Denimhunters Guides to Raw Denim and Well-Made Rugged Menswear

Small-Dollar Selvedge: These Jeans Are Worth Every Penny
Selvedge jeans don’t have to break the bank. We’ve rounded up the best budget raw denim—perfect for your first pair or your next daily driver.

Choose Your Battledress: Denim Shirts That Are Made to Fade
A well-faded raw denim shirt is a grail for most denimheads. But it’s tougher to fade than your jeans. Here’re 20 shirts worth the work.

Slim Pickings: The Best of Slim-Fitting Selvedge Jeans
If you’re looking for the absolute best-fitting pair of jeans that can also fade beautifully, these pairs should be at the top of your list.

The Selvedge Masterlist: Our Ultimate Jeans Guide
Looking for the bar-none best pair of selvedge jeans? You’ve got options. We’ve cut it down the best we can, but this list still has more than 20 makers of the best men’s selvedge jeans.

Ditching Heavyweight Denim? Guide to Lightweight Selvedge
Discover comfort in true denim style with the best lightweight raw denim jeans. Ideal for all seasons and styles, and primed for great fades.

Realign Is Built for Fades and Made in Japan (…where else?)
Realign is a small-batch denim brand born from Robin Denim’s fade obsession. Made in Kojima with Collect Mills fabrics, these jeans deliver modern fits and fades worth chasing.

Brave Star: Heavyweight Jeans Without the Hefty Price Tag
Brave Star makes raw selvedge jeans in Los Angeles, blending heavyweight fabrics with straightforward fits. This guide covers their best denims, fits, and what to know before buying.

Getting Some Iron Heart Jeans? Read This Before You Buy
Iron Heart sets the standard for heavyweight selvedge denim. This guide walks you through the brand’s signature fabrics, fits, and details so you can choose the right pair.

Iron in the Fire: 500 Days in Iron Heart’s IHSH-33 Denim Shirt
Is Iron Heart’s iconic IHSH-33 selvedge western shirt the best denim shirt in the game? In this review, we put it to the test to find out.

Can Your Jeans Do This? Stretching Our Legs in KATO’s Mammoth Selvedge
KATO’s heaviest pair of stretch selvedge denim, the 17.5 oz. Mammoth Selvedge, is forcing us to reconsider our position on stretch denim.

Why Piger Works Are Masters of Their Domain
Piger Works Master of Fades is the Thai brand’s claim to fade fame. Does the 20MF live up to its name? We review the pair.

Cuts Like a Katana: Samurai Jeans Fit Guide
A favourite brand for those seeking fast-fading heavyweights, Samurai Jeans boast some of the hardest and heaviest raws around.

Slice and Dice: Samurai’s Best Made-to-Fade Shirts and Jackets
Experienced faders know that Samurai shirts and jackets fade like nothing else. Here are six made-to-fade and rally-ready Samurai shirts and jackets.

Gustin Time: The Selvedge Brand Worth Waiting For
Since 2013, Gustin’s low-cost crowdsourced model has drawn crowds of denimheads. Patience is expected, but we think these jeans are worth waiting for.

Falling for Flannel: The Best of Heavy and Well-Made Flannels
Up your cold-weather fashion game with one of the best flannels that money can buy. This list guides you to our favourite well-made flannels.

The Best Work Boots and Engineers Money Can Buy
Boots make or break the outfit. If you’re looking for the best heritage boots from the world’s best bootmakers, you’ll find them on this list.

Unsinkable Style: Who Makes the Best N1, Peacoat, and Duffel?
Naval jackets like the peacoat, the N1, and duffel coat offer the best (and most stylish) protection you can find against the elements.

The Best Loopwheeled T-Shirts Money Can Buy
The best loopwheeled T-shirts: With expert advice from Thomas, this guide helps you find the perfect high-quality basic for your wardrobe.

Best of the Blue Collar: Two Chambray Shirts Rise to the Top
After looking high and low for the perfect chambray shirts, Bryan’s made his choices: These are the chambray shirts he’s bringing home.

How Lost & Found in Toronto Blends Denim and Streetwear
Toronto’s Lost & Found is a menswear destination for Japanese denim, heritage workwear and contemporary style. Start with this shop guide.

Realign Is Built for Fades and Made in Japan (…where else?)
Realign is a small-batch denim brand born from Robin Denim’s fade obsession. Made in Kojima with Collect Mills fabrics, these jeans deliver modern fits and fades worth chasing.

This Menswear Icon Belongs in Every Denimhead’s Wardrobe
From polo fields to jazz clubs and punk stages, this classic shirt has carried more attitude than you might think. This review explores why and how Tellason made their own.

Getting Some Iron Heart Jeans? Read This Before You Buy
Iron Heart sets the standard for heavyweight selvedge denim. This guide walks you through the brand’s signature fabrics, fits, and details so you can choose the right pair.

