| Mar072010 | Tellason Selvage Denim |
This is one of those things that makes me love the fact that I live in America. I picked up a pair of Tellason raw denim jeans about a month ago from a boutique in Ballard and I’m loving them. I’ve worn them practically every day since I got them.
First things first, what on earth is selvage denim? Basically, it’s denim made in an old-fashioned way and typically presented in its raw state. What does this mean for the wearer? Initially, there will be some inconvenience. The indigo dye will run a little, it has not been pre-shrunk and the fabric will be stiff like a bad Halloween costume. There will be none of the fake wear and tear stuff you see on modern jeans; no striping, no holes, no creases, no fraying.
So why subject myself to these inconveniences? Mostly my geeky curiosity. I’ve been promised that this stuff is rugged. But more than that, after pre-shrinking my pair of jeans and really breaking them in for a week, they feel great. My other cheap jeans feel like sweatpants next to my Tellasons. They do flattering things for my legs, they don’t sag around my ass and I can see the first signs of wear and creases that make this pair of jeans uniquely mine.
More than anything else, I love the story behind them. A story that will make people at dinner parties roll their eyes and wonder why the fuck an idiot like me would pay $200 for a brand of jeans that nobody has ever heard of. These jeans are all-American: the denim is from Greensboro, North Carolina, the leather labels are from Portland, Oregon and it’s put all together in San Francisco. And they’re made in that classic way back when a pair of jeans still meant something: straight leg, rugged as shit and a blank canvas for you to create your own wear patterns. Tellason’s first ever run produced a mere 240 pairs of jeans and I managed to snag #223. I won’t lie, the exclusivity makes me feel a little smug.
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