DENIM COMMUNITY mod
From Mod Mania
DENIM COMMUNITY
What is Denim?
Denim is a fabric that we use to make a pair of jeans, this is an objective way we describes it, but in the spiritual way, Denim is more than a piece of fabric, it inspires our aspect of describing movie stars, teenagers, etc. it also influences strong opinions from historian, writers, designers. In 1969, a writer from American fabric magazine commented that “Denim is one of the oldest fabrics in the world, yet it remains eternally young”. Denim would be perfectly qualified if based on the usage and also the interest it continuously making.
In the early 16th century, denim was made of cotton and wool1, but after the Levi Straus Company born, denim was made of cotton only. The blue color of blue denim is from the indigo plant. Basically the blue denim is formed from the cotton that colored with indigo dye.
Cotton and blue indigo dye
Indigo, or indigotin, is a dyestuff extracted from indigo and woad plants. Indigo was well known throughout the ancient time, it has the ability to color a fabric into deep blue. Egyptian is known as the first to use it apply to their artifacts; around 1600BC. And it has been found at Africa, Asia.
The unique part of indigo is that when dying on the fabric, it will only penetrate the upper layer of the fabric. When yarn died with indigo is untwisted, it can be seen that the inner layer still remain uncolored.
evolution of raw jeans;washed jeans
There are 2 basic types of jeans we have known today. The first one is the raw or dry jean. They are basically an unwashed pair of jeans, so when we are wearing raw jeans it will age naturally depending on our daily activity. The second one is washed jeans, these jeans are already washed in the factory, and usually they already have worn out look.
The difference of washed jeans
In the last 10 years, many different ways of washing jeans has been created or improved, with more cutting edge techniques, quirky details, material differences, the differences had been expanded. For example, “Brushed” where the top surface of denim combed with wire brushes to create suede-like feel. “Distressed” where the material is “aged” or even torn and has some kind of textures to give the appearance of a hard-life feel. Also there have few more others. “stonewashed” is the materials been washed aggressively; normally the process is gravel, pomice, then stone washed. Turkish stones are preferred for their porosity and cleanliness or stones from Sicily. Here’s a little tips for taking care of your jeans: if it’s first time washing, soak it into water, put about 50 cc of white vinegar and a spoon of salt (as long as taste salty), and put around 3~4 hours. Putting salt is for keeping the dye from running into your other clothes and keep your jeans to their true color
History of Denim
The history of denim or jeans began in 16th century when some craftsman in Turkey made the first pair of jeans. The jeans were used to be sailor pants. In fact Colombus the great sailor from Italy was used denim for his sails over a hundred of years.
Loeb Strauss, founder of Levi Strauss; the first pair of Levis Jeans
In 1853 Loeb Strauss, later known as the founder of Levi Strauss began the first mass-produce jeans. He was supplying jeans and clothes for the mineworkers in California. Levi Strauss was invented a lot of features and details of jeans. For example, they invented to use metal rivets to hold the pockets and the jeans together. It was a great solution due to complain from the mineworkers who always found that the pockets were easily to rip off.
one of Hollywood movie featured James Dean wearing jeans; Different cuts of jeans
19th century might be the golden century of jeans. Jeans were very popular and many jeans manufacturers were born. In 1900s Jeans were not just used as work wear, but also as daily clothes. In 1950s Jeans were also become the fashion icon. One of the factors was the development of film industry, where there were a lot of Hollywood movies featured the actors or actresses wearing jeans. In 1900s the variety of new jeans cut or silhouette was invented, such as skinny, relaxed fit, slim fit, boot cut, etc.
The hype of jeans in 20th century is still continuing. There are more brands that offers different kind of jeans, whether the details, cuts, colors, and fabrics.
Denim style
In the last nearly two centuries, Denim’s style has transform back and forth, but generally become fashionably and essentially in modern world. Each decade has simply a word to represent it. This paragraph would only talk about some significant changes.
The 19th Century: the California golden rush. This is probably because the first jeans company was founded at the San Francisco, and lot of miners wanted the clothes that would not been torn easily apart.
The 1940s’: War. Fewer jeans were made during the world war two, but Levis introduced denim to American solders, which is surprisingly fit. After war, some rival companies start to compete with Levis, such as Lee, Wrangler. This is not only a war for solders.
The 1960s’ ~ 80s’: hippies, cold war and designers. These are the years began difference styles, embroidered jeans, painted jeans, psychedelic jeans, etc.
The 1990’s : recession. Though Denim would hardly faded away from fashion, but certainly the path of traditional would not satisfy people easily, also this is the decade when begin some styles which are more dramatic, such as khakis, chinos, combat and carpenters and branded sportswear pants.
2000: reinventing denim. This is the year denim started being used on other products instead of only jeans, such as cushions, bed-spreads and furniture-covering.
Denim meets the 21st century
In the recent trend of emphasized of high-quality of production and fabrication in the textile processing, many methods of mixing fabric of natural and synthetic fibres has been improved and invented. The trend nowadays has emphasized on eco-friendly, with the environment being heavily damaged, for example, the jeans we wear everyday, which has cause a lot of damage to our environment in terms of heavy water usage (7000 to 29.000 liters of water for each kilogram of ready garment) and also poisonous pesticides. Therefore, some brand has started to produce eco-friendly based jeans, using organic cotton and blended yarn, but not only materials are important also the process has to be noticed.
