Washing Your Raw Selvedge Denim For The First Time. (2024)

FAQs

Should you wash raw selvedge denim? ›

Similarly, selvedge denim can be machine washed according to the care tag, but if you want to hold on to more of that indigo we would still recommend hand washing in lukewarm water with a gentle cleaner. Whichever method you choose, be sure to rinse all the cleaner out of your jeans before hanging them up to dry.

Each time you wash your raw denim, you'll be losing some of the indigo. So yes, each wash will fade your denim. However, the indigo loss will be uniform. Think of each wash as an all-over fade.

Fill a bathtub or bucket with warm water (approximately 40ºC) with enough water to cover the garment. Turn the garment inside out and dip it in the water. Leave it to soak for approximately 1 hour without stirring it to prevent excessive loss of indigo.

Any activities that force the denim to flex and stretch will help you get up and over The Hurdle inside of this first month. Hop on the bike and take your jeans for a long ride, take the stairs whenever possible, or simply do squats and deep knee bends to help you clear The Hurdle in a hurry.

Over the past couple of months we've been asked by our followers, “how should my first pair of raw denim fit?” In the simplest answer possible, they should feel comfortably snug when you're trying them on for the first time.

Fill a tub with water (cold water for sanforized, hot for unsanforized) Turn your jeans inside out and fully submerge your jeans in the water. If parts of your denim float to the surface, put some weight over it. Let your denim soak for one to two hours.

The stiffness will wash out and the denim will soften. People who choose raw jeans over washed jeans do so because they want to break-in the jeans themselves. Raw jeans provide a blank canvas or clean slate, that can pick up fades better than washed denim.

Washing your selvedge denim

If you want the best looking jeans, wash at 3 to 6 month intervals. The denim dye will colour anything else in the wash. So, wash your jeans on their own.

Lunges are a quick and easy way to break in raw denim. The stretching motion gently opens up the seat and legs of the denim. Do three to five deep lunges to give the denim a nice stretch. Doing lunges periodically throughout the day will help the denim soften up and mold the body.

They take a while to break in.

Depending on the weight of the fabric, it may feel like you're wearing two plaster casts on your legs. Give it some time, wear them every day, and your jeans will soon start to soften up.

How long does it take to break in raw denim? ›

As a general rule of thumb, 30 to 60 wears (that's one to two months with everyday use) will set the kind of creases prized by denimheads. But fastidiously marking a calendar might be overboard. “Being overly precious about denim ruins the experience a bit,” says Jeremy Smith.

Selvedge denim stretches with time, so buy a slim straight-cut pair a size smaller than usual. "You want a pair that's a bit snug at first in the waist," says Paul O'Neill, senior designer at Levi's Vintage Clothing. Find jeans with just enough room to squeeze a finger between your body and the waistband.

Raw denim will shrink after the first wash due to the reaction of the yarns contacting water for the first time after dying. For the same reason, they also stretch more easily than yarns that have incurred shrinkage from contact with water.

It doesn't matter whether you're picking up your first pair of raws or are a seasoned fader, the hem on your denim needs to be spot on. Some folks like to cuff their denim, some like the stack, and some like to let their ankles have all the breathing room they desire.

The first (and some say best) method is to wear your jeans into a bath or a shower. This will allow the denim to shrink ever-so-slightly into the contours of your body. Once completely soaked, you can them hang them to dry, or if it is sunny outside, you can keep them on and go lie in the sun.

Raw denim is stiff. Denim mills add a starch-like substance, called “sizing” to make it stiff. The stiffness makes it easier for the denim mill to manage a consistent width throughout a roll. The starch-like substance that adds stiffness will wash out and the denim will soften.

As a rule of thumb, if you're opting for unsanforized then go up one size to accommodate shrinkage. For sanforized, the opposite is true. This type of denim will stretch a fair bit over the first few weeks of wear, mainly in the seat, waist and thighs, so if you like a snug fit you'll want to take that into account.

Too hot, and your denim will shrink more than intended. Too cold, and achieve minimal shrinkage. This is why lukewarm water is the temperature of choice. Not to mention, this temperature also limits the amount of indigo dye lost in the process.

Air drying jeans can take anywhere from a couple of hours outdoors in the sun to a full day or more indoors during cold or humid weather. If you're in a pinch and need to speed the process along, run your jeans through the dryer on low heat until they're nearly dry, but not overheated.

