Denim Care 101

DENIM Care 101

So you’ve splurged on some premium denim that perfectly accentuates that booty (that’s the whole point of jeans, right?) and now you’re wondering how to maintain that beautiful indigo sheen of your spanking dungarees without compromising a fit that feels like a cozy bear hug around your legs.

You have heard all the crazy things: put your jeans in the freezer, they say! Never wash your clothes, they exclaim! If you’re skeptical about shoving those pantalones in with your ice cream or you’re squeamish about smelling faintly of unwashed hippie, all is not lost. If you’re careful, you can most diligently guard the shape and feel of your jeans, extend their life, and preserve the color without losing your mind or sacrificing your hygiene.

The people telling you not to wash your jeans aren’t wrong.

Okay -- maybe a tiny hygienic sacrifice, but bear with me. This doesn’t mean that you have to walk around smelling like shoe insoles. Think of it more as a getting-out-of-doing-laundry card.

Washing your jeans too often will cause the color to fade more quickly and you’ll lose that blue-bird allure. While there’s no magic number for how frequently you should cleanse your baby blues, washing after every use is too much. In fact, Levi Strauss CEO Chip Bergh urges denim lovers never to wash their jeans. Personally, I’m not a fan of that idea, but some denim aficionados swear by it!

A good rule of thumb is to throw them in the wash after every 5 wears or so. If your jeans are on the more rigid side (100% cotton with no Lycra), try every 10 wears.

Care in between wash cycles

You can -- and should-- gives your jeans some TLC in between washing them, especially if you’re one of those people that will go for 6 months without giving them a good washdown. If you’re serious about preserving the color of your jeans, you can try a few of the following nifty tricks:

Okay, so how should I wash my jeans?

When it IS time to give your blues a nice bath, here are some things to keep in mind:

These are just a few nifty hacks for extending the life of your fav pants. Experiment and see what works best for you. If all else fails, you can follow my mom’s sage advice: Keep ‘em in a heap on the floor, wear ‘em too many days in a row, wash ‘em willy nilly and then repeat.

Oh, and you can put your jeans in the freezer if you really want to, but according to Smithsonian, that myth is busted.

-Quinn