Jeans were originally invented for the workers who needed stronger pants, but nowadays denim is high fashion. Giving your jeans just a little more attention will make them last longer and look better, especially if you’ve invested in some premium denim. The first little secret is to keep them away from the washer and dryer for as long as you can. Yeap, that’s right, put them in the freezer to kill bacteria and neutralise the smell, soak them in coffee to restore their colour, wear them in seawater to fix the dye, roll in the sand to get the perfect fade but never, ever wash them. Well try not to get excluded from society due to your not so fresh smelling jeans though.
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In the following video, watch a denim expert laying down the dos and don’ts of jean maintenance once and for all. Mr Michael Williams is the founder of respected men’s style site A Continuous Lean which celebrates quality and provenance. Through his work over the past seven years this proud son of the American Midwest has become one of the leading advocates for both well-made things and American manufacturing as a whole, a focus which led industry magazine Fast Company to name him one of the 100 most creative people in business. And it’s fair to say he’s a walking denimcylopedia.
Here, he talks us through the difference between prewashed and raw denim, discusses why some jeans cost so much more than others, advises on the length of time you should wait before washing raw denim, and demonstrates how you should wash and dry it when you can wait no more.
As for how to look after your jeans, a lot of the so-called guidance you can read on denim blogs has become so apocryphal, it does not smell of indigo but has the distinct whiff of hogwash.
So does freezing malodorous jeans really remove the stink? Watch this film to find out.