Repeat Washing

To avoid your jeans getting stiff after drying, try soaking them in a mixture of water and fabric softener overnight, then rinse the following day.

Are selvedge jeans worth it? ›

Whether you need convincing or not, buying selvedge denim is an investment. For those who want the best, selvedge denim offers all the hallmarks of quality similar to that of a well-made suit. Personal preferences aside, I've owned several pairs of them over the years.

The quality of selvedge denim is often considered higher than non-selvedge denim because of its durability and uniqueness. The production process of selvedge denim is also more labor-intensive, which contributes to its sometimes higher price tag. Denim enthusiasts often prefer it for its classic look and feel.

Change your jean washing habits for raw

With raw, you'll want to go as long as possible without washing, think once or twice a year. If you need to wash jeans frequently, there's no reason to buy raw (buy a dark wash jean instead). To get good fading, your raw jeans will need to get dirty.

Depending on how often you wear them, this can take anything from 2-4 weeks of daily wear or up to 6 weeks if you're breaking in more than one pair. In our opinion, breaking in the denim is fun.

The beauty of denim, especially raw selvedge denim, is the process of breaking it in. A good jean will stretch and mold to fit your body, and the dye will gradually rub-off according to how you move in them.

Since raw denim is unwashed, it will shrink. But there's a process called "sanforization" that some manufactures apply to reduce shrinking. After the fabric comes off the loom, it is fed through a sanforization machine that uses a series of rollers, heat and moisture to stretch, shrink and stabilize the denim.

Starching is pretty simple–wash the pair of jeans, let them dry, and lay them flat. If the person has a can of sprayable starch, they simply evenly spray the denim and then iron the fabric. This results in super-crisp jeans devoid of smell–that is, assuming “scentless” starch was used.

But the bottom line if you're buying unsanforized raw denim is that you're going to need to size UP, as the fabric will shrink significantly after wash, and with sanforized denim you may want to size DOWN, as it will stretch quite a bit after wearing.

The weave created by a shuttle loom is intense and strong, making selvedge denim more durable than other, more modern, weaving methods. Selvedge gets its name from its “self-edge”: the finished edges that do not fray. Jeans made from selvedge denim have no raw edges that need to be finished on the side seams.

We won't get too far into the weeds here, but selvedge denim is produced on narrow shuttle looms that simply can't match the output of the newer projectile looms. The higher output of projectile looms comes with a cost: mass-produced non-selvedge denim is blander and less durable.

How can you tell if jeans are selvedge? ›

'Selvedge' is the name for the higher-quality, harder-to-produce type of denim that is typically sold and worn unwashed. You can spot it on the cuffs of jeans. The selvedge in denim is usually white and often has a coloured yarn in the middle.

Most denim enthusiasts will tell you—loudly and frequently—that top-shelf denim (in the range of US$300-400 per pair, and sometimes even more than this) is well worth the cost. At the same time, there are plenty of great pairs of raw denim at the entry point ($80-200).

You can get past the major bleeding stage faster by washing and drying the denim 3-4 times before wearing. The hotter the water, the more the dye will come off—using a little detergent will also help.

With raw, you'll want to go as long as possible without washing, think once or twice a year. If you need to wash jeans frequently, there's no reason to buy raw (buy a dark wash jean instead). To get good fading, your raw jeans will need to get dirty.

Use a detergent designed to preserve colors like Woolite Darks Liquid Laundry Detergent or Tide Studio Darks and Colors. They contain ingredients to help fabrics hold onto dyes and to deactivate the chlorine in the water that can fade colors. Finally, it's best to wash jeans in cold water on a short, delicate cycle.

Denim may seem like a tough fabric, but that doesn't mean you should choose a heavy duty wash cycle. Instead, opt for a delicate or gentle cycle, and use cold water to avoid shrinking or fading.

If you experience that your jeans have shrunk too much you can give them a quick rinse in lukewarm water with a little softener and stretch them thoroughly in every direction several times whilst they dry, this will restore some width and length.

Raw denim is stiff. Denim mills add a starch-like substance, called “sizing” to make it stiff. The stiffness makes it easier for the denim mill to manage a consistent width throughout a roll. The starch-like substance that adds stiffness will wash out and the denim will soften.