Denim

Denim is the hardest thing in the shop to buy honestly, because the trade solved fit with elastane and then discovered that elastane dies. A jean at ninety-eight per cent cotton lasts about eight years. The same jean at ninety-two per cent is comfortable on day one and shapeless by month eighteen, and the customer blames herself.

So the rail is narrow. Four fits from two houses, one Japanese and one Italian, none above two per cent stretch, and all of them cut for a body rather than for a photograph. They are stiffer than you are used to for about three weeks. After that they are the best-fitting thing you own, and they stay that way for a decade.

The four fits

The straight, high rise

Selvedge, 13oz, from the Tokyo indigo house. Dyed in vats running continuously since the 1960s; the colour moves for two years and then settles.

The wide leg

Italian, 11oz, softer from the start, and the one that goes over a boot. The best-selling fit and the only one we stock in two lengths.

The barrel

The one shape on the rail that is a shape rather than a block. Bought sparingly and reliably gone by December.

The jean skirt

Back after four years of Élise refusing. Long, straight, and with the pockets in the correct place, which is the entire argument she lost.

Raw or washed

The Tokyo denim comes both ways. Raw is a project — no washing for six months, and the fades are yours. Washed is a jean.

What is not here

No skinny fit, no distressing, and nothing above two per cent elastane. We are asked for all three most weeks.

Wearing them in


First three weeks	Stiff, and about 2cm tighter than they will settle at. This is normal and is not a size problem.
Washing	Cold, inside out, as rarely as you can stand. It is the tumble dryer that kills a waistband, not the wash.
Raw denim	No wash for six months if you want the fades. Freeze it in a bag if it needs freshening; it works and it sounds mad.
Hemming	Free in the first year, three working days, and we keep the original hem and reattach it if you ask.
Repairs	Knee and seat reweaving from €40. A ten-year-old pair usually needs it once and is better afterwards.