Dark jeans and a navy blazer: too much navy?

Image from Rugby (not actually me, believe it or not)

While jeans and a navy blazer seems like a pretty sure-bet combination, I find myself unable to ever pull it off. My jeans are pretty dark, and when I put on a blazer, regardless of what shirt I'm wearing, I feel like there is too little contrast and am afraid that from a distance it will look like I'm wearing a navy suit. I recognize that there is a difference in texture, but that seems like something that would only be noticed upon closer inspection. Am I the only one who has this problem? Am I over-thinking it? I'd love to hear your opinions.

Guest Post: Manifold Destiny on Imogene + Willie

I have known Greg from Manifold Destiny since back in high school. I'm not really sure how, but in spite of not really staying in touch for the past six or seven years, our paths crossed again in the men's clothing forum/blogosphere world, which as been pretty cool. Greg is currently living in Nashville, and a few months back he was telling me about the store Imogene + Willie. Having only been to Nashville once in my life, I wasn't familiar with the store, but it sounded pretty awesome, so I asked Greg if he'd be interested in doing a guest post about it. Somehow managing to squeeze it in during his last semester of law school, Greg made a trip to the store and took a bunch of great photos, in actual film, believe it or not. Check out the photos and his write up below:

Trip asked me to do a guest post about my favorite store in Nashville, Imogene + Willie. Relatively new, the store was founded by Matt and Carrie Eddmenson in a former service station in Nashville’s eclectic 12 South neighborhood.

Matt and Carrie are denim pros, having worked for a company in Kentucky that did denim washing long before jeans cost $300 and came from Japan. They moved to Nashville last year and started Imogene + Willie, which sells a really well-curated selection of vintage stuff, cool brands (LVC, Billykirk, APC, and RRL), and most importantly their own stuff, made right there in the store.

Aside from selling stuff, Matt and Carrie have succeeded in creating a great place to hang out, holding weekly “Supper and a Song” nights where the local taco truck pulls up to sell food while singer-songwriters play in the back yard.

All of the employees are friendly and really really know their stuff. If you’re ever in Nashville stop by, you won’t find a cooler place filled with better people (and dogs). More pictures below.

Thanks a lot to Greg for his post. In case you haven't seen his blog, Manifold Destiny, it's definitely a must-add to your daily blog roll. It's like having a butler who reads all of the style blogs for you and just shows you the awesome stuff.

Nantucket Red Jeans Update...sort of

Some of you may remember my post last October about the RL Rugby Faded Colored Denim and my thoughts on making my own pair of Nantucket Red jeans from a pair of plain white jeans. Well, I still haven't ever gotten around to that, but it looks like I may not have to.

Tonight I found myself on the Urban Outfitter website--not a place that I typically visit. In going through some of their stuff, I saw that they are selling Levi's 514s in orange "Sun Fade." These look really similar to the ones being offered by Rugby, and at $54, are literally half the price. For those who like a slimmer-fitting jean, the 514 is also a good cut.

Gap Authentic Fit jeans: A caveat

After posting what was generally a glowing review of the Gap Authentic Fit jeans a little over a month ago, the honeymoon period has ended and I would like to follow up with this caveat/complaint/advice. If you are thinking about purchasing these jeans, I would highly recommend going down at least one size.

I tried these jeans on in my normal waist size at the store they fit so I bought them (being a man, that is about as much information as I want to obtain in a dressing room). Upon trying them on at home (after removing the tags), I realized that while the rest of the jean fit well, the waist was actually at least an inch too big. I had missed this because all of the excess material was in the back and when I tried them on, I guess I hadn't been looking for it. I figured that the jeans would shrink a bit when I washed them and it wouldn't be a problem anymore. Well, I did wash them and they did shrink a bit, but once I started wearing them, the waist stretched back out to its original size, and since then, the thighs have stretched a good bit too. I had breakfast with my friend who works for Gap this past week and mentioned the problem to him and he did admit that Gap has had problems with their denim stretching more than they want it to. While that might be part of the problem, I think that it is also vanity sizing on the part of Gap, which I find kind of annoying. If anyone from Gap corporate is reading this and would like to provide me with a new pair of jeans, in the correct size, I'd really appreciate it.

