One pair of jeans, 365 days: Why I've worn the same pair of pants for a year straight

[Klaralven]

The lines on our faces. The scars on our bodies. The electric white of worn denim in the crook of our knees. I was reminded recently why I love raw denim, a fabric that hasn't been treated, prewashed or distressed. My raw-denim jeans start off as a deep, dark blue. As I wear them, a faded line curves along the shape of the pocket knife in my front left pocket. Threads poke out on the seams. An oval of ivory forms on my right knee. My jeans are a story.

That story starts decades ago in Galesburg, Illinois, with two kids running across the lawn of our childhood home. It's me chasing after my older brother Ara. I'm dressed in his hand-me-downs: a striped shirt and red corduroy pants rolled way up at the cuffs. I'm his shadow. I don't want to wear dresses. I want to wear what my brother wears. I want to be like him. All these years later, I haven't changed. It's jeans and T-shirts for us both.

I'm 365 days into wearing the same pair of jeans. (Don't worry. I do wash them.) Along with hundreds of others around the globe, I am participating in a jeans-wearing competition called the Indigo Invitational. One year. One pair of raw jeans that started as pure, unadulterated denim.

My pants are surviving thanks to my amateurish patch jobs. I love these jeans and this "denim-head" community more than ever. It's now the final day of the competition, and it's bittersweet.

https://www.cnet.com/news/one-pair-of-jeans-365-days-why-ive-worn-the-same-pair-of-pants-for-a-year-straight/

[msongs]

1. forget fashion, jeans are all one needs on dry land nt

[Klaralven]

2. When I was a kid we got two pairs of jeans each year

One years school jeans were the next years barn jeans.

[alphafemale]

3. Those old Levi's 501 button fly jeans.

Started out rough and course and deep blue.

Eventually light blue and soft as flannel pajamas.

[2naSalit]

4. I never had a pair of jeans...

Until I was 16. It's about all I ever wear, been that way since my teens. I buy a stack of four pair every five years and wear them until I have to braid them into rugs or upholster a car or something with them.

I used to be real hard on my jeans, now that I've retired, I keep two pair current but have sets for weight changes that I suddenly have since the pandemic got long.

[Cartoonist]

5. I don't wear jeans anymore

It's become a uniform.

[hunter]

16. I like pants that don't melt when I play with fire.

[JudyM]

6. Great post. Fun concept.

[Nevilledog]

7. Fascinating

[BigmanPigman]

8. I still have my Levis from 1979

and they still fit. I saved this particular pair since I wore them on my last day of art school and all my illustrator friends signed them and included artwork (via Sharpie). They are a piece of art now and I had hung them on my wall but the sunlight was destroying them so they are wrapped up now.

[Bev54]

9. I could hardly get into my jeans after covid weight.

[SergeStorms]

10. I don't know how anyone....

could wear denim jeans in the dead of summer. On a hot, humid August day, I'd end up cutting the legs off, like I've done many times before.

Denim is fine for cool nights, and and cool autumn days, but the transition from summer shorts back to long pants is something I dread, and put off as long as possible.

Tonight it's 48 degrees outside, and I just finished my evening walk - in shorts - and I'm not ready to give in to long pants yet. I've been known to wear them outside - briefly - in the dead of winter.

I'd never make it through a year long Denim jeans wearing contest. Never.

[JI7]

11. Mines always get holes in them

maybe because they are cheap .

[tecelote]

12. Dungarees

I always think of the stiff blue denim as dungarees. You had to work them in.

Then, when the holes in the knees became too big, we'd cut them off at the knees and fray them to make shorts.

It seemed like jeans are what came later in all sorts of styles including the fake distressed look.

[Klaralven]

14. Originally dungaree referred to dungri cloth from India

Dungaree is often compared to denim, but there is a difference. While denim is woven from uncolored yarn and only colored after weaving, dungaree is made from pre-colored yarn. They became fashionable in the other half of the 40s and by the start of the 50s, they gained wider acceptance as casual wear because they are comfortable, easy to wear and practical.

http://www.historyofjeans.com/jeans-history/history-of-dungaree-fabric/

Current usage seems to use jeans and dungaree interchangeably.

[dchill]

13. I wear jeans. I've always worn jeans.

I have two pairs for alternating.
I'm liking it.

[Vinca]

15. As a previous poster said, jeans are a uniform. I've worn them every day for decades.

I bought a bunch of jean shorts for the summer when it's hot. And forget those designer things. Pre-washed, pre-bleached out, pre-torn is just stupid. Maybe that's why old, used, REAL jeans bring top prices at resale.