Day 140 | What makes cotton wrinkle?

Today I decided to find out a little more on cotton itself. This time I found a website called CottonInc.com, and they have all you ever need to know about cotton, including a huge textiles and agriculture research archive.

Here's an answer for everyone who admires their wrinkles and moustaches on their jeans. Here's CottonInc's answer when they were asked, what makes cotton wrinkle? "During wearing and cleaning, fabrics are temporarily distorted to accommodate the stress of use. If the fabric does not recover its original shape, the results are described as wrinkling. Untreated cotton fibers do not have a permanent memory. The cellulose chains in the fiber move by breaking and re-establishing hydrogen bonds. There are no natural forces to promote the cellulose chains to return to their original configuration."

To follow up on what I published yesterday on day 139 about the origins of the name denim, here's their answer to, where does denim come from? "Two of the fabrics most symbolic of American fashion - chambray and denim - are in reality French imports. A soft comfortable fabric with contrasting coloured and white yarns, chambray was first found in Chambrai, France. Denim, originating in Nimes (as in "serge de Nimes"), was introduced to this country via work pants designed for the mining industry by a Mr. Levi Strauss."

There's so many knowledgeable people out there, willing to share their knowledge, and so much information if you're willing to search for it.

Day 139 | Serge de Nimes

I always thought the word denim and jeans comes from English, and American English at that. I mean, Levis where the first to make them, but, I was wrong. According to Wikipedia, the word denim comes from the name of a sturdy fabric called serge, originally made in Nîmes, France, by the Andre family. Originally called serge de Nîmes, the name was soon shortened to denim. Denim was traditionally coloured blue with indigo dye to make blue "jeans," though "jean" then denoted a different, lighter cotton textile; the contemporary use of jean comes from the French word for Genoa, Italy (Gênes), where the first denim trousers were made."

How interesting.

Day 138 | Indigo

I've been looking for some more information to build on yesterday's question, "Why is denim blue?". As always, Wikipedia has provided some really useful information on the colour Indigo, and I created the image on the left to show what they mean.

"Like many other colours (orange and violet are the best-known), indigo gets its name from an object in the natural world—the plant named indigo once used for dyeing cloth. The colour electric indigo is an approximation of spectrum indigo. This is the brightest colour indigo that can be approximated on a computer screen—it is the colour between the web colour blue and the colour electric violet.

The web colour blue violet or deep indigo is a shade of indigo brighter than pigment indigo but not as bright as electric indigo. The colour pigment indigo is equivalent to the web colour indigo and approximates the colour indigo that is usually reproduced in pigments and coloured pencils.

The colour of indigo dye is a different colour than either spectrum indigo or pigment indigo. This is the actual colour of the dye from the indigo plant when swatched onto raw fabric. A vat full of this dye is a darker colour, approximating the web colour Midnight Blue.

When specifying the colour indigo, it is necessary to indicate which particular one of these four major shades of indigo you are referring to."

There's a lot more information on all four the types of indigo colours on Wikipedia. It'll definitely make me think the next time I say "blue" jeans.

Day 137 | Why is denim blue?

I know today there are all sorts of weird and wonderful colours, but why is denim unique in it's singular connection with one colour?

Here's what I could find on Designboom.com. "The warp yarn is traditionally dyed with the blue pigment obtained from indigo dye. Until the introduction of synthetic dyes, at the end of the 19th century, Indigo was the most significant natural dye known to mankind, linked with practical fabrics and work clothing. The durability of Indigo as a colour and it's darkness of tone made it a good choice, when frequent washing was not possible. In 1870 BASF in Germany, originally suppliers of natural Indigo had started the search for a
synthetic substitute, in 1894 the process was perfected."

Day 136 | But is it art?

I've been going through some of the photos I've taken of the same pair of jeans over the past 136 days, and realised that not one of them is the same. Not even if it's of the same pocket, can they ever be the same, because the jeans will be older in one, more faded in another and brand new in yet another. So far I've taken around 450 photographs.

It's with that, that I found the two images to the left and wondered by myself; Could this be considered art? For one, you know it's a pair of jeans, but they're not depicted as they usually are. They appear more arty. More "posed" if you will.

I remember drawing class when I was in art school, and we often ended up drawing clothing that was thrown down in a similar way, to form a still life, which we then had to draw. As you can imagine, we all thought we're drawing a pile of washing on the ground. That's until our art teacher, a certain Mr.Melville taught us how to really "look" at what it was that we were drawing. That's when we started seeing more than just a pile of clothing or washing. We started noticing weird forms, textures, lines, circles, angles and other shapes.

