How-To Advice

NUDIE CARE (GENERAL DENIM)

You may have noticed that the world of denim has changed a lot in the 21st century. High-end denim is more costly than the $60 jeans you may have grown up with, but it's worth it! Think of it this way: you could have 4 pairs of cheap jeans that don't fit you, or one really great pair that you'll wear all the time. Jeans and denim are not occasional wear -- a great pair of jeans can be worn 3-4 times a week without hesitation. Invest in one or two pairs that you love and you'll never go back to poorly fitting mom jeans again.

At Lark, we've really embraced the cult of specialty jeans- strike up a conversation with any of our staffers, and they'll tell you all you need to know about the benefits of a pair of Nudie jeans. Because so many of our customers are also wild about denim, we've learned a lot about how to make it fit best. Here's what you need to know:

Raw or Dry Denim

This refers to the state of a pair of jeans that have not been through the washing and distressing process- it is denim in its most pure form. Many jeans come pre-faded or pre-distressed, but raw denim allows the wearer to customize their own fade, resulting in a pair of jeans that fit your body perfectly. With Nudie Jeans, and raw denim in particular, we recommend wearing the jeans for 6-8 months without washing (we know this sounds crazy -- see the next section for how to do this without an ick factor). Wearing your jeans for this long allows the natural indigo dye top move and settle, pooling in some areas and rubbing away in others, giving a tailored wash that only the body and lifestyle of the wearer can create. Once upon a time, all jeans were made this way- washes became popular in the eighties, giving way to acid wash, stone wash, and that awful ìdirtyî ash from a few years back. Would you rather wear those, or a great pair of timeless denim?

Raw Denim Care

Not washing your jeans for six months? Are we crazy? No. Bear in mind that denim was to created for sailors and tradesmen, made to wear long and go without washing for long periods of time. Most of us wash our jeans far too often, forgetting that denim is fairly non-porous, and doesn't need to be washed nearly as often as you'd think. The more you wash, the more the fabric gets worn and the short your jeans will live. First and foremost: do whatever you want. Is you must wash them, wash them. They're just jeans and they'll still fit you fine! That being said. Here are some tips for care.

Wear your raw/dry jeans as often as possible.

If you find that unpleasant odors from smoke or food or sweat, there are several options:

Hang them out of your balcony or off your blinds by an open window- anywhere air can circulate. It takes between 1 and 2 days for even the strongest smells to disappear.
Steam them. Do not place an iron directly on them (as you don't want the wrinkles and textures to be ironed out) but set your iron to the steam setting and give them a blast. This will kill germs and bacteria which cause odor.
Seal them in a bag and throw them in the freezer over night. This will also kill bacteria. To avoid the cotton from absorbing food smells from your freezer put a little.
Febreeze. As a last resort. It's not the most environmentally friendly, but it smells nice and it has an antibacterial agent in it.

When washing...

FIRST WASH

Turn your jeans inside out.
We recommend a cold wash cycle as the hotter the water is, the more shrinkage you will experience. Remember, jeans shrink in length (and very slightly in width which stretches back out) and once length is gone, it's gone.
Once you have washed them, run your machine once just to get rid of any indigo residue left in the machine, so the next batch of clothes doesn't turn blue.
To keep as much length as possible, pull on the inseam while your jeans are still wet. They will shrink slightly in the rise and anywhere from a quarter of an inch to a full inch overall depending on water temperature and how much you pull on the inseam.
Hang dry. NEVER put your jeans in the dryer. The only excuse for putting jeans in the drier is if you have a pair made of light weight denim with a lot of lycra that easily lose their shape.

SECOND WASH

It is recommended that jeans be laundered about once every two months. Inside out, cold water, hang dry, pull on the inseam with each wash, same as above.

Spills and accidents on my pre-washed Nudies

For the most part, we suggest you just leave the stain to wear off. If you spot clean before the first wash you will have a lighter spot in that area where you have rubbed the indigo. Many food items will either wear away or even just chip right off, even mustard (for some reason mustard seems to be a real concern with first time nudie buyers. Relax. It comes out.). If you can't take it, you could dry clean them which will keep them darker longer or just wash themÖ.they are only jeans after all, so in the end do what you want, with the exception of putting them in the dryer. Washing them once will not profoundly effect the gradual customization of your jeans' fade and fit. Keep in mind that jeans were made for sailors and gold panning so be as hard on them as you want.

Other random things to know

[ courtesy customers, fans, and personal experience]

With raw denim don't sit on white/light coloured couches until after your first wash. Put down a throw so you don't ruin light coloured fabrics. The first two weeks seem to be the worst for dye coming off. Our experience has been anywhere from not much dye coming off to ëmy hands are so blue I look like I killed a smurf'. It's not like you'll leave blue everywhere you go, but we'd hate to see you ruin your lovely furniture.

Women need to buy jeans that fit as tight as possible, because they will stretch out. You want them to fit perfectly, and, believe it or not, this can only happen if you struggle to get into them. You want a little bit of "muffin tops" and a tight fit in the bum.Nobody like a saggy bum, least of all someone who has shelled out for a pair of otherwise wonderful jeans. As a rule the higher the lycra content, the more they will stretch out.

The selvage edge is an indication of extremely high quality. Selvage is the white edge of the denim fabric that is stitched with a coloured thread. This denim is made on a smaller, more simple loom than regular denim. These looms were at one time common denim looms, so in vintage jeans you will often see this selvage edge with a red, white, green, brown or yellow thread stripe. Because of the extra care that it takes to make selvage edge jeans, the cost is considerably higher than for a regular denim jean. Some large mainstream companies will sell jeans with a sewn in white edge. This is fraudulent as a true selvage edge is an indication of the highest quality denim. Selvage edge jeans typically sell for around $300 or more.

If you accidentally do shrink your jeans with either hot water or the dryer all is not lost. Put your jeans on as best as you can and wet them, sit in a tub of water if you have to, and they will give and stretch back in width. Yup, just pour yourself a bath and get n with your jeans on. This may seem like a lot of work, but you'll come to love your jeans so much that you'll do anything to keep them should you accidentally subject them to a damaging spin in the dryer. This is a recommendation that has worked for several of our customers.

There are plenty of raw denim/nudie chat boards and fansites to be found on the web. My Nudies is a great site filled with denim freaks who can advise how to get optimum happiness from cloth and thread.