Prepare for Discomfort

The downside to breaking in raw denim jeans is it isn’t the most comfortable process. The jeans will feel stiff on your body and will likely limit your range of motion in a serious way. You may also experience the dye rubbing off or “bleeding” of color.

For these reasons, you may not want to wear your jeans on a night out or over to your friend’s house that’s filled with white furniture.

Take a few weeks to really get the raw denim comfortable, and after that, you’ll never reach for another pair of jeans again.

A.P.C. Butler Program Jeans

Blowouts: What Are They And How Can You Fix Them?

When you rock the same pair of raw denim jeans every single day and never give them a wash to soften them up, it’s inevitable that holes are going to crop up in areas of wear. The most common place for this to occur is at the crotch. Those in the know call this a ‘blowout’.

Blowouts occur when the excess fabric in the crotch of the jeans rubs against itself with each step. Over time, this forms a hole and if you’re new to raw denim, it can be pretty disheartening. But you can postpone it.

Although it’s not really an option early on if you’re on a quest for decent fades, Hodgson says that washing jeans occasionally will help to keep the denim soft, reducing the risk of a blowout. “And avoid riding a bike,” he adds. “That puts a lot of pressure on the crotch.” Blackhorse Lane’s Giusti concurs: “In the battle between a leather or plastic bike seat, and a pair of cotton jeans, the seat will always win.

Nudie Jeans

Veteran denim nerds are well used to blowouts and see them as just another part of the raw denim experience. Every hole is an opportunity for a repair, which means another way to make your jeans slightly different from every other pair out there. Wear it like a badge of honour.