Got Your First Raw Denim? The Only 8 Things You Actually Need to Know

I just gifted a very nice, very blue denim jacket from Tanuki to my boy Chris from the Dress Well channel on YouTube, and his first text was:

I’ve never owned a real quality denim product before. Do I wash it? Do I not wash it? Or I just let it naturally break in over time?

And I realized the internet needs an explainer for guys who just got their first raw denim, don’t feel compelled to learn the culture’s whole glossary about looms and indigo subtypes, and just want to make sure that their denim doesn’t wreck anything and that they don’t wreck their denim.

(And they can get interested in all the funky subculture stuff later, if they want.)

Real Quick: What’s “Raw Denim” Mean

• Raw denim is denim fabric that has not undergone any pre-washing or distressing processes after being woven.

Sometimes it has had a little wash at the factory to limit shrinkage and get rid of some starch, sometimes it hasn’t. People argue over whether or not a little rinse makes it technically raw but in either case, the main practical thing you should know is:

If you’ve bought something labeled ‘raw denim,’ it will slowly lose a significant amount of dye.

In other words, it will fade. The fades will make it look cool and you will love them. But it means you need to learn when dye will come out so you don’t dye things you don’t want to dye.

1. How to Wash Raw Denim Jeans and Jackets

• Turn it inside out.
• Wash it on cold.
• Wash it with similar colors.
• Take it out of the machine as soon as it’s finished washing.
• Hang dry it, don’t use a dryer.
• Washing hot and/or using a dryer will shrink them a little, if that’s what you want.

Those are the Cliff Notes, you’re welcome. (When to wash comes later.)

Because most fabrics are now colorfast, there’s a decent chance you’ve never had to separate lights and darks in the laundry. But your parents always did because it used to be more common to have fabrics that can lose dye and darken lighter clothes in their proximity, especially (but not only) when they’re wet.

Why You Need to Wash Raw Denim Jeans Inside Out

If you don’t turn your jeans inside out and especially if you don’t take them right out of the washing machine when the cycle’s finished, permanent folds and creases can appear in the dye, messing up the look.

Please learn from my mistake in the picture above: I put my very expensive Iron Heart jeans in the wash, went out to do errands, came back a few hours later, and they looked like the picture above because they sat crumpled and wet. This is not fixable.

Some guys call the effect “marbling” and pretend they like how it looks, but they’re lying to themselves.

Does Raw Denim Need a Special Detergent?

You can use any detergent you like. You don’t need to import Japanese denim detergent. I’ve always just used regular old Tide.

If you want to minimize fading, use a product for washing colors like Woolite Dark. If you want to maximize the fading, add a capful of bleach.

You’re allowed to! We discussed it with industry leading brand Naked & Famous in this guide to denim fades. If you’re just washing denim — or you don’t mind lightening anything else in the wash — a little capful of bleach will lighten the right parts of the jeans just a little.

But to be really clear: you don’t have to. You can just use any old detergent. You don’t need to give yourself a headache about washing, just remember to do it inside out with similar colors on cold, and you’re fine.

The First Raw Denim Wash

You lose the most dye on the first couple of washes, so that’s when it’s probably smart to wash the denim on its own. If that feels wasteful, you can do it with blue and black fabrics.

The good news about washing is that it gets less stressful and complex after those first couple of washes, by which point most of the dye that would leach out already has. This is when plenty of guys start washing their jeans with more of their other clothes and even with warmer water.

What Temperature Do I Wash My Raw Denim?

• Most guys wash raw denim with cold water
• The warmer water, the more likely the denim will shrink

Folks default to cold water because it minimizes shrinkage and dye transfer.

Can I Shrink My Raw Denim?

If you want the denim to shrink a little (and you might if you got it online from Japan and the item is bigger than you wanted), you can wash it on the “warm” or “hot” setting, keeping in mind this will also increase how much dye leaches into the water. (Again, that’s less of an issue if it’s already had a few washes.)

Guys usually shrink step by step: wash on warm and line dry. Not small enough? Wash on hot and line dry. Still not small enough? Wash on hot and dry on low. Dry on medium, dry on hot.

Yes, there’s no shortage of guys who consider this heresy because a drying machine is “harsher” on the fabric than line drying, but this is how I made my too-big summer jeans (above) fit me just right.

After you wear them a few times post-wash, the jeans will stretch back pretty close to their original too-big size. Just wash ’em again. It’s whatever. Why do some people think you should seldom wash your raws? Well…

2. When to Wash Raw Denim

• The more you wash your denim, the faster it will fade
• Some guys prefer fades that look more like crisp lines; that happens when you don’t wash them much 

I’m making this real clear: wash it whenever you feel like it.

I’ve made multiple videos on the topic but here is its conclusion: washing isn’t bad for your jeans. The reason many guys rarely wash their raw denim is because the less you wash it, the higher contrast the fades will be, and some guys find that look desirable.

If you wash them more often, the lighter bits will blur into the darker bits instead of being “crisp” and defined, like sharp lines of white or electric blue.

