Thrashed Blue Jeans

Do you hold onto seriously thrashed blue jeans? Are they patched/repaired? Have you ever deliberately damaged a pair of jeans?

No to all your questions. (Well, I guess yes to the last - in the 70s jeans shorts were common, so I cut off a pair of jeans to make shorts. Mom was so pissed.)

Yes, I keep them. No, I don’t repair them because they never get quite that bad. And no, I’ve never intentionally damaged a pair because of fashion.

I don’t have any ‘seriously thrashed’ jeans, but I’d keep them. I have patched jeans using material from other jeans that were worn so much I didn’t wear them anymore. I have not intentionally damaged jeans.

I was passing a store (Macy’s?) a few weeks ago, and I saw their ‘pre-trashed’ jeans on display. I know they’re fashionable, but it seems like cheating to me.

Back in the 60s, the most serious *faux pas *you could commit was to wear a new pair of jeans that still looked new. We went to great lengths making them look like we’d been wearing them for 20 years.

As a teenager in the mid 80’s, I dumped bleach in batches on an old pair of jeans and left it there until the colour was gone. They looked great (at least I thought so) until several washes later when the weakened fabric started to fall apart.

There are $120 jeans in the mall in far worse shape than any jeans of my own that I’d still wear. I really don’t get this or distressed furniture.

In the early 60s, I’ve heard that regular old indigo Levi’s were disdained; you were supposed to wear white, or sand colored, grey or what have you, but not classic indigo. I wonder if this was the beginning of that trend?

No, I have a couple of “old looking” jeans and I reserve those for doing errands in. I only wear out my nicer pairs.

I have 20 year old jeans (Levis) with holy knees, I still wear them during the summer since they’re still in style and all.

I used to buy acid-washed Levis (probably my most egregious sin admitted to on the Dope), and I remember they used to wear out pretty fast, too.

I have a pair that my dad wore out naturally. I also have a pair that I took a cheese grater to. They look awesome, and only cost me $15, instead of the $60 they would have cost pre-thrashed.