Raw denim.

Buy it, wear it, and talk about it and you’ll gain the respect of most denim aficionados.

Why? Well, first off it takes a commitment. Raw (or unwashed, generally Japanese) denim is not known for being comfortable or soft. It is by definition, hard, thick, and stiff. Those who go raw don’t do so on a whim; they take their denim very very seriously.

This is because raw, unwashed denim has transcended traditional denim classification. It has become a culture. Or, probably more accurately, a cult. And those raw evangelists are a force to be reckoned with.

They buy their raw denim with the express purpose of wearing them in. The idea of the factory or anyone else washing, sanding, ripping, scratching or otherwise tainting the jeans will make any raw devotee shudder and/or cry in agony. The beauty of raw jeans is to watch as your daily life artfully wears and tears the jean.

And artfully wear and tear they do. Proud raw denim owners will boast only washing their denim 5 times in 2 years. Despite being a statistic that makes most clean people cringe, in the raw community, that’ll get you mad props.

And while that’s cool and all, we’re not sure what it will do for the rest of your social life…

...that being said, we think raw is pretty rad, and we’re considering offering it in the fall—so stay tuned for updates. Who knows, raw custom jeans may be in your future.

posted by: Julien on August 5, 2009 at 3:42 pm
filed under:Denim 101
TAGS: custom jeans, japanese denim, raw denim

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Just because your office “allows” you to wear jeans to work, doesn’t mean you should abuse the privilege. Oh wait, were you one of those give an inch, takes a mile kind of kids?  Well, if so, here is a much needed lesson on your “jeans for work” etiquette.

Unless you work at a custom jeans company (this is where we forget about our 14 hour days and remember why we love our job), you should be mindful of the unwritten rules of wearing jeans to work. When choosing your jean for the office, keep in mind that you (probably) still want to look polished and professional. When you wear a dirty, tattered jean, people tend to not take you so seriously. Take Brandy, here, for example. Odds are you wouldn’t want anyone in those jeans in charge of much more than, uh, acting or singing.

image from usmagazine.com

But I digress. The point is—a dark wash jean without any serious distressing/destruction treatments will looks crisp and clean. People like that. They respect it. Another solid option is a trouser jean because it resembles a more traditional dressy pant. Its slick lines will look sophisticated, and its wide legs will give a stylish draping effect.

Now since you’re going to go casual with your jeans, you want to dress up the rest of the outfit with a feminine blouse or button-down and some cute high-heels or flats. Do not, try to pair your jeans with a t-shirt or sweatshirt and tennis shoes. Those items should *never* be seen in the office. Really, do we have to say it?

And, if you do find yourself craving a little adventure, you can always shake things up with a bright colored vest or blazer. Just make sure you know what you’re doing here. No need to ruin a perfectly good outfit with one bad yellow vest decision. Case and point, this guy, below…

Image from http://www.notempire.com

So, with our sound advice in hand, go forth, wear your jeans to work, and most importantly, make us proud!

posted by: abigail on July 14, 2009 at 5:48 pm
filed under:Denim 101
TAGS: jeans at work

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Some wonder why denim lovers often pay a premium for pre-worn jeans. Although purchasing holey and tattered jeans may seem like a bizarre practice, distressed denim, in various forms, has been in style for close to fifty years.

In the 1960’s, those hoping for a worn look ran their jeans in the washing machine for a full day or soaked them in the ocean for a week. Some even dragged their jeans behind speedboats to achieve the desired effect.

But the love of distressed objects is hardly a product of the 1960’s. Distressing, in various forms, is an age old practice. Take, for example, the ancient Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi. This world view holds that imperfect objects are more beautiful than bland flawless items.

