My First Selvedge Jeans

So I have been in the search for some selvedge denim. I discovered selvedge denim earlier this year and since then I have been on the prowl. Come to find out, selvedge denim is particularly pricy ($135-200+) so my hopes and dreams of finally owning a pair of perfect selvedge jeans seemed out of reach. This summer my family and I made a pilgrimage of sorts to the state of New York. We participated and acted in the Hill Cumorah Pageant. Later on, we ventured off to Maine (which is beautiful), Boston (Boston is the oldest city in the USA, or it appeared so), then eventually to The Big Apple. By this time ChaCha and I had developed a pretty close relationship, probably because I would get extremely bored on the road and ask them very random questions. One question in fact led me to my first encounter with selvedge denim. I asked ChaCha if there were any distributors of Nudie Jeans (the first brand I stumbled upon that produces selvedge jeans) they said there were and gave me an address of a place called Barney's Coop in NYC. So I made it a point that I would visit this Barney's place and locate me some denim. The last day in NYC I finally made it to my destination. They had plenty pairs of selvedge jeans (APC, Naked and Famous, and Nudies) I liked a pair of the APC's but they were about $155. Consequently my mother told me if I purchased these jeans, she and my father would never loan me another penny again, and that I would be walking back to the hotel in Jersey. Disheartened, I left the store without saying goodbye to the helpful worker, I was terribly ashamed that my one chance of owning selvedge was blown. On the bright side, I still had money, so I bought a shirt.

Later on back in SLC...

I found out that Andrew Reynold's new company, Altamont, was manufacturing raw selvedge denim for about half the price that they usually go for. Excited, I started the search here in Salt lake. BC had a pair but they didn't fit all that well. I went to other local shops but no one had any. I had given up. (Actually not really, just for a little bit.) I was recently school shopping with some friends downtown at the Gateway and the Quicksilver store had some Quicksilver "Selvage" denim. Their denim was washed before hand though, destroying the beauty of raw selvedge denim. They were priced at $90. My last stop, Urban Outfitters. I was rummaging through the clearance rack when I found them, a pair of Japanese raw selvedge denim. And guess how much they were....$20!!!!! I couldn't believe what I had found. I immediately ran to the dressing room, tried them on, then purchased them. I honestly didn't care how they fit, they were only $20, I was buying them no matter what.

So I finally got my hands on some good thick, raw, selvedge denim. Im posting some pictures of them now, new and raw. Over the months I will be posting pictures of how they're turning out.

(You're not supposed to wash the jeans for about 6 months so they fade and form to your body, its beautiful.)

Here's an example: http://rawselvedge.com/

check out the photos