Denim Style — Participant at the 1st Annual Pendine Sands Hot Rod Races wearing Lee jeans. Photography © Horst Friedrichs
Horst A. Friedrichs’ thoughtful photographic curation of British style continues with his latest release Denim Style. The foreword written by Kelly Dawson, co-founder of Dawson Denim, traces the origin of denim (one of the world’s most honest, durable, and coveted fabrics) back over a thousand years ago to the dye houses of Japan, where the art of Aizome (dyeing with the fermented leaves of the indigo plant) began. The Japanese later learned to grow cotton and began weaving by hand. From there she traces the lineage of denim across France, Italy, and Britain. We so often think of denim as the quintessential American fabric, which for us it is, but many countries and cultures shared in the evolution and passion that gave us the fabric that has touched all of our lives. I mean really, who doesn’t have a favorite pair of jeans?
Leave a comment here about your favorite pair of jeans and I’ll select one submission that will receive a copy of Denim Style signed by Horst A. Friedrichs himself.
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The Selvedge Yard 
My favorite pair of jeans is the Imogene+ Willie Luci Blue Ridge. The company is family owned, american made and american denim. She jeans are fantastic, well built and great fit much like my Triumph America. The jeans are for everyone, the taco van mobile owner, the photographer, the barista and the tech sourcer (me). and it fits my style of mom, worker, runner and specially Motorcycle rider
The brand isn’t important. The only important aspect of the best pair of jeans I’ve ever owned was the adventure. They took me by motorcycle from Indiana to North Dakota. They fit me so well that they must have played a part in meeting my first wife. They crawled under cars and all over bikes with wrenches stuck in the back pocket. The hole in the ass that I had to patch to keep them going came from a photo shoot when I crouched down against a wall and caught them on a nail. Finally, they became so raggedy that not even I could find a use for them anymore and they ended up in a landfill. I never found another pair like them. I don’t know whether the fit changed, I changed or my life changed, but they’re still, after over 30 years, the standard I apply to every pair of jeans I buy.
Wings+Horns Slim 13.5oz White Oak selvedge, USA, USA, USA!
Nothing exotic. Levis. Over engineer boots. Rolled precisely two slim folds. White t-shirt. Luckies pack red circle showing through rolled up sleeve. 1949 Ford. Waiting in vain for someone to say “What are you rebelling against?” so I could mumble, Marlon-ish, “whaddya got?” This was in 1955.
Eat Dust jeans when I ride my Triump is a must. Just love the feeling when I gottem on .
The first time I was murderously angry was when my college roommate patched my favorite jeans without asking…with colorful patches…on blue jeans. It was like color vomit, and it was terrible. I vowed never to love a single pair of jeans again.
my fav pair I bought because I like the look of dark washed denim. men’s cuts look okay on me but don’t feel comfortable until months and months of wear. maybe a few minor motorcycle accidents (stupid trolley tracks @#$#). some stains that might be blood or messing with my dog in the dog park. bits of spray paint? eventually relegated to the work pile. spark holes, wear in the knees that gets patched over with tearmender, the odd snag on a piece of 9wire. oh so comfortable, oh so scruffy. the wear in the fabric in the ass is what makes me let them go. they were probably cremated since denim is great in bee-smokers. always a pair in process.
I never saw my favourite jeans in the flesh…..but on the flesh they brightened up my teenage Saturday teatime bombing round Hazard county with their cousins or turning Cletus’ eye while another dastardly plan was put into action.
Two pair.
An old style pair of 501’s perfectly faded and broken in they lasted almost a decade.
Pair two was a pair of Lucky Brand, style unknown so soft they were like flannel.
I’m stocky with muscular thighs, so finding a good pair is like Holy Grail.
I have one pair of 501s and a pair of B73 DST Carhartts. I like the 501’s best. I have been wearing 501’s for 54 years with a brief period in the early 70’s of Wranglers.
My 501s are pretty old and worn, no holes. I wear Carhartt work pants and shorts most of the time. $400 dollar jeans are beyond the pale for me. When I get another pair of jeans they will be Carhartt or 501s.
I do have an old Japanese indigo hippari coat I got in Los Angeles Japantown maybe 25 years ago. Not sure if it is hand made cloth, not likely. It is pretty nice (looked up the style in wiki).
All my jeans are my favorites. I like blues and blacks. When ever I put on a pair they become my favorites, of that moment away.
501’s of course…
501’s in 74, Nothing else since. Pair i’m wearing today are 12 years old, 1 wife, 1 daughter, 8 Harleys, 3 crashes, and 4 patches.
My favorite pair, is from Eat Dust, as they age they kind of have a neat greenish patina, they also have nice details in the rivets and pockets that you would miss if you’re not wearing a pair!
My absolute favorite pair of jeans ? Wow. I’m gonna have to go back a bit for that one. So…. my 1970’s pair of Chemin de Fer jeans… straight leg.. medium weight.. mildly faded…. custom tailor fit at MAX here in Denver back in the day. Max knowing his style backwards and forwards [he basically created my stage presence for a few years] and the tailor he had was a freaking genius. I’ve yet to find a pair of jeans that good since !
Definitely my Warehouse 1001xx. They just won’t die.
My favorite one was a pair of “Soft Machine”; the brand was founded in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1973 by Barry Williams, an english guy and by the argentinian Teddy Paez. The original idea was to earn enough money to finance the production of the film “Raoni”. The label depicting The Freak Brothers by Gilbert Shelton, showed the spirit behind the brand. Legend goes that, the two of them missed registering the brand, which caused an over bootlegging of the product and occasionally broke the whole thing.
ahhh. If jeans could talk. Or do they have to? They are the Grand Canyon of what we wear. The infinite permutations of truth, soul and the sublime…. Indigo cotton. The true blue jean is universal, and shines against imitation. Yes it”s feel is unique, but so is the smell of it. The person, the style, the cut, the hardness, or softness, the repurpose doesn’t matter, as long as it’s a real blue jean. There will always be a unique memory or story that is intertwined in the material. They are all irregular but forever relevant.
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My favorite pair of jeans were 501 STF Levis that were my first love. I remember seeing them for the first time after hearing about raw denim and its unique characteristics after months of wear. I finally had a pair that I could put my own mark on. It was a summer full of skateboarding, biking, and hiking. It was the summer following my senior year in high school, I was dating a girl at the time, and I was able to wear jeans everyday. But like a first love, every jean I buy now never gives me the same feeling from when I first bought the 501’s.
Years back I was recovering from being broken in all senses. One appreciates small things when you have few. I had my ride, an old ’85 Rebel which I purchased on the 4th of July, from a junk yard with my last bits of cash destined to fix the engine block of my beater. I had my kicks, pair of Durango oiled hide cowboys . I found a pair of no names in a second hand store, light fade, straight, nice hug on the bottom of the boot without chocking it, no belt needed, perfect all around and just looking for another opportunity to please. Loved those jeans like an armor against temptation, fit like a second skin to ride dangerously and gain my confidence back. Lived, screwed, recovered, and resurrected in those jeans; and I thank you through this post for that.
My favorite pair of blue jeans is my RIGID BLUE WORK JEAN W/O SUSPENDER BUTTONS by PRISON BLUES. I also own their WESTERN RINSED JACKET, a Hickory Shirt, suspenders, and a pair of their double knee blue jeans with suspender buttons to wear with my high waist-ed My Baby Jo’s RED SERVICE STATION JACKET. Good products…