Tuesday, June 20, 2006

S5000BK

So I ordered a pair today, I decided to go with size 29 because I was afraid that 28 would be to small even after stretching 2 inches. I will be selling them if it isn't the right size for me.

In my earlier post I said that the leather patch would be black, this is wrong, it will be tan with a black print, like the 710BK's. I guess I misread the translated Japanese.

They will look pretty much the same as the 710's except for a few details like the buttons and the selvedge - they will have the same red/silver selvedge as the other ZERO models.

Go here and enter 'zerokuro' to see pictures and/or order a pair. If you buy a pair you will also have a chance of winning one of the three wallets with denim inlays!

7.5 months..









.. and a swim








They didn't lose much color, which was actually good since I want to get the thighs a bit lighter in color before I give them a real wash. The swim mostly removed the smell and some dirt, but of course I immediately got them dirty again..

Monday, June 19, 2006

Bay Icon

Bay Icon is a fairly new Swedish brand focused on or inspired by workwear and the early 1900's styles, which means that their collections include a lot of flannel, plaid and of course denim.


The clothes are inspired by (surprise) Lee, Levi's, Blue Bell et al. What makes Bay Icon special is the fact that they use a triple chainstich in two colors, orange-light yellow-orange, the red(!) leather patch and that their denim is coated with ammonia. They are also different in that they are less true to the original than the Japanese brands, and add more of their own character and details, like the two triangles that is their logo and the plaid lining of the jacket shown above.

Their regular jeans model is also somewhat different from other repros, it is loose up top but tapers and ends in a narrow leg with a small leg opening. And of course, there is also the triple-stitching on most seams.

All their denim is selvedge and around 12 oz in weight and as mentioned earlier, coated with ammonia. According to Bay Icon the ammonia makes the jeans wear in differently and it will keep the unwashed look even after wash, wear and tear.
They will be releasing a pair of "extremely limited edition" jeans, the Street Cowboy, this fall, made out of untreated(no ammonia), 3mm in width, redline selvedge denim. The price will be around 2500 SEK/$340 and a pair of braces and a hempbag will be included. I'm looking forward to seeing these, but I am not sure if I will buy a pair as the price is higher than or the same as that of most Japanese jeans and I already have a lot of jeans on jeans-to-buy list. Their other garments are very reasonably priced, though! Their jeans are 1200SEK, denim jackets are 1500 and L/S shirts are 649, for example.

Apart from their jeans I also like their denim jackets and flannel shirts. I recently bought a FreeBee denim jacket though(more on that later), so I won't be getting one from Bay Icon, and the flannel shirt in red/white/blue seems to be sold out in size small, which is very sad - let me know if you know a place that still has this shirt in the right size and color in stock!


Bay Icon
Bay Icon @ Caliroots
Bay Icon @ shotgun.tv

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Black Samurai's




Within the next few days Samurai will release their S5000BK (Limited Edition) and then you will finally be able to buy black jeans that actually fade like blue jeans! The S5000BK will be made of the same 17 oz Zero denim as the S5000VX, but will of course be black(sulphur?) instead of indigo dyed. The leather patch will be black instead of tan.
The old S0710BK is one of the few(only?) black jeans that fade in a way that is similar to indigo-dyed jeans. I believe that they were made of the same denim as the S5000BK will be made of. Samurai says that the S5000BK will have good "color-falling", so it probably is the same denim, I'll try to get more information on these jeans soon.


S0710BK worn every day for 18 months

The S5000BK will of course fit like the S5000VX, slightly slimmer than the 710's and quite similar to the Studio D'Artisan SD-103's I think, except for a tad higher rise. I will go down 1 or 2 sizes from my SD-103's when buying the S5000's.

Pics and measurements of the S5000VX
S3000VX and S5000VX worn
S0710BK pics

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Status

I haven't written anything lately because I have been lazy/tired/busy but don't give up on me, I'm going to get on it, probably this weekend!

Monday, June 05, 2006

Right hand twill vs. left hand twill

Right hand twill and left hand twill have a couple of different characteristics, one is how they fade. The fade on LH twill generally looks a bit blurry compared to RH twill. See below for a comparison between Studio D'Artisan SD-101/102(RH) and SD-003(LH).

102




101


003





(In Studio D'Artisan's model numbers, the first digit specifies which denim is used, and the third digit refers to the cut. 103 and 003 are the same cut but different denim.)

Sunday, June 04, 2006

How to get the right size and cut


Many Japanese webstores have a scale that shows the silhouette of the jeans. It usually looks like this.

1 is tight and 5 is a very loose or baggy fit.