The bowl below typifies the wabi-sabi aesthetic. Its bumpy texture, uneven glaze, and wobbly shape add to its charm.

bowl from Elm Studios http://www.elmstudios.com

Now compare this pottery to the 120-year-old jeans below. Despite the differences in materials, the colors and textures are remarkably similar. If you can believe it, these antique jeans sold for $60,000 in an Ebay auction!

image from http://www.forbes.com

Most denim consumers do not want to pay thousands of dollars or wait 120 years to achieve the distressed looks they desire. That’s why manufacturers have invented a wide range of techniques—from washing jeans with golf balls to treating them with ozone—to create the looks that we crave. Here at indi, we’re constantly perfecting new washes and finishes, so get excited for our next round of finishing treatment—coming to indiDenim.com next month!

posted by: danielle on July 10, 2009 at 10:35 am
filed under:Denim 101
TAGS: japanese denim, distressed denim, history of jeans

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We all know guys who swagger down the street, clutching their belts and spreading their legs, so that their sagging jeans, four sizes too big, don’t fall down. Prefer a visual? See the example below.

image by Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times

Hip hop baggy style jeans became popular in the late 80’s, but the style didn’t become mainstream until the mid-nineties. Some people hope that this fashion statement would slip away just like the jeans themselves do in many a wardrobe malfunction. In fact, some hate this style so much that sagging is actually outlawed in parts of Georgia, Louisiana, and Michigan. Unfortunately, I have bad news for those who want to ban sagging—baggy jeans are not a fad; they’ve been with us for twenty years and they’re here to stay. Neither laws nor lectures will keep jeans up.

Baggy clothing itself has been in style much longer than twenty years and has always symbolized wealth and opulence. Excess material shows that the wearer can afford to purchase more fabric than necessary to cover the body.

Some might be surprised to hear that medieval monks preferred clothing similar to the style that upstanding citizens are now prohibiting. That’s right! Monks liked to sag, too. The monks wore their sleeves several feet longer than their arms, dragged their hems on the ground, and had hoods large enough to fit multiple heads.

Need proof? Check out the hip monk with his sweet threads below.

Painting by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

posted by: danielle on July 1, 2009 at 1:51 pm
filed under:Denim 101
TAGS: mens jeans, baggy jeans, hip hop jeans, history of jeans, sagging jeans

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Ripped jeans have been worn as a fashion statement since the 1970’s. Many chose to deform their jeans in an effort to separate themselves from mainstream culture. Ironically, the mainstream eventually embraced ripped jeans.Today ripped jeans and patched jeans have become part of the fabric of American culture. Both styles are now welcome in places that range from the dorm room to the board room, the art studio to the art opening, and the vegetable garden to the garden gala.

The truth is, we just love to abuse our jeans. Since their invention, jeans have been ripped, bleached, shrunk, permanent pressed, cut off, torn, shredded, distressed, sanded, stone washed, and acid washed. On the other hand, they’ve been lovingly embroidered, beaded, patched, painted and sequined. We definitely have an intriguing relationship with our favorite article of clothing. Through the good times, and the bad ones, our loyal jeans still love us. And we still love them.

Which reminds us, in the 1970’s, during the height of the free love movement, the US also saw an outpouring of denim love. Americans were using their jeans to visually express their hopes, political views, and religious beliefs. In 1974, Levi’s held a denim art contest and received thousands of entries.

The worst part (or best part!) is that people actually wore these jeans. That’s right, take a look at these bad boys below . . .

images from: Levi’s Denim Art Contest Catalogue of Winners by Richard M. Owens, Baron Wolman, John Burks

posted by: danielle on June 23, 2009 at 3:33 pm
filed under:Denim 101
TAGS: ripped jeans, patched jeans, history of jeans

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Where can you find the world’s largest pair of custom jeans?

If you ask Croatia, they’ll direct you to their capital city of Zagreb, where the organizers of the Cockta Jeans Fabric Project have stitched together 8,023 pairs of donated jeans to create one giant custom jean with a 148 foot rise. That’s right - this pair of jeans is spread about 112 feet wide and is the size of about six tennis courts.

Source: Yahoo! News

Why, you ask? Don’t worry, it was for a good cause! The project donated over $10,000 (seven kunas - or $1.30 - per donated pair of jeans) to a local charity which provides therapy to disabled people.

So, now that we know what the people in Croatia do with their old jeans (or just when they’re bored), we’re curious, what do you do with yours?

posted by: rupa on June 17, 2009 at 1:11 pm
filed under:Denim 101
TAGS: custom jeans, recycled jeans

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Though the original custom credit has to go to your local tailor, the history of custom denim in its retail form has its beginning (where else!) but with Levi Strauss.

