Archie is now in charge!

Last edited by Get Smart (2007-08-07 09:04:06)

The sad irony is that what is now highly sought after, expensive and rare used to be commonplace, cheap and easily acquired.  I think an appropriate analogy can be found in hand-basted jackets.  I recall a poster on this board stating that in the 60s his OTR jackets were hand basted because thats how things were done back then.  Certainly not ALL jackets, but it was much more common and certainly not cause for sartorial fetishism (I'm basing this on what I've read, please correct me if wrong).  The fact is, cheap methods of mass production have diminished the quality of most garments, and the brands that have decided to retain their quality have shot way up in price.  I think it's perfectly reasonable to charge a high sum for something that is of particularly high quality and that is made using rare, old fashioned methods.  To say that the cost is the result of "designer" induced cost inflation ignores the fact that most of the denim fanatics' brands are not "designer" at all.  The fact is, if everyone wanted high end Japanese loomed (the Japanese are denim fanatics and i read somewhere that all of the original levis looms are now in Japan), they could reverse engineer the looms and you could buy high quality denim at any work store, like you could with Levis back in the 40s and 50s.  It's a niche market (as I imagine the bespoke shoe market is), populated my people who are jean geeks and know all the history and terminology of denim.  For me, APC is about as high end as I would go, but i'm not a jean geek.  But someone paying 300-800 bucks for jeans makes much more sense to me than someone paying 2000 bucks for a Gucci suit.

And about Levi's "Once being the hallmark of cool."  The legal eagles over at Levi Strauss are on the warpath suing left and right for copyright infringement.  Seems everyone wants that cool little back pocket design.  Yes, Levis makes alot of low grade product, but their premium line is much better than it was when it first came out.  For vintage freaks the old big E 501s are the holy grail; I've seen them in shops for a grand.

While I wear denim quite often and agree with GetSmart in that there's a huge difference between, say, the denim of a $50 pair of Levi's and the $250 pair of 21 oz Iron Heart raw jeans that I'm wearing right now,  Marc makes some good points.

It is interesting that the niche, expensive denim makers today are using the old-school methods that were precisely those used to make said affordable cowboy jeans many decades ago.

I don't think it odd not to justify a $500 pair of jeans when you are keen on spending $5000 on a bespoke suit. The skills and the man hours involved in making tailored clothing (or hand made shoes) vis a vis jeans are much higher. Personally I wouldn't spend more that 300 bucks on a pair of jeans.

Last edited by Voltaire's Bastard (2007-08-08 14:56:40)