I see threads on forums where people chronicle the aging of their jeans, and it seems to me that no other garment has that kind of personal connection with its wearer. What it is about jeans that people seem to be so attached to?

Andrew: Jeans can become part of a person’s personal journey; they go with him everywhere. Wearing the same pair of jeans and bringing them along with you and charting their progress becomes a sort of narrative.

Your partner, Kiya, uses the phrase “jeans don’t lie.” What exactly does that mean?

Andrew: As you wear raw jeans, they have to change along with you. They have to show wear, they have to mold to you, and they have to age. When you look at some worn jeans, you know that they’ve been somewhere and that they’ve done things, and I think that’s cool. After time, you can recognize those that have been authentically worn in and those that have been worn in at a washhouse. With raw denim, your jeans age wherever your body moves. We understand that a customer may want to wear something a bit more lightweight and comfortable, which may be what attracts many of them to prewashed and predistressed jeans. We, on the other hand, choose to just focus on raw jeans. That’s part of the story of our shop—this is the only way that jeans used to be made.

Like we spoke about in the beginning, more than any other article of clothing, people seem to have an affinity for their jeans as a personal item. Does that sentiment go along with the way that a person used to wear jeans in the early part of the century? How has the way that people wear denim changed from the early part of the century when people primarily wore denim to work?

Andrew: When we talk about the term “workwear,” we mean just that: jeans were made to work in. Because of the wearer’s labor, the aging process was accelerated because he was harsh on his jeans. This trend towards lighter, more comfortable materials on jeans came about during the time where jeans were transitioning from workwear to something that could be worn as a fashion item.

Did that trend emerge because a customer wants to wear the item without putting in the work themselves?

Andrew: Right. It all boils down to personal preference, so I’m not trying to say one is better than the other. But inevitably, one positive attribute to aging jeans yourself is that they last longer when you put in the work yourself. And beyond that, when customers get to see the process and how things age over time, it’s an added bonus. That said, gold miners never really admired their fades.