DENIM WASH GUIDE

HAND WASHING

Hand washing your jeans is the ideal method of care.  Here’s how.

 

  1. Fill your bathtub with cold to lukewarm water.
  2. Add a small amount of gentle detergent (we recommend Woolite black).
  3. Turn your jeans inside out and submerge them in the water.
  4. Agitate the jeans lightly.
  5. Let them sit under water for 45 minutes to an hour.
  6. Rinse the jeans with cool water to remove any soap.
  7. Hang dry.

 

Remember, the hotter the water the more color you will lose and the more the jeans will shrink.

 

MACHINE WASH

While we always recommend hand washing, if you trust the temperature control of your washing machine, a machine wash is works too.

 

  1. Set your machine temperature to Cold.
  2. Set your machine cycle to Gentle or Delicate
  3. Add a small amount of gentle detergent (we recommend Woolite black).
  4. Turn your jeans inside out.
  5. Place them in your washing machine (alone if it’s your first time washing them).
  6. Hang to dry.

SOAKING

Your white sofa is eyeing those new jeans of yours with great trepidation.  It is the nature of raw denim to bleed, or crock.  So to protect the lightly colored furniture and clothing in your life, you may want to soak your jeans before wearing.  

 

  1. Fill a bathtub with enough cold water to cover your jeans, and lay them flat in the tub.
  2. Your jeans will try to float, so to keep them submerged, weigh them down  (shampoo bottles do very nicely).  
  3. Keep the jeans submerged for about an hour, then hang dry.  

 

This will remove some of the excess indigo dye and help “set” the jeans.  Be warned:  Soaking your jeans will cause the fading process to take longer than if you just wear them raw.  Also, your fades might not be quite as sharp.