In 1997, Levi’s launched the Personal Pair program. It consisted of an in-store fit specialist, armed with tape measure and access to a few jean styles and expertise on how to make your denim work for you. Customers tried on jean after jean until they found a style they liked and a hip measurement that fit. The fit specialist would then determine what changes needed to be made to the jean waist and inseam length to maximize that custom fit. New jeans arrived in-store a few weeks later.

Drawbacks of the program included the fact that it was a mostly manual, time consuming process, and centered only on fit rather than complete customization of both fit and style. Customers could only choose from pre-created denim styles sold from Levi’s and had the option of fabric, washes, and leg styles.

Improvements to the custom denim program were made with the opening of the San Francisco Levi’s store in 1999. The entertainment-filled, mega-flagship store featured four variations of customization—-Original Spin total custom and “Modify an Authentic”, Embellishment additions, and shrink to fit. 

Original Spin was the new and improved Personal Pair custom program.  The customized program expanded the size offering and added more fabrics, finishes, and leg styles.  Customers could get that perfect custom fit by stepping into a body scanner.  The scanner used white light to take customer’s measurements in a fitting room. The downside? The person being scanned had to wear a skin tight leotard for their measurements to be accurate. Not exactly what I call fun.

Another added feature to Original Spin was “Modify an Authentic” which offered the consumer a wide range of waist sizes and inseam lengths that were not available off the shelf.  So if you could never wear 501’s because your 40” inseam was not available now you could.

Even though customer demand was high, Levi’s eventually discontinued its Original Spin program in 2004. Nevertheless, the program and its scanner pioneered a field that would give indi its future success.

There was also an Embellishment station where customers could take their newly purchased Levi’s and “funk them up” with a selection of embroideries, screen prints, hem treatments, and patches, holes, and tears. While this aspect of custom denim is a definite entertainment attraction, customers were stuck with their (sometimes amateur) designs for better or worse.

The next way customers could customize their jeans came in quite unconventional form; Customers bought a pair of “shrink to fit” jeans and sat in a giant copper tub filled with water and a special shrinking agent. They would then step into a waist high human blow dryer until their new jeans hugged every body curve. Unfortunately this was a 3-4 hour process and your skin and underwear would be tinted indigo blue from waist to ankles until you showered!  Not to mention, your once-white undies would be blue forever!

In the year 2000, the US National Size Survey launched as an anthropometric research project, gathering information that would eventually help the clothing industry find out just who they were selling to. The survey lasted three years and scanned over 10,000 subjects. The data gathered is still used for fit algorithms across the mass-customization industry today.  Since then, custom fit technology has been near-perfected by the Intellifit Corporation. Working with the same concept as the [TC]2 scanner, Intellifit’s Virtual Fitting Room (VFR) uses low-powered, safe radiowaves to detect a customer’s measurements accurately down to a centimeter without removing a single piece of clothing.

Other developments in the evolution of the custom jeans included the emergence of websites like zafu.com. These sites ask customers questions about their body. Using that information, a list of products that would complement their shape is generated. It’s not quite custom fit (more like a great personal shopper), but the concept is solid in its attempt to pair customers with jeans that fit their body.

Finally, 10 years after the first custom jean idea made it to the mainstream comes indiDenim. indiDenim is the first company to put all the elements together—a special fit algorithm based on statistical data that can accurately predict measurements such as waist, hip and inseam so customers don’t tie themselves silly with tape measurers, over 90 million style combinations (with more options added every day), a fit profile that lets customers describe their body in a simple, intuitive way, and even the utilization of Intellifit’s VFR (if you can make it to the office in Emeryville, CA).

With all of these features, indi has put itself at the forefront of custom jeans by giving customers the most accurate fit while providing infinite style options—giving people a look that is truly their own. Oh and don’t forget lovely blog writers!

posted by: maggie on March 13, 2009 at 12:57 pm
filed under:Denim 101
TAGS: custom jeans, history of jeans

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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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