Denim is no longer a cotton-only product, it may also come from polypropylene, lycra, polyamide, or polyester and a special bonding with nylon net for more active looking, polyester is commonly use. With more and more new types of materials were introduced, styles become more and more verified. Such as shabby rotten or even dirty looking, with the trend in line with denim, vintage denim looks to set around with the “homespun look” with it’s irregular appearance. Lighter and softer weights of denim in dress and shirt were also being introduced. Mix with some natural fibers, such as linen, hemp or wool even some for luxury look, silk and cashmere also turn into new type of denim and also gave us new acknowledge of denim.
Denim Community
As mentioned above about the jeans, the hype of jeans is still going until now. These days denim lovers are not just wear the jeans, they also gather together to make a community. The denim community basically is a group where there is a bunch of denim or jeans lovers gather together. They share experiences and knowledge about denim in the community. There are many denim communities that exist, such as Superdenim, Mynudies, Denimology, INDIGO (Indonesian Denim Group), Denim Heads, and many more. Most of them are online communities.
The membership in a denim community is not restricted only for people who have a lot of experiences and knowledge about denim, or for people who own fancy jeans. Denim communities open for anyone, it could be for people who love denim but have not got one, people who have no idea about denim, and people who want to learn more about denim.
Denim community usually has some activities to maintain and tighten the relationship between one member and others. Gatherings, online forums, blogs, Facebook pages, and denim exhibitions are some of denim community’s activities. These activities are very important to keep the community alive. The denim community activities are not just all about denim and jeans, it could be social activity, such as helping poor and homeless people and collecting some money to help the victims of natural disasters.
Gathering
Gathering held by INDIGO (Indonesian Denim Group)
Some of the denim communities hold gatherings, where the members can gather together to share their experience or knowledge about jeans and denim. Usually they meet in a meeting point such as café, restaurant, bar, etc. Then they could gather together to talk about jeans or anything else. Some of denim communities usually hold the gathering once a month or once a week.
Online forums
Online forums might be the most important activity in a denim community. Most of the denim communities were born from online forums, such as Superfuture, Kaskus, Styleforum, Mynudies, Hypebeast, etc.
In the online forums the denim community could have their own section or threads to discuss all about denim. The threads may discuss about different brands of jeans, new jeans, the evolution of jeans, and many more. Some of denim community such as INDIGO (Indonesian Denim Group) has their own website and online forum. The advantage of a denim community to have their own forum is to make the discussion about denim more specific. It also helps the denim community to run independently.
Some of denim communities also have their own page in other websites, such as facebook, blogspot, and twitter. These pages are very helpful to keep the communication within the community. It also helps the members to keep up to date to the latest news about denim.
Denim Exhibition
Wall of Fades, denim exhibition held by INDIGO
One of local brand stand at Wall of Fades
One of denim community in Indonesia named INDIGO (Indonesia Denim Group) has their own way to tighten the relationship within the community. One of the ways is to hold a denim exhibition. In this exhibition INDIGO shows a bunch of worn out jeans. They also open local brand stands and give opportunity to local brands to show and sell their jeans. The exhibition is very helpful, because the exhibition is open for public so anyone can come. It also supports the local brands, and encourages them to produce the best jeans for the local market.
Denim Contest
Blue in Green and Warehouse Denim Contest
The winner of Blue in Green and Warehouse Denim Contest
Another denim community’s activity that quiet popular recently is a denim contest. Denim contest basically is a competition between the community’s members. The rules is simple, all the participants have to wear an identical pair of raw jeans in a period of time. The winner will be the ones with the best natural fade. The participants also have to keep the progress of the jeans up by putting the progress photos in the online forums.
In conclusion, jeans are not just something that you wear everyday. There are so many things behind these blue pants. There are so many details and interesting histories. By joining or making denim community we could share our experience and knowledge about denim to other people. We could share what we know about this amazing fabric to other people who do not know anything about it.
References
Blue in Green, 2009, Warehouse Worldwide Contest, viewed 21 August 2010, http://blueingreensoho.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=184&Itemid=
Dj-Jax, 2010, Common Denim Questions, The Denim Thread, viewed 21 August 2010, http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/showthread.php?t=2760729
Oki-ni, 2010, History of Denim, viewed 21 August 2010, http://www.oki-ni.com/page/thehistoryofdenim
Pot Meets Pop Denim, 2010, Pot Meets Pop Denim @ Wall of Fades, viewed 21 August 2010, http://potmeetspopdenim.blogspot.com/2010/02/wall-of-fades.html
Rakuten, 2010, FULLCOUNT 1100-09 full count cotton jeans Tea Limited War Model 200, viewed 21 August 2010, http://en.item.rakuten.com/vintage/fc1100-09/
Retroflux, 2009, Indonesian Denim Group, FAQs, viewed 21 August 2010, http://www.darahkubiru.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=18
Ruano, L, 2009, Levis Venom Lights oz Sanderys Light Washed Denim, viewed 21 August 2010, http://hypebeast.com/2009/06/levis-fenom-light-oz-sunderys-light-washed-denim/
Sabbah, H, 2005, World’s Oldest Levi’s Jeans? , Viewed 21 August 2010, http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2005/05/19/worlds-oldest-levis-jeans/
Wahyu, T, 2009, Why Denim, viewed 21 August 2010, http://www.darahkubiru.com/2009/05/why-denim/
Wolverine, 2009, Levis Capital E Jeans: 10th Most Expensive Jeans, viewed 21 August 2010, http://www.bayareabags.com/apparel/levi-capital-e-jeans-10th-most-expensive-jeans.html