The less you wash raw denim, the higher contrast the fades will be, and some guys find that look desirable.

I am operating on the assumption that you’re a regular dude who cares more about hygiene than how crisp his fades are.

And while I’ve gone a good few dozen wears without washing, it’s best not to go, like, hundreds of wears without washing. Not only will the jeans eventually look yellower and greasier, and not only will the crotch wind up smelling like pee, but going ages without washing them degrades the fabric and the stitching. 

They won’t last as long, and durability is sort of the point of good denim.

3. What to Wear Your Denim With

• Over time, lighter colored shoes and shirts will pick up dye from raw denim jeans and jackets, respectively — especially if it gets wet.

If you’re new to wearing raw denim then you should know the dye can transfer outside of the washing machine as well. Dye is especially likely to transfer when your denim is new and when it’s wet.

I have a lot of leather boots with a bit of indigo around the collar, and lighter footwear — especially suede and roughout — really picks it up.

Now, heaps of denim guys love that look of stolen indigo on their boots and sneakers. Some, like my mate Ben at @slubcheck, even love it on their white t-shirts.

If you don’t, you should know that it’s best to wear your denim with darker colors, at least until it’s had a few washes. Like I said earlier, it won’t lose much more dye after that — unless you get rained on.

Dye is especially likely to transfer when your denim is new and when it’s wet.

In fact, whatever wet denim touches will probably get blue.

Let’s say you’re at a friend’s movie night, you do the dishes, get your wrist cuffs wet, and go back and finish the movie. If you rested your hands on your thighs while sitting, you probably got your pants blue. If you rested them on your friend’s couch, you’re in trouble.

In fact, when your raw denim is very new, even when it’s not wet, you should stay away from any light colored upholstery.

4. How Often You Can Wear Raw Denim?

• As often as you like, just wash it when it feels gross.
• If you hang it up between wears, it’ll air out and take longer to feel gross.

You really can wear your denim as often as you want. They’re not like boots, which seem very durable, but you’re not meant to wear the same pair every day because that won’t leave enough time for your foot humidity to air out.

Denim can be worn as much as you like. That said, if you hang up your jeans or jacket between wears, they’ll air out a bit and be less likely to smell iffy and feel musty. Which, in turn, will make it easier to wear a lot.

This goes for all clothes, by the way. I usually hang my sweaty workout clothes up to dry before tossing them in my hamper to keep them from stinking out all my other clothes until laundry day.

5. The Legs/Sleeves Will Get “Shorter” With Wear

I almost forgot this, but it’s one of the reasons guys cuff their jeans, and it’s why some guys return denim jackets when they shouldn’t.

As your arms or legs bend and flex a zillion times, the fabric will develop creases behind the knees or elbows that some guys call “honeycombs.” They’ll also fade, and eventually, these areas will just stay a little bunched up at all times.

So if your sleeves are a little long, that’s a good thing. You’ll be grateful they were once the sleeves start crunching upward.

And if you’re getting jeans hemmed, leave some extra length to allow for the upward creep.

Ugh, that reminds me about hemming…

6. It Doesn’t Matter How You Get Your Jeans Hemmed

• Many guys go out of their way to hem their jeans with an old fashioned “chain stitch.”
• This has a tiny effect on how the bottom of your jeans fade; it’s almost certainly not worth the effort to find a specialist with a chain stitching machine.

Raw denim brands usually just sell their jeans in one inseam length, but they usually offer to hem them for you once you buy them. (No returns!)

But if, for whatever reason, you get unhemmed jeans that you need to get altered, you’ll quickly see everyone online saying the only way to get nice jeans hemmed is with a vintage chain stitch machine.

You do not have to. You can just go to your local dry cleaners.

Although it’s actually a little easier to unravel, the main reason guys like the chain stitch is because it makes the fades along the stitches at the bottom of the legs a little wavier.

Don’t give yourself the headache or the expense. Just get them hemmed the normal way, it does not matter.

7. Raw Denim Shrinks and Stretches With Wear (If It’s 100% Cotton)

• Denim will be smaller after a wash and looser once it’s time to wash.
• Expect about an inch of permanent stretch between buying it at the store and wearing it a few times.
• The amount a denim stretches depends on the fabric and model; research yours on Reddit and with the vendor.
• If your denim is described as unsanforized, it will shrink significantly and permanently on its first wash.

Something both very annoying and potentially useful with raw denim is that the size will change.

By that I mean three things: it’ll permanently stretch between buying it and wearing it a couple of times, it will shrink after washing, and it will stretch back out with wear.

It’ll permanently stretch between buying it and wearing it a couple of times, it will shrink after washing, and it will stretch back out with wear.

Especially with jeans, which experience more stress and tension than jackets do — that’s why they fade faster than jackets — thick, 100-percent cotton denim doesn’t bounce back to its original form as well as clothes with polyester do. 

This is a phenomenon you, a first time raw denim wearer, might not have experience with because, for better or worse, most clothing today contains polyester, which helps fabric hold its shape.

