Ladies Love Denim Too, Part Two

On a recent work trip to San Francisco, Jake decided to fly out and make a weekend trip together.  I knew the dangers (expenses) of Jake in SF, it is practically his shopping mecca.  So you can understand why I was a little nervous being stuck in meetings all day while he went shopping.  During the 4th powerpoint of the day I started to get texts that he had already hit up Selfedge,  Luckily he didn't do too much damage so I figured I was in the clear.

When I was finally done with my meetings in Palo Alto I went up to SF for the weekend.  He asked if I wanted to check out Selfedge, I figured why not, it would be nice to finally meet Kiya - (though he wasn't there when we arrived) and see what the shop was about.  Since I have been wearing my Nudies nearly to death, I figured it wouldn't hurt to get another quality pair of denim to throw into the mix.

Once again a little weird to be the only girl in the store and they told me to go in the dressing room and just started handing me pair after pair to try on.  Yea, that's right ladies I didn't pick anything out, two dudes told me what would look good.  Also I learned a very important lesson from the denim experts.  If your posterior is well endowed try either low rise or high rise jeans to avoid that gap in the back.  Anything that falls in the middle will likely end up in some seriously unwanted whale tale, unless you are into that type of thing.

I was always jealous that dudes can get all this awesome selvedge denim, but it was always so stiff and not exactly figure friendly for women.  So I was totally thrilled when they brought out 3sixteen+ 77BSP Women's Jeans - Skinny Fit. Unique to these jeans (all the 3sixteen+ fits for women), is a new fabric designed by Cone Mills that they call S-Gene denim - it's selvedge, but it stretches in 4 directions - up, down, side to side - about 10% which is plenty to allow for form fitting comfort. Though I've had them for only a short time, they are already developing nice fades. Jake is jealous.

Selvage for the Masses

A couple years ago, I made a post which, in hindsight, I'm slightly embarrassed by. It was to tout cheap selvage at the Gap. Untraceable, unremarkable selvage, made in China, most likely, nothing with much character to speak up, except for a silly blue rivet. The price, was, I believe $88, and I paid $66. And this was 2009 money. Why, they'd probably be regularly $90 today!

To sum up, I was blogging about jeans - at the Gap. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Gustin, however, seems to have come up with a concept worth blogging about. They are going to take Cone Mills (from North Carolina) redline selvage denim, manufacture them in San Francisco (one my my favorite cities in the country, but that's another story), and charge their wholesale price of...wait for it...$81!

This video explains:

Check out the detailed pictures below from their Kickstarter page:

Left to Right - 1.5 years old, 6 months old, brand spanking new

I am very excited by what this could mean - jeans that are U.S. assembled and made of U.S sourced fabric at such a low price point - so to that end, I'll be putting my money where my mouth (and blog) is, so stay tuned for posts regarding fit and finish!

Selvage on the Cheap

Many of us who enjoy looking under every rock for the "perfect" pair of jeans know the special torture that comes from having to decide what pair have fallen from grace to chore status. I am bad at those decisions, personally. I seemingly cannot consign hard worn jeans to yard, painting, or moving duty.

Instead, my solution has been to look around for "cheap" selvage jeans. I was able grab a pair of these - GAP Selvage Authentic fit jeans. At $88 - I got them for $66, on sale - I don't care if they get destroyed from painting, moving, car repairs, what have you. Here are some pictures direct from the GAP's website. They look bootcut in these pictures, but they aren't. They are a straight cut, which fit me fairly slim in the leg all the way down. I am not built like the model, so as they say, "your mileage may vary".




They've only been rinsed, so I can wear them and personalize them over time like I would other raw denim (because I always do a soak first to get the shrinking over with first anyway). Mind you, there are details I don't love on them - the slanted side belt loops are gimmicky, and the coin pocket is mounted too high - it sits behind any belt you wear. But they are comfortable, fit me well, and I won't be worried about them doing messy stuff around the house, and that's all I ask of them.