This scale is very useful if you know what you're looking for, if you're looking for slim jeans you want the scale to be at 2, maybe 1. You shouldn't trust this scale blindly though, you should also take a look at the measurements, if available. If one store doesn't have measurements, maybe another store on rakuten(or elsewhere) will.

The most useful measurement to determine the fit is, in my opinion, the leg opening, it looks like this in Japanese: 裾 幅(you can also use a translator). Most cuts are straight or only slightly tapered(look for "66"), so this measurement is usually very useful, if the store gets it right..

You also need to be aware of how high the rise is. 股 上 is Japanese for rise and it will translate to "on crotch." You will probably wear a smaller size in high-rise jeans, I go down 1 or 2 sizes depending on how high the rise is. I'd suggest that you measure the rise on a pair of jeans that you already own and compare that with the measurements, to get some perspective.
If there is no measurement of the rise available you can look at the fly. If it has 5 buttons, it is most likely a high rise and if it has 4 buttons it is probably a low rise. There are exceptions to this, the Pure Blue XX-004, for example, has 5 buttons in the fly but has a low rise, so you also need to look at the distance between the buttons.
Another way to determine the rise is to see what size the model at Bears wears, if he wears a size 32 it's probably a low-rise cut, and if he wears size 30, it's probably a high rise. The premise for this method is that the jeans shrink to tagged size.

Actually, I suggest you take more than just that measurement, you should also measure the waist and leg opening. It is important that you measure the waist correctly - measuring the back of the waistband is not the way to do it since the listed waist measurement is the circumference of the waist.
The easiest way to measure the circumference is to lay the jeans flat on the side, line up the both sides of the waistband, measure and double that. Like this:


Go here for more pictures of how to measure jeans. I suggest you measure the rise all the way up, instead of stopping at the arrow, though. The link shows how Ironheart jeans are measured, and it is important to keep in mind how they measure the front rise when choosing what size to get in Ironheart's. If you add ~4cm to their supplied measurement you will get the "real" length of the front rise.

Another thing is that the manufacturer's measurements are often more reliable than individual stores' own measurements. Bears's measurements for example aren't very reliable in my experience, I compared my measurements of the SD-103's to those of Bears and I don't think they got anything right at all.

Other manufacturers that take their own measurements are Samurai, Fullcount, Skull Jeans, Studio D'Artisan, well I think most do, so try to find the website of the brand whose jeans you're looking at before buying.

Pretty much all these jeans will shrink to tagged size, size 30 will measure around 76cm after a warm wash/soak. There are a few exceptions to this rule, Skull Jeans are sometimes larger than tagged size and sanforized jeans, which are rare in this genre, often don't shrink to tagged size.

You should also take stretching into account, both my Samurai's and my SD's have stretched 1.5-2 inches. Size down 2 inches if you like a close fit!


Alright, I think that's everything. Let me know if I forgot something or if anything is unclear!

Saturday, June 03, 2006

Pace & Evil Denim

Just thought I should let you know that you can get both of these two brands at Sivletto and HepCat.
Sivletto is a 50's themed store situated on Södermalm in Stockholm, Sweden's Soho, while HepCat is based in Lund. Sivletto ships to Sweden, Denmark and Finland while HepCat ships worldwide.

Both stores carry Pace, Evil Denim and Prison Blues jeans, the latter are actually made in prison! Only 500 pairs of the Evil Denim jeans have been made, and I think I heard that no more will be made, because of trademark issues(Levi's-style arcuate), but I could be wrong about this.
They are a 1937 repro, loose cut with a cinchback. The denim has a nice texture and they are priced lower than the Levi's Vintage Clothing-line. I'm not sure if they are pre-shrunk or not, ask before buying!

Sivletto also carries Pace's limited edition jeans which are made of Japanese selvage denim, made from Zimbabwean hand picked cotton. Only 103 pairs have been made and each pair has been numbered. They're pricey, though!

Evil Denim Jeans RAW - Lot 1920 (1937)
Evil Denim Jeans RAW - Lot 1920 (1937)

Pace Limited Edition

Friday, June 02, 2006

Slimmer Eternal's

Bears just got their second, for them exclusively produced, model of Eternal jeans. Their first pair was a looser cut than the Eternal 811's, but this pair is a bit slimmer than the 811's and also has a slightly lower rise. It has the same 14.5oz denim that is known for its excellent fade, go here to see how they wear.

Go here to have a look at them. The Eternal's have been very popular before, top sellers in fact, and you shouldn't wait too long if you want a pair, it will probably sell quite fast and I don't know if this cut will be produced again.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

On-site search

I've added a search engine to this site, with which you can search superfuture.
As some of you may know, the search engine on superfuture is just terrible and really not good for finding anything. This one isn't perfect either, but it seems to be able to return more results and you can use the usual Google-techniques with it.