.  As the wand revolves around your fully clothed body, the virtual fitting room is recording hundreds of thousands of measurements based on the coordinates that your body occupies in space.  Then poof!  The result is a list of full body measurements accurate within one centimeter. 

So, in case you didn’t already know, finding jeans that fit in the Bay Area of California just got easier!  Click here to schedule an appointment for your own personal or group custom jeans fitting at indi. 

posted by: Amy D on January 16, 2009 at 6:08 pm
filed under:Happenings at indiDenim
TAGS: custom jeans, jeans that fit, womens jeans

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