Although I don’t actively seek out raw denim, or fancy brands, or selvage jeans but I am always interested in fashion processes.
First, let’s start with some fashion terminology. The selvage is the term for the finished edge of fabric. Imagine a roll of fabric, the two sides of the fabric that don’t fray or come apart are the selvage. So every woven fabric technically has a selvage, but selvage denim refers to denim that has a closed selvage.
Back in the 1800’s, denim used to be made on a loom called a shuttle loom. The shuttle was loaded with the weft yarns (the warp yarns are the dyed yarns in denim, and the weft are the un-dyed years that act as “filler” for the denim. That is why some jeans are lighter on the inside. ) and the weft yarns are thrown back and forth over the warp, and this is how the denim is woven. The selvage of the denim therefore is closed.
In the 50’s, companies like Levi’s decided they wanted a new system to make denim. The shuttle looms were slow, and they only made fabric 30 inches wide, so they switched to projectile looms, where the yarns are cut instead of being thrown back and forth. The selvage therefore has looser edges, but is 60 inches wide.
Raw denim is essentially denim that hasn’t been washed or distressed. In theory, all denim is raw at the start, but a few years back, thanks to brands like Diesel, we started wanting our jeans worn out, distressed, and destroyed for us. For some reason, that is what many customers want. Raw denim has not been washed (for example, stonewashed or acid washed), distressed, or ripped, it is the fabric in its natural, original state. The idea is to wear and distress your own denim, so that it becomes a part of you, rather than pay a fancy denim brand to do that for you.
All the selvage denim brands have returned to denim produced on shuttle looms because it is better quality, and it is the traditional method of producing denim. Use an analogy of watches, to explain why someone should be willing to spend more on a pair of selvage denim jeans. New digital watches are probably more durable, and have more functions than a Swiss watch that uses perpetual motion. But why do we want the Swiss watch? Because there is value added to a product that requires more human effort and more skill to product. The selvage denim is more difficult to make, it is handmade, whereas the new stuff is mass produced. Selvage denim about heritage, and we all now how “cool” heritage is right now.
So, selvage denim jeans are cut so that the outside seam is along the selvage of the denim. It looks nicer when you roll up your cuffs, but it slightly limits the shapes you can create with denim, as you need to have a completely straight outside leg seam (the outseam.) That means that any tapering or flare needs to come from the inside seam.
