A good show

The Dr.Denim runway show was excellent. Will post some more photos once I'm back home from my trip, but here's a preview.

The first ever Dr.Denim runway show

At the moment I'm sitting at the first ever Dr.Denim runway show. It's during the Berns Fashion Week in Stockholm. A lot of people and a bit of nerves, when I spoke to Alex. But all in all a very positive feeling and lots of excitement.

Day 172 | Snow and more snow

It's been really difficult keeping these jeans dry in the last few days. It's just been snow and more snow. It's been lying everywhere and quite deep. All of a sudden today, the temperatures went above zero and all the snow just turned to slush. Now you have these piles of snow on the side-walks that's deep, and very wet. The water seems to just be running from everywhere. The bottom hems of the jeans always ends up getting soaked, because you're splashing so much when you walk.

I wonder what happens to the denim, and how much it shrinks with all this water? I guess I'll find out when I wash them in a couple of days.

Day 153 | Ice Skating

It's been really cold lately. Minus six degrees Celsius this morning when I walked to work. I still gave not gotten used to this kind of weather. I mean it's beautiful and sunny outside, yet freezing cold. It just doesn't make sense. There are a few things I do like about the cold weather though and one of them is ice skating.

We have this little dam just around the corner from where we live, and today it was completely frozen, so we decided to get the ice skates out and go for our first winter ice skate. It's my first time here in Sweden. I inherited some skates from the family, really old "vintage" skates, which fitted perfectly.

It had already turned dark when we got there, but with the street lights on it made it really exciting and a bit romantic, being the only two people ice skating on our "own" little ice rink.

Day 128 | All the snow is gone

We had a fantastic start to the day today. We woke up with about 5 inches of snow on the ground. Everything was white, and it was still snowing, when I was on my short walk to work. Absolutely fantastic. Or to me it is anyway, coming from South Africa, where I have never touched snow in 30 or so years.

The only sad thing was that by 5pm it was all gone,
because the temperature went to plus five today. It's been such a weird winter so far. Actually very warm, considering. No rain to speak of. No storms or howling winds. Just the odd day of snow and the odd day of sunshine. I've actually started thinking about summer already.

I'm putting these jeans on the kitchen table again tomorrow and running over it with a damp cloth, just to get the snow and mud splatters from today out again.

Day 114 | Christmas day

First of all, Merry Christmas. Hope the day's been fantastic. I spent it snowboarding with my extended family, in the sun. It's been absolutely fantastic. Tonight the other part of the family comes over to us for a turkey dinner, followed by sled racing with the kids.

The photo you can see is what my jeans look like right now, after helping my father in law get their car out of the snow. It was stuck, so I went to fetch some sand to throw behind the wheels, to help with the grip on the snow and ice. This proved to be a good idea, cause we got the car out, but a bad end result for my jeans. They got caught in the spray of the spinning wheel, and ended up covered in sand, snow and mud.

I'm waiting for it to dry, so that I can assess the damage, then see if I can brush the worst off. Any other ideas as to what to do? Still have 3 months left before I can wash them.

Day 113 | Fresh snow

I didn't go out to snowboard today, opting instead to take a break and give my wrists time to heal. It was a tough decision, because we had some good snow falls over night, and the slopes would have been perfect. Instead I spent the day reading.

In Sweden we celebrate Christmas eve, the 24th, where everyone gets together and has a traditional Swedish meal together. The presents are also handed out and opened today. It's a bit different from where I'm from, where everything is done on the 25th.

Tomorrow I think it's time to go out early for a snowboard, get some hot-chocolate on top of the mountain and then a sauna to finish off the day back at the house. Have a good Christmas wherever you are.

Day 81 | 100 days left

Today we were basically out the whole day for a walk in the forest. It snowed here in Gothenburg two days ago, but not a lot, and the snow is still on the ground. It is really cold, and today was the first time that I had my down feather, extra padded, winter jacket on, as well as my thermal underwear, scarf and beanie. So you see what I mean by cold. But it was beautiful, and really nice to be out with the whole family and the dog.

I've written a lot about the weather, and how I think these jeans will hold up for the next one hundred days through the Swedish winter. As long as it doesn't rain along with a strong wind, as on Day 53, it'll be OK. For one thing, they don't keep the cold out, so I will need to wear thermal underwear to keep me warm, and then they might stretch a little more than usual with the extra layer, but I'll have to wait and see what happens. Should help with keeping the sweat away though, seeing that the first wash is still one hundred days away.

The two photos show the knees, front and back, and how they have been stretched in the front and creased in the back, over the past eighty one days of continuous wear. They really have become comfortable though.

Day 56 | The unknown label

Having changed back to normal time, away from daylight savings time last Saturday, sunset is now at 5pm. And it's not even winter yet. Sometimes I really do miss the sun back home in South Africa, but then again I would miss all the snow and snowboarding in Sweden this time of the year. The walks through the forests when it so quiet. Cross country skiing with a backpack filled with hot chocolate and something to eat. I actually can't wait.

But back to the jeans. I've spoken about the label to the left before, on day 24. It just says "Lot No R-18". Recently though, I sent an email to Alexander at Dr.Denim, to ask him to clarify what it means. Here's his response, "The lot number is simply an internal reference number which the factory uses to trace every production run. That way, if there's a problem with a garment, we can trace it back to production date, production line etc, so we can find the root of the problem and hopefully eliminate it."