Male Fashion Advice

The world of denim jeans is a super deep rabbit hole: fabric composition, fabric weight, the type of loom the fabric is made on, real indigo dye vs chemical dyes, etc., etc. But the vast, vast majority of the jeans you'll find in most stores these days aren't particularly high quality at all. They're rarely even 100% cotton anymore. Now most brands use a blend of cotton, nylon, and spandex. Where once they were made to be tough and durable work clothes, now they're mostly just made to feel comfortable immediately off the rack, not to last or be durable really at all. The fact that they wear out super fast just means they get to sell more jeans.

And you can't even count on any of the major denim makers to have consistent quality across their own brands anymore. Levi's, Wrangler, etc., make different quality jeans to hit the specific price points of the different major retail chains. A pair of Levi's you find at WalMart will be lower quality than the pair you find at Target, which will be lower quality than the Levi's you'll find at a higher end department or western wear store.

If you want 100% cotton jeans that are made like jeans were made before the 1990s, the terms you want to search for are "raw denim," and "selvage denim." Selvage refers to they type of loom the fabric is made on rather than the fabric itself, but denim made on a selvage loom is usually the high quality stuff. Raw denim can get pretty pricey depending on the brand. The cheapest option will probably be Levi's 501 Shrink-to-Fit jeans (not any old 501s, mind you. Specifically the Shrink-to-Fit ones). Some of the other less expensive raw denim options are brands like Brave Star or Unbranded, which run in the $100 - $200 range. Brands like 3sixteen and Naked & Famous are usually in the $200 - $400 range. And brands like Samurai or Oni are like $300 on up.