Newby question regarding selvage jeans

[Seb Lucas]

I like a good rumble, as long as people play nice, which they have here. Diversity of opinion makes for a better forum.

 

[pipvh]

Re shrinkage in the tub: I remember my mother (a hipster in her day) telling me that people she knew used to sit in the bath with their new jeans to shrink them in the early 50s or even earlier - got the impression that her generation learned about the finer points of denim from GIs posted over here during the war (that bit is speculation). I'm not sure that there isn't a reference to it in 'Absolute Beginners' by Colin MacInnes, which came out in 1959. My copy's in storage otherwise I would check.

 

[philosophy101]

Re shrinkage in the tub: I remember my mother (a hipster in her day) telling me that people she knew used to sit in the bath with their new jeans to shrink them in the early 50s or even earlier - got the impression that her generation learned about the finer points of denim from GIs posted over here during the war (that bit is speculation). I'm not sure that there isn't a reference to it in 'Absolute Beginners' by Colin MacInnes, which came out in 1959. My copy's in storage otherwise I would check.

When I was in elementary school, back in the late 60s/early 70s, my mom had us soak our "dungarees" (that's what we called them back then), then wear them wet 'til they shrunk to fit. I suppose my mom did the same when she was a kid back in the early 50s. I remember this as having been an unpleasant experience! Unsurprisingly, when pre-washed jeans later came on the market we thought it to be a pretty great innovation! We never would have thought that one day there might be denim purists going back to the "old ways." I do think there is something cooler about the look of the old unwashed denim. Might be fun to try the old soaking method again.