Brave Star: Heavyweight Jeans Without the Hefty Price Tag
Brave Star makes raw selvedge jeans in Los Angeles, blending heavyweight fabrics with straightforward fits. This guide covers their best denims, fits, and what to know before buying.
Denimhunters is a digital denim destination. Since 2011, we’ve helped denim lovers make educated buying decisions in the pursuit of timeless and adaptable wardrobes stocked with well-made essentials.
With our Raw Denim guides, The Rebel Essentials, and our Well-Made Essentials, we will help you find the best of raw selvedge jeans, leather boots, denim jackets, heavy flannels, and much more. Start your hunt with the guides below.

RAW SELVEDGE JEANS
Looking for the bar-none best pair of selvedge jeans? You’ve got options. We’ve cut it down to a dozen makers of the best men’s selvedge jeans.

DENIM SHIRTS
A well-faded raw denim shirt is a grail for most denimheads. But it’s tougher to fade than your jeans. Here’re 20 shirts worth the work.

DENIM JACKETS
If you need a jacket that can stand the cold and look great for decades, this buying guide is the perfect place to start your hunt.

How To Repair Your Jeans and Why You Should!
This article is the last in the series about buying jeans. Learn how you can extend the time you can enjoy your jeans, save money, and lower your environmental footprint. All by repairing your jeans!

3 Popular Raw Denim Care Myths That’re Totally Busted
When it comes to raw denim care, there’s no shortage of false assumptions and myths. In this member resource, I bust three of the most common ones; freezing your jeans, washing them in the ocean, and waiting six months before you wash.

How to Wash Raw Denim (and Every Other Kind of Jeans)
How we wash our jeans sometimes feels like a complicated form of art. If selling jeans is part of your job but don’t provide the right washing guidance, you can get in serious trouble.
The two step-by-step washing guides and the ‘‘3-question tool for better jeans washing guidance’ in this article will help you determine what kind of washing advice your customers need.

How Denim Is Made: Fabric Finishes
This final episode of my “how denim is made” series discusses how the two kinds of fabric finishes impact the way denim looks and behaves. The trick is to use this knowledge to your advance a make it part of the story you tell.

How Denim Is Made: Weaving
In this fourth episode in the series about how denim is made, you’ll learn how denim is woven and why denimheads prefer shuttle-loomed denim.

How Denim Is Made: Indigo Dyeing
In this third episode in the series about how denim is made, you’ll learn about natural and synthetic indigo, and the differences between rope dyeing and slasher dyeing.

How the Japanese Pioneered Heritage Fashion
In this 4th part of my series about the history of jeans, you’ll learn how the Japanese built a cult around Americana, which evolved into heritage fashion.

An Overview of the Four Eras Jeans History
When you’re selling jeans, you’re selling history! That’s why it’s crucial to know at least the key facts of the history of jeans when you work with denim and jeans. And that’s what this blog post teaches.

How Designer Jeans Broke Through the Mainstream
In this part 2 of my history of jeans overview, you’ll learn how ‘designer jeans’ broke through the mainstream, plus how to tell the story when you’re selling.

The Defining Features That Help Us Keep Our Jeans Up
In this free guide, I will look at all of the features that jeans makers use—and have used—to make our jeans fit right, and more importantly, not fall down while you’re wearing them.

The Branded Defining Features That Differentiate Makers
In this second episode of the series about the defining features of jeans, I look at how small, yet iconic elements have made the jean what it is today.

The Innovative Features That Define the Modern Jean
When you know how the defining features have evolved, you can build better narratives about the jeans you’re selling by putting them into a bigger picture.
The Denim Encyclopedia by Denimhunters is a knowledge base with answers to frequently asked questions about denim and jeans, as well as explanations of how denim and jeans are made.
The Encyclopedia is divided into sections, each with its own homepage where its entries are listed with brief descriptions and links to read more. The Encyclopedia is continuously updated with new entries.

DENIM EXPLAINED
This section of the Encyclopedia is home to everything that relates specifically to the denim fabric. You’ll find answers to all your questions about denim and how it’s made.

JEANS ANATOMY
Many of the features that define blue jeans started as pragmatic solutions to the problems. Here you’ll find answers to questions about the details of jeans and how they’re made.

VOCABULARY
Every business has its own vocabulary. This section lists and explains the most common and frequently used terms from the world and jeans and denim.

A-Z
Here you’ll find all entries of the Denim Encyclopedia in alphabetical order. Each entry is explained briefly – you can read more by clicking the link.
Cuffing is not only a practical way of making your jeans shorter without having to cut and sew, it also looks great.
This guide explains the eight most common ways to cuff your jeans.
If you need to wash your jeans, but you don’t want to change the way they look, wash them by hand.
It’s the most gentle way you can wash your jeans because there is less agitation, which less risk of unwanted creases.
In this section of the Denim Encyclopedia, we investigate and debunk the myths about how to wash raw denim, including not washing for 6 months, ocean washing, dry cleaning and more.