Other than the sizing issue, I have still been pleased with the jeans after a month and would still recommend them. Moral of the story: size down. They will probably look pretty tight when you do, but don't worry, they'll end up looking alright after a couple of days.

In the News: "From farm field to cotton mill: The making of America's denim"

A hat tip to my friend Dusty for this story. Glad to see that denim is still being made here in the great state of Georgia. If only it wasn't being shipped south of the border to make the jeans.

New jeans: Gap "Authentic" fit

I bought some new jeans this weekend. Since I was still not ready to drop $150 on APCs, I decided to go with Gap's (relatively) new "Authentic" fit in the Resin Rinse color. I'm quite happy with these jeans so far. For the Authentic fit, Gap combined the narrow leg of their Straight fit with the higher rise of their Standard fit. In doing so, they created the Goldilocks of jeans that have a narrow thigh (Gap calls them "slim") but come with a decent rise. In other words, they created a slimmer jean for those who don't want to (or can't) wear skinny jeans. The color is very dark blue with no artificial wear marks (whiskering, fading, etc.) on them. They also have back pockets without any stitching on them, and the only label on them is "1969" painted on the band right waistband, easily covered up with a belt.

While it would have been nice to get the selvage version of these jeans (my friend who works at Gap corporate fell through for me on this--bad job, Matt), they're not sold in most stores, and the $55 price tag for the regular version is hard to beat. If you are in the market for a new pair of jeans, and aren't ready to take the step up to "premium" denim, I would highly recommend these. I think that these are just as good as any of the jeans that J. Crew is selling--in cut, color, and quality--and cost half as much. After all, if you're going to buy a pair of jeans non-selvage made in China, why spend 100 bucks?

Follow-up jeans post: the results are in!

First off, I wanted to thank all of the ladies out there who voted on the poll, and for all of the comments that everyone added to the post. Here are a few thoughts:

1. Well, my hypothesis was shown to be false. I had anticipated the results being #1- "Designer" jeans, #2- Levi's, and #3- "Premium" jeans. Instead, it seems that Levi's won with an overwhelming majority of 18 votes, follow by "Premium" jeans with 10 votes and "Designer" jeans with 9 votes. While I'm not sure if the poll was exactly "scientific," I do believe that the results reflect the superior taste of the women who read this blog and voted. Overall I'm pretty happy with the results.



2. Regarding Wranglers, perhaps I missed a particular segment of people by not including them as an option (maybe I should have at least had an option for "Other"). I have never really been in any social groups where they are very common, but I guess there are some places where they are a lot more ubiquitous, especially in Texas. I think that they would fall into the same general category as Levi's, though, given their low cost and similar quality.

3. I should note that I currently wear Levi's 501s. If I wasn't a poor grad student I would definitely like to invest in a higher quality pair, most likely some APCs. They are on my "to do" list. Regardless of how the poll came out, there was really no way I was going to switch to "designer" jeans; it just seems like money poorly spent, and the washes that they have on most of those jeans simply look stupid. I like dark blue jeans, and I'll wear my own whiskers into them by wearing them a lot, the way that people used to do it.



If I had a gun to my head and was forced to buy a pair of designer jeans (seeing as how that is the only way any girlfriend could choose my clothes for me), Citizens of Humanity does actually make a pretty good looking pair of jeans simply called "Selvage." They are made of selvage denim, are dark blue with no wear marks on them, and don't have any stitching on the pockets. The only downside is that they are "imported"; a bigger shame in light of the fact that they apparently have a bootcut pair called "Perfect Selvage" which are made in the US. The $230 is pretty bad, though, especially when you consider what better jeans you could get for the price. C'est la vie...

4. Regarding jeans on women, I guess I really don't have a problem with them wearing "designer" jeans. Women generally have different rules for clothing than men, so if that's what they want to wear, who am I to interfere? Generally speaking, I would say that I like when women wear Citizens jeans, but maybe that really has more to do with the girls themselves rather than the jeans. I think that it probably comes down more to how a particular cut of jeans flatters a woman's physique than to who made the jeans (as Elisa noted in the comments of the last post).