With that, have a look at this website I found. Another view on denim as art. Authenticforum.com

Day 135 | Grammisgalan 2009

Here's a post from the Dr Denim website. "The annual Grammisgalan, Sweden's most prestigious music gala/awards, took place in Stockholm on 2009-01-07. In Flames feat. Timo Räisänen performed live, with Timo and In Flames lead singer Anders Fridén both wearing Dr Denim Snap White during the performance. Below is the video from YouTube.

Day 134 | How it all changed

My dad was born in 1943, and grew up in the 50's. A time when juvenile delinquency was said to be at unprecedented epidemic proportions in the United States. A time of films such as "The wild one" with Marlon Brando and "Rebel without a cause" starring James Dean. A time when cars such as the Cadillac Eldorado was considered the epitome of luxury.

When my dad turned 21 he had saved up enough money to buy his first pair of denim jeans. He loved them. Finally a pair that was worn by his heroes of the time. There was only one problem. He lived in conservative South Africa, where just four years earlier, in 1960, the ANC was banned. Parents of the time were very strict, because they've just come from a very rebellious era of the 1950's. My grandfather sat my dad, his son, down and told him that he had no problem with him wearing the jeans, as long as he didn't wear them outside the house.

Quite funny when you think about it today, but that is how negative the sentiments were towards denim jeans in South Africa at the time. Only "bad" people of low standing wore them. A spectacular case of "What would the people say of us, if they saw you wearing it in town". Fortunately for us it has all changed today. I found this website where the lady has made a denim jeans outfit for a friend's child. Such a different world we live in today.

Day 133 | Back to my normal self

It seems like I am back to my normal self, after 3 days of bed rest, if you can call it that. Still not 100%, but pretty close, so I can continue blogging again and actually wearing my jeans for a full day. I've also managed to drag myself back to work today.

Talking about back to work, I don't know if I wrote about this before, but I have finally scraped together enough courage to also register my company, darrylDesign here in Sweden. I joined up with an Advertising & Design agency in Gothenburg called Larema, which is short for Lagerholms Reklam och Marknadsförings. They've been going since the early 1990's and seemed like a good company to partner up with. So 2009 is an exciting year, and hopefully soon we'll secure our first big client together and a ton of work.

Day 132 | Doris

Lots of medicine and avoiding the cat has me up blogging at 1am. So tired of sleeping and just lying down. The problem is the eye medicine I'm taking for the allergy does not allow for looking at movies when I can't sleep, so it's been tough. But at least I'm blogging again, and feeling ok. I might even consider going to work tomorrow, just to get out of the house with the cat.

Don't get me wrong, I love cats and especially this cute one, but not when it makes you sneeze all the time, and your eyes swell up and you can't breathe. Just five more days to go. I think I can make it with Doris.

Day 131 | Sick as a dog because of a cat

It's so tough when you're already sick, and above that find out you're allergic to cats. I grew up on a farm, and had all the animals, including 2 cats, but this one we're looking after must be different. Now I got medicine to use in my already puffy eyes, and it blocks out everything, so I don't have a choice but to lie down and sleep. Hopefully the blogging will return to normal soon.

Day 130 | I just had to put them on

Yesterday was a non-starter for me. Didn't get to do any work on Friday because of a sore throat and got in bed at 3pm and was in bed throughout Saturday as I also developed some weird headache, which I never get. I was lying in bed thinking about how to write my blog. I just couldn't do it. I felt as if a train ran over me. I did try and get up for supper, even if it was for a couple of minutes, when I realised I hadn't put my jeans on the whole day.

I managed to have them on for exactly 15 minutes when I got up from the dinner table and passed out on the bed again. A really terrible day, which thankfully is now behind me. We're looking after friend's of ours kitten for the next week, while they're on holiday. She did manage to cheer me up a bit yesterday with her craziness.

Day 129 | It's weekend

I did a search for Dr.Denim Jeans under Google's blog search and came up with some stuff.

They're mostly just an introduction to Dr.Denim Jeans and some photos about new products, because as I've found out, not a lot of people have ever heard of the brand. Not even here in Gothenburg where it originates from. My survey to the right seems very even at the moment with 53 no and 41 yes, which is like I said not what I've experienced when asking people myself.

Here's some links to them:
jeansuk.com
kitmeout.com
happypeopledontcomplain.blogspot.com
denimology.co.uk
bizarrepdx.blogspot.com
wondermomo.blogspot.com

And I never got round to cleaning the mud and snow off my jeans today because I've been too busy. Tomorrow it's weekend, so I have some more time.

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 127 | Where to from here?

I've been thinking about this experiment or test of mine for a while now, and trying to figure out what to do with it, or more importantly where to go from here. I've always wanted to do something like this, but never planned it properly. It all started so fast from day one when I bought these jeans. I always had 6 months in mind, but recently I've been thinking if that's long enough.

