Short stories

Hi, I'm alive and well(well..). This time I have a few interesting tidbits to share.

Samurai wallet progress
Some of you might remember that I won a very nice wallet from Samurai a year or two ago. It was produced in a very limited number, 3 for customers of Samurai and one for the boss of Samurai(his name escapes me).
The interesting thing is that it has a denim in-lay, something which I hadn't and still haven't seen before.
Mine is still completely untouched but Mr. Samurai has given it infinitely more wear-time than I have.
Here is a photo of his wallet from Lightning Magazine no.1 2009.


Edwin Vintage Collection
Do you remember the new Edwin Vintage Collection that debuted this fall? Did anyone get a pair? How do you like them?

In the Meiji jingumae(Harajuku) station there is a poster showing off the collection. I found that to be a little amusing. If you happen to see the poster you should also visit the Edwin store since it's very close by. They also carry Lee Originals and Wrangler Blue Bell, which are both made by Edwin.


Cuff
I found an interesting post on The Fedora Lounge regarding trends and cuffs in the 1950s.
Here's what the user Warbaby said;

As someone who was in high school in the mid to late 50's, I can give you the straight skinny on what was cool in jeans style - at least for one particular region and culture. It wasn't a hip place like L.A. or N'Yawk, but a small town in Arizona (which should give it a certain cachet for jeans style authenticity).

New, dark blue jeans were definitely not cool, nor were deep turned-up cuffs (only the dorkiest of dorks wore them that way).

The usual treatment for breaking in new jeans was to wash them every time your mom did a dark wash and when they were dry, lay them on the bed and beat them soundly with a baseball bat or big stick til they softend up. Hanging them out in the Arizona sun certainly helped the fading.

As for the cuffs, some kids wore them plain and uncuffed, but the really cool guys, the ones with DA haircuts and their cigarettes rolled up in their t-shirt sleeves, reverse-rolled their cuffs like dress trousers. You bought them with legs a lot longer than your own, turned a deep cuff under, then turned the cuff up on the outside about 1" to produce a narrow cuff that matched the rest of the jeans. The first few times you had to iron them that way, but eventually they'd stay. Being unwilling to take unnecessary chances with my coolness, I sewed mine...

Don't know how it was elsewhere, but this was the style in that one place and time.

It made me think of this post at ethandesu. I may try it one day.

Reading material
One of my treasured readers, The Buzzard, was kind enough to post a link to an interesting article vintage hunter Brit Eaton. A kindred spirit.

Vintage blog
Another dear reader, Dana, has a great vintage blog herself. Check out her leather jackets.

Samurai Contest end

So the Samurai contest ended some time ago. I finished second. Here are my jeans.

10 months effective wear, after one 40*C wash, before the second wash.







After the second, 60*C, wash.









Compared to my Flat Head 3003s.

S0500XX, repairing again

Time takes its toll. I've repaired these jeans a handful of times now, but it's mostly been smaller things, as a whole the jeans are still in very good condition.

This time I repaired the right pocketbag, the backpocket again and the area below the crotch.

Some of you remember that I had to repair my SD103s under the crotch after four months of wear. I attribute this difference to the fact that my piggies are and were much stiffer and coarser and that they were a bit more snug. They are great jeans and top quality, just wash out the starch before wearing if you want to avoid holes before six months have passed.


There was still some time before it would wear through completely, but I like preventive repairs.


Before and after.


I've been keeping my keys in this pocket.

Samurai S0500XX 8 Months & Wash

I've now worn my jeans for eight months, effective time. I have soaked them with detergent several times before but never actually washed them. The soaks didn't remove any color but unfortunately not much else either, so I had to give the jeans a wash.

Please note that the color is not as blue as in the outdoor pictures.





Perhaps the most accurate representation of the color.

Compared to 8 months APC.


I think that the Samurai denim is clearly better than that of APC. More shades, more color, heavier weight. The APC denim gets a nice, grainy texture after a year or so and several washes, though.

After wash. I only washed them in 40*C so they didn't lose much color at all. The biggest difference is the thighs, they were more greyish before the wash.
It's a big plus that they don't lose much color from a wash, that means you'll get almost all fading from actual wear and not just from washing. This is why Japanese denim is famous.







I have repaired the backpocket many times. The snap on my wallet has almost worn through three layers of denim.
The denim of the backpocket is getting thin in many places, so I have put a patch covering the whole inside of the backpocket. I made the patch from the cut-off denim I got when I hemmed the jeans and I hope to get a nice change of shade in the most worn places, from light blue back to dark blue, and then to light blue again!