Thailand likes jeans

Thai fakes of Levi's jeans have been around for a long time, but now you can also get them in a Lee or Wrangler flavour, if you prefer that!

They all have a quite a few details wrong, like redline selvedge for the Lee's and Wrangler's, selvedge on the top of the coinpocket of some Levi's, obviously disproportionate pockets on these Wranglers... actually, they aren't getting much right at all.



The Levi's version has been sold all over the world it seems, and they are actually sold in a store in Stockholm as authentic Levi's, and priced thereafter.
They are quite easy to spot - they all have the same redline selvedge, a green tint to the denim and a certain structure to the denim that you learn to recognise. The selvedge is also waxed on some pairs, to get more defined "traintracks", the fade on the outer seam.
Also, story has it that Thai workers are being payed to wear these jeans for some time and that the jeans are then sold to tourists as vintage Levi's.

One seller is pavelth, he currently has one pair of Lee's and four Wrangler's for sale. I suggest you take a look, so that you won't be fooled by these fakes!

**Update: He changed to another eBay account after getting bad feedback, his new name is vintageboys.

Progress

3.5 Months, before first soak.




4 Months, after first soak, before second.




The continued whisker is wearing out. I will repair this soon, before this turns into a hole.


4 Months, after second soak.












As you can see, they didn't lose any color at all from these two soaks. I soaked them in 15-20*C for 3-3.5 hours and then rinsed them, both times. It is good to know that you can handwash these without losing any color, like if you spill something after just wearing these for one week, they won't be "ruined" like some jeans will.
However, there is still a reason not to wash too early - honeycombs. Honeycombs take a lot of time to develop and get sharp, and if you wash your jeans before they have sharp honeycombs, you pretty much have to start over from scratch.
If you want defined honeycombs and a distinct fade there, I suggest you wear your jeans for 60-90 days, or however long it takes for your jeans to get sharp 'combs, before washing or soaking.

Don't use starch!

Okay, the title isn't exactly what I mean, there are definitely times when it's a good idea to use starch, like when your jeans have been washed a couple of times and have become too soft.
However, there is also a very good reason not to use starch, or at least not use it to speed up the breaking in process.

If you use starch on your new jeans, for example on the back of the knees to get honeycombs faster, you will most probably fail to get anything that looks like honeycombs at all.
You will get creases, but they most definitely won't look like honeycombs.



Real honeycombs.

Honeycombs will always appear by themselves, however the look of them will depend of the fit of your jeans, tighter jeans will have more horisontal creases at the back of the knee which don't really look like honeycombs, but with jeans that are slim/regular/loose you will get something that resembles the honeycomb pattern more. It seems that a relaxed fit gives the most honeycomb-like pattern.

When you starch the back of the knees and then wear the jeans 'til they've dried, what you will get will not be creases that have a natural shape. Honeycombs are the product and average of hundreds of thousands of knee-bends, but if you starch and wear your jeans, the creases you will get can be the product of ten knee bends. This means that the patter will not look real and it also means that the creases will not fade as well since the highest points at the creases will not be stressed or bent as much and you might also get new, natural creases after a while that will go over the old creases, and just make your jeans look a bit off. Also, when you wash your jeans it is very likely that you will never get back the same creases again, if you used starch to get them.

So, there are certainly times when I would use starch, but you should always let it dry before wearing your jeans!

FBJ-101

So, I got this a week or two ago but have been too lazy to post pics. Here it is, at last.









It is a 1936 506 model, which is also my favourite, together with the 507 which is pretty much the same except for the second chest pocket.

Probably the best budget denim jacket there is. They are currently having a campaign with a reduced price, it is now 14 700 yen instead of 19 800. Very limited numbers though, there are like 5 jackets left.
The denim is around 14-15oz and is slightly slubby. The texture is much like that of my Samurai's, but the color is different.

http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/rebirth/FBJ-101NEW.html

The real thing

SD-103 @ 3 months