The Initial, Permanent Stretch

So you’ll sometimes hear advice like, if you like the way your jeans fit your waist when they’re new, wear a belt at all times so that the waistband doesn’t get stretched through regular wear. 

On average, the waistband will stretch about an inch with wear, so buy them snug but not hard to button.

A more common way to express cotton’s malleability is “cotton denim molds to the shape of your body and fits you better with wear.” Obviously, this is something a lot of guys love about the stuff.

The fact that raw denim stretches with wear is more of an issue with jeans. Jackets will stretch out a little, but not very significantly. They just experience less duress then pants.

Research Your Fabric and its Weave

To make things more complicated: the degree to which denim stretches out depends on the brand and how tight their model’s weave is.

Two super famous examples are Oni’s Secret Denim, which has a famously loose weave that stretches more than average; and Iron Heart, which can have a very tight weave that barely stretches at all.

I’m speaking from experience about their 14-ounce black denim in the picture above, which I bought super tight and they never loosened up. It was very sad. 

The Second, Neverending Cycle of Stretch

We touched on this in the washing section, but denim fits tighter after a wash and looser after a few wears. The hotter the wash, the more it’ll shrink. Toss it in a dryer and it’ll shrink even more. Wear it a few times and it’ll stretch back out pretty close to its starting point, if not the exact same place.

There’s not really one consistent way they’ll fit at all times. It’s like an organic entity that’s shifting and bulging and contracting right alongside your own pulsating meat sack you call the Self. 

So… does anything fit well if its fit is always changing? Especially if your own body measurements fluctuate throughout the day? Does a ‘good fit’ actually exist? This is a question for the philosophers.

8. Work Out If Your Denim Is Sanforized

• Unsanforized denim must be purchased a size too big.
• Unsanforized denim shrinks permanently on its first wash.

I tried to avoid giving you jargon to learn but you do need to double check if the raw denim you’re buying is sanforized or unsanforized. It’ll say so on the product page. If it doesn’t, it’s sanforized, and you can skip this section.

You might have heard the slogan “shrink to fit” associated with Levi’s. That’s referring to what denim always did before sanforization was invented in 1930: shrink a good size or two on its first wash. Sanforizing is a way of treating fabric at the factory to keep it from shrinking too dramatically.

Most denim is sanforized, even in the raw denim world. But this world is also the only place where you have a good chance of buying something unsanforized (by accident or on purpose) because some denimheads (for reasons we explored here) love their denim in its loomstate, as in right off of the loom — a less common word for unsanforized.

If your denim is unsanforized, it will shrink a good size or two the first time you wash it. If it’s sanforized, it’s just normal.

If you bought unsanforized denim and you don’t want it to shrink, you should return it, become a guy who doesn’t wash his denim, or wash it on cold which won’t shrink it too much.

“If it’s unsanforized and you’re concerned, just don’t wash it in warm water,” says denim historian and brand owner Mohsin Sajid. “Even dry cleaning is still using chemicals, so will still shrink it. Cold water will still shrink it too, but less so. Even wearing it will — because of your body sweat — but it will ease out. It all depends what denim and quality.”

If you bought unsanforized denim a size big: good! You can wash it, but you’ll probably be told to soak it in a bathtub, because whoever sold it to you will have specific instructions about how long and how hot the soak should be. If no one has given you this information, get very mad, then head to Reddit for recs.

Again, most raw denim is sanforized, so you probably don’t need to worry about this. But my very first pair of Japanese jeans, (Studio d’Artisans from Self Edge in New York) was unsanforized, and I wasn’t looking for unsanforized. And I had to soak it in a plastic bag in my office the night before flying to Jordan, wondering what the hell kind of hobby I’d gotten myself into.

They wound up fitting great, though.

9. Use a Wooden Hanger to Hang Your Jacket

Tiny addition: I hung mine on a wire hanger for years and it made little pinpoint fades appear on either shoulder, which I didn’t like.

Wrapping Up

That’s everything I can think of.

I’m sorry i had to talk about sanforization, I really wanted to keep this free of jargon, but you do need to check for that one.

Otherwise, the main takeaway for first time raw denim buyers are to wash the garment (jeans or jacket) inside out with cold water whenever you want to wash it, and don’t let them sit in a crumpled wet pile. That’s the main thing to know.

The other big takeaway is that raw denim fades, so be mindful of that when you wash it or get it wet. Wear and wash your raw denim as much as you want, but keep an eye out for when they look like slick and yellowish and smelly.

Did I forget anything? This is for people who do not, or might not, care at all about looms and indigo subtypes, like something to send a friend if you gifted them some nice denim and don’t them to have to spend all day reading about his jeans on Reddit.

I think this article contains everything that guy definitely has to know.

Then, if he chooses to, he can become a freak like me and dive way too deep into the community and culture.

Speaking of which, I visited Vietnam’s Raw Denim community if you want to see how sociologically interesting this hobby can get!