Anyways, thanks again to all who voted.

A poll for women readers: What jeans would you pick for your boyfriend/husband?

While I'm pretty sure that the majority of readers here are male, but I suspect that there are at least a few women who come here on occasion. For those of you of the fairer sex, I wanted to get your thoughts on this question.

If you were able to choose what sort of jeans your boyfriend/husband (real or hypothetical) would wear, and cost was no object, which of these three general types would you choose?

-Levi's. Since Levi's are so ubiquitous among men, I figured this would likely be a category of its own. These are just your basic jeans. You choose the cut and the wash, but Levi's Vintage Collection is not included here.
-"Designer" jeans. Typically characterized by a well-known name (Citizens of Humanity, Seven for All Mankind, Diesel, etc.) and typically quite expensive, especially when you consider that most are made in third world countries.
-"Premium" jeans. While these can be expensive too, they are usually made in the US, Japan, or some other non-third world country. Made of high quality denim with quality construction. Nudie, APC, Levi's Vintage Collection would be some examples.

While I realize that there are other types of jeans, I suspect that these three should cover the majority of preferences that might be represented here. Please cast your official vote on the poll located on the right side of the screen ----------->

I seriously doubt that the results of the poll will change my own preferences of jeans, I have a hypothesis about the results and wanted to test it. Please leave comments here if you have anything else you would like to share.

Levi's 501s at J. Crew

You have to hand it to Mickey Drexler and everyone at J. Crew: they certainly haven't been resting on their laurels. Between launching both a men's store and a women's store, adding the "J. Crew Collection" (and a new Collection store), and taking the brand up-market inspite of a down economy, it is clear that Drexler is not one to stand still. Additionally, this past year J. Crew has begun offering products in direct partnership with larger brands including Red Wing Shoes, Mackintosh, and using Thomas Mason fabrics for their shirts. Their latest partnership is a bit of a puzzler to me, though.

I was looking at the J. Crew website this morning and came across a pair of "Vintage slim fit 501 jeans in dark rinse wash." I'm curious about a couple of things.



First, I am a bit surprised to see Levi's doing this type of partnership. Clearly with the current popoularity of 501s and classic American clothing in general, it does seem advantageous for both parties. I guess it's just that I wouldn't have really expected to have Levi's allow their products to be sold under someone else's name.

Second, the jeans themselves are a bit of a mystery, and the description on the website doesn't really seem to help any. They seem to be selvedge, but do not appear to be raw denim (i.e.- shrink-to-fit). They also say "Import" meaning that they are likely made in Mexico. While they have a non-standard leather label, the wash, "Dark Rinse", is one that is available for regular (sanfordized) 501s. It is difficult to tell just how "slim fitting" they are without being able to directly compare them to a regular pair of 501s.

With price tag of $265, I'm afraid that it is simply a bit of a bait and switch for people who don't know any better. These basically appear to be regular 501s with selvedge denim that were probably made in Mexico (or some 3rd world country). They should probably retail for about half that price. In fact, I was able to pick up a pair of Mexico-made (raw) selvedge 501s off the Levi's website on sale for about $40 several months back. I believe they may have been marked down from about $100. For the price J. Crew is asking, one could buy some very nice (read: quality) pairs of jeans (A.P.C., Nudie, etc.) and definitely get more for their money. Even if someone wanted a pair of slimmer fitting 501s, a repro of the 1947 501s from SugarCane only cost $247 from Denim Bar. They are based on the actual pattern for the 1947 Levi's and are made in Japan.

I guess I'm somewhat conflicted by J. Crew offering these jeans. On one hand, I think it is a little bit low for the company to be ripping off people by selling these jeans that seem to represent something, when they are, in fact, something else entirely. On the other hand, I have to hand it to them for doing so since it is simply capitalism, and if someone wants to drop that much cash on a pair of jeans without knowing why they cost that much, more power to them. Caveat emptor.