Got some friends who say it should perhaps be longer than 6 months, perhaps a year, then there's others who say it's ok with 6 months. Then there's a third group who think it's gross to not wash your jeans. I'm ignoring group three and focussing on the first two. For now the plan is to wash these jeans for the first time on the 3rd of March. The washing in itself is another question I have to still answer. How will I wash them? Dr.Denim actually recommends washing your jeans in 30°. And we're talking about degrees Celsius in this instance, with no spin cycle, then just hanging them up to dry. Perhaps in the drying closet or our shower. There's going to be a lot of dyerunning out after the first wash and I don't want that all over the floor.

If this was your test, what would you do? How long would you still go and in the end, how would you wash them?

Day 126 | The button holes (3rd comparison)

The last part of my 3rd comparison series, are the button holes. The picture on the top has four comparison photos in it. The first one is from day 17, the second one from day 61, the third one from day 94 and the last one from today, day 126.

The button holes in my opinion is the area on the jeans that will wear the most, because it is used the most. I'm going to do exactly what I did on day 94, and do some maths.

I've been wearing them every day for the past hundred and twenty six days, so it means that I did the buttons up and down, whilst getting dressed and undressed, at least twice a day, so that is two hundred and fifty two times. Let's average going to the toilet during that time to twice a day, which is open and closed four times a day times hundred and twenty six days, gives us five hundred and four times. Add all of that up, and I have opened and closed the buttons on these jeans about seven hundred and fifty six times during the last hundred and twenty six days.

Still looking good for having gone through all of that.

Day 125 | The bottom hems (3rd comparison)

Today it's time to compare the bottom hems. As you can see, not a lot has changed. I think it's because I wear the hems turned up most of the time, so the damage is mostly done on the inside. I mean from the two hems chafing against each other. I'll take a photo of that some time this week.

Most of the wear you see at the moment, has been done by wearing the jeans without the hems turned up a couple of months ago. The top most comparison photo is from around day 14, the second one is from day 60, the third one from day 93 and the bottom one from today, day 125.

As you can see on the photo at the bottom, the fold itself is showing a lot of wear. That wear is showing through from the inside. Tomorrow I'm comparing the button holes.

Day 124 | The front pockets (3rd comparison)

Today I'm comparing the front pockets. This is probably the area that the most wear is visible. The pictures on the left in both sets of comparison photographs are from day 14, the pictures that are second are from day 59, third are from day 92 and fourth is from today, day 124.

There's such a huge difference from each other, especially day 14 vs day 124. In the beginning the denim was all smooth or uncreased, yet very raw. Now it's more creased, yet smoother, in a more shiny way. My front wallet mark on the front right pocket is also much more visible than before. It reminds me of what I wrote on day 107 about being obsessed with denim, "When you're seriously considering buying a new cell phone, just because you don't like the shape of the pocket fade your current phone creates."

Day 123 | The inner seams (3rd comparison)

Today I compare the inner seams. The place where my shoes do most of the chafing and damage. Not so much anymore though because I fold the bottom hems up most of the time nowadays.

The photo on the left is from day 58, the middle one from day 91 and the right hand one from today day 123. Not much has changed I think. A little bit more wear, but not a lot. The foldup is more evident and I don't think the crease will ever be gone, not even after the first wash. The bottom photo is the amount of wear so far, actually quite a bit if you compare it to the photo below it from the first week. Tomorrow I compare the front pockets for the 3rd time.

Day 122 | The back pockets (3rd comparison)

Here we go with the 3rd set of comparison photographs for the past 122 days. As usual I'll start with the back pockets, followed by the inner seams tomorrow.

The backside is a lot more shiny, which probably means greasy. There's also a lot more creases all over. There's not a lot of light blueish wear marks, but just enough to see that they're not new anymore. I still remember the feel of the raw denim on day 1. That's all gone now. The first photo of the four is from day 14, then day 57, followed by day 90 and then finally today. The denim itself is also very much more stretched. I have started wearing a belt every now and then. You know, just to keep them from falling down to my knees in public.

Day 121 | More of the same

Last night was one of the best new years of my life. Started off at one house party, where a friend cooked a 4 course meal, and ended up leaving after 12pm, for the next party, which was a dress up affair from the 20s. Think Al Capone and Frank Sinatra. We ended up leaving for home between 5 and 6 this morning. Fantastic.

So my jeans had their first new years party, complete with fireworks and champagne, and no accidental red wine spills. Tomorrow I'll post my 3rd comparison series on how the jeans have changed over the past 121 days. You can view the previous comparisons are here.