Raw Denim: Revealed!

RAW Denim, Why does it seem to be a men’s only club?

So when you are working in the world of denim there are a few key terms you see floating around these days. One of them is Raw denim.

Now raw denim is simply unwashed or unprocessed denim and it’s huge in men’s jeans. 

There are plenty of of brands out there with different cuts and styles of men's jeans made from raw denim as well as websites and blogs that are soley dedicated to different ways to care for raw denim, at home washes, ways to get the best fades and broken in feel. There are debates on if you should ever wash them, if you do how to wash them, and how often. And after reading site after site and idea after idea I really was starting to get jealous of all of the fun that people are having with their jeans. So I started wondering what would my options as a woman be if I wanted to get in on the raw denim world.

I did some investigating and it is a pretty small market, we do have more options now then we did; there are brands our there making raw denim jeans specifically for women.  However, most of the female options we have are not the very wallet friendly.

Now keep in mind raw denim itself is an investment no matter what your gender; this I like to think comes from the quality of the denim and the fact that when it isn’t washed there is no hiding the flaws in the material. I would generally think the opposite when it comes to pricing on jean just from working around them and seeing the time and skill that goes into hand sanding and pre-crinkling jeans. So how does someone take away all of those steps and still charge more for their jeans? This is still a question I have yet to find a really good answer for, but when it all comes back around it is about the quality of the denim and the fact that a raw denim jean really needs to be planned as a raw denim jean so the pattern can be adjusted accordingly. The washing process on jeans will make them shrink and take more of a shape then just raw denim will.

I wonder if this has something to do with the lack of raw denim in women’s wear. Women’s jeans generally speaking are much closer fitting then men’s jeans are. So is this just a difficult thing to achieve with the raw denim? Also raw denim is not super soft, its pretty well known for being stiff and ridged. Now that just doesn’t sound super comfortable to me.

But I do know when I am buying jean, like actual jeans I want them to feel like jeans. I don’t want them to feel like cheap stretch pajamas that are just going to rip apart in a matter of days. I want to feel like I am putting on a pair of good jeans; good jeans that fit well and make me feel good.

I seem to have gotten slightly off topic here. Women’s raw denim

Why I think we aren’t seeing much of it:

Harder to get a good fit without the washing and shrinking processes

The stiffer material is less appealing to women, because their jeans tend to have a closer fit.

Another reason you will see that raw jeans are more costly is because they are made with selvedge denim. This is a smaller roll of denim that is a tight weave and has been finished on both edges.  Selvedge denim cost more because it takes more yards of fabric to make one pair of pants because they are so narrow in width.

Now selvedge denim is something you will see in women’s jeans but rarely and from what I can tell generally has a wash on it.  Now how this is being done is a bit a mystery to me, or some kind of pattern making genius. Because the biggest selling point with

Raw denim is also sold in different weight classes.

Visit www.luigijeans.com today and see our selection of Raw fashion denim jeans and other styles!