This story originally appeared on the Gents Cafe Newsletter. You can subscribe here.
I’ve never been interested in fashion, but in style. And blue jeans are my stylistic anchor. Don’t get me wrong: I love tailored suits and shirts, Riviera chic, Ivy style and much more. But in the end, I almost always reach for a pair of jeans.
I don’t buy anything else but raw denim, unwashed and untreated, and I wear new jeans for months before washing them for the first time. That’s how you get the best fades. All that appears on my blue jeans are my own marks. Raw denim feels quite stiff, but softens over time: you mustn’t forget that jeans had to be robust. They were once the workwear for miners in the USA.
For denim enthusiasts like me, the selvedge is mandatory—left visible when the trousers are cuffed up. It only appears on jeans made on old shuttle looms, which was the standard practice until the early 1970s. After that, the industry switched to faster projectile looms, but thanks to a few denim enthusiasts from Japan, this traditional craft has been made popular once again, and Japanese denim has become a hallmark of quality in the scene.
Alongside the inevitable Levi’s 501, my wardrobe spans Susèr, Benzak, Rogue Territory, Lee, and so on. I’m particularly taken with the G1 from Susèr: classic, straight-leg, it is a pair of jeans that could just as easily have existed in 1958. Nostalgia is important to me.
Before these brands, my love for jeans began as a teenager with a pair of Diesel Jeans from my family that, at some point, were passed on to me. I felt endlessly cool riding my skateboard through the village in them, sitting by the campfire in them, dancing through the nights in them. The trousers eventually fell apart, but my love for jeans remained.
Today, my jeans tell different stories: traces of playing with my children, of everyday life as an adult, of travelling. Sand from the Atlantic beach that has worn into the fabric, or traces from my last hiking trip. The more you wear them, the better they look.
Jeans are sturdy and stylish, they’re perfect for me, whether I’m sipping a Negroni at a hotel bar or enjoying an espresso at the beach bar.
Wherever I wear them, for me, they’re more than just a piece of clothing. When I look at them, I see countless memories and look forward to making more.
