Fashion can be a bit weird sometimes. Imagine you’re browsing some clothing shop in a New York loft or on London’s famous brick lane, and you come across a pair of jeans you like. You ask to try them on and find they’re incredibly stiff and uncomfortable. Then, the sales associate insists that you don’t wash them for six months at the very least, oh, and they also cost $350. This is a scam, right? This is the paradox of selvedge, or raw, denim. Scam? No. Irrational? Maybe. What’s the deal then? 

Porterhouse Clothing & Supply, a local menswear boutique in downtown Eugene, has some answers. Founded by Ethan Clevenger in 2020, Porterhouse sells a wardrobe of flannels, wools, waxed canvas coats and of course, raw denim. 

Omar Vega, the operations manager at Porterhouse, said Clevenger bought all his clothes while traveling and realized Eugene’s clothing market was lacking. “[Clevenger] saw a need for good quality clothing, and raw denim happens to be good quality clothing,” Vega said.

 If you’re going to drop triple digits on some jeans or a coat, you’d better be certain about its fit, its place in your wardrobe and of course, if you like it. Porterhouse understands this, and they focus on quality, which includes everything from the clothes themselves to the customer service. 

“It’s not regular retail. Anyone that comes here, if they want to, we will get as into the weeds as we can with them, and we will be as involved as they want us to be,” Vega said. 

Porterhouse is very intentional with their inventory, and Vega said their team travels to New York twice a year to visit trade shows and decide what they want on their racks. 

Vega said, “We’ve built up a curation of some really good selvedge denim and on top of it stuff that compliments it well.”  

Raw denim clothing is quality by definition. The word selvedge comes from “self-edge,” which is a fabric that has edges stitched down to prevent it from fraying or unraveling. 

This kind of fabric takes longer to make, and most of the looms used for self-edge fabric can only produce a narrow width. The time investment is high, and the product output is low, but the final product is strong and durable.

Another part of the cost of raw denim comes from the dyes. Most jeans you see on the streets are made with synthetic dyes. However, high-end and raw denim uses pure natural indigo. This dye is much more costly than its synthetic alternatives, but it provides a much stronger depth of color.

This attention to detail in the production of raw denim clothing reaches a peak with Japanese brands like Iron Heart or Momotaro. These brands are fully dedicated to the craft, exemplified by things like Momotaro’s Gold Label jeans, which are made completely by hand. The webpage for Momotaro Gold Label says that “only craftsmen with decades of sewing experience can sew these jeans” and Vega noted this as another strength of Japanese denim. 

“Because it’s being made by the same folks over and over again, the accountability is so much higher,” he said. 

But this is only half of the allure of raw denim. Because of its durability, a good pair of raw denim jeans can last years. Talking about a raw denim jacket he owns, Vega said “It’s outlived multiple relationships, and I’ve been in all kinds of crazy adventures and trips in it. There’s a lot of sentimental value.” 

Because of that durability though, the fabric is very stiff at first. You have to break it in the same way you would a pair of leather boots, and it can be initially uncomfortable. I bought a pair of raw denim jeans last winter, and I still remember the creases behind the knees pinching at my skin when I would sit. 

Raw denim also comes unwashed and untreated, and this means that as you wear your jeans or denim jacket, you’ll slowly develop fades that are personal to you. 

The more you wash your raw denim, the more dye will bleed out. Many denim heads will insist on not washing their denim for months to retain as much color as possible and to keep their fades sharp. 

“Everybody is a little bit different in what you’ll see imprinted on their denim… It’s an interesting canvas to work with. You get to see a little bit of somebody else’s life in passing,” Vega said. The clothes become a reflection of their wearer. 

The ghost of your phone and wallet will be on your pockets even when you’re not carrying them. The straps of your backpack will mark the shoulders of your denim jacket, and you’ll see exactly where someone prefers to cuff their sleeves or pant legs from the telltale white lines. 

Not everyone wants or cares that much about their clothes, and that’s ok. Raw denim is a fascinating part of the fashion world, and for those looking to go down the rabbit hole, places like Porterhouse lead you down.