We have plenty of washed denim on the list. These are garments where the fabric has been pre-washed and gently brushed along the grain, bringing out a soft, wrapping feel against the body instead of stiffness.
Those who break in raw denim themselves call the honeycomb-shaped fading that folds behind the knees "honeycombs." As friction is maximized with the daily joint movements of walking and standing up, a strong contrast of light and shade is etched between the deep indigo and the abraded areas. The narrower the pant leg and the more actively a person walks, the clearer this pattern becomes, so it is even understood as a narrative that proves someone's past days and stride. The washed denim coming out these days has that long trajectory of time handsomely placed on it in advance through technology.
Since the list is broad, if you pinpoint just one criterion, I can narrow it down quickly. Shall we look at relaxed wide-fit pants, keep it under KRW 100,000, or bring out tops like jackets or shirts first?
↳ Wide-fit pants
I picked three denim pants that highlight relaxed silhouettes: THREE TO EIGHTY's SEMI WIDE FIT JEANS LIGHT BLUE and Regular Fit Jeans, and INSILENCE's 체인트윌 벌룬핏 데님 팬츠 BLUE. Nowadays, wide-leg pants value falling naturally downward while giving a three-dimensional shape to the hip and thigh lines, rather than just flapping aimlessly.
In the 1920s at Oxford University in England, students made and wore "Oxford Bags," widening their pant legs to a hem circumference of nearly 100 cm to hide athletic shorts banned by school rules. The clever trick of young men who found it troublesome to change out of banned clothes and simply layered over them spread across the Atlantic, becoming the origin of wide pants. A symbol of rebellion that flapped like sacks settled over time into everyday style.
Twill fabrics with distinct diagonal ribs, like the INSILENCE balloon-fit pants, also support those voluminous curves without collapsing thanks to their characteristic flexibility. Among the three selected, shall we narrow it down to around KRW 100,000, or switch to dark colors or even cool Bermuda shorts?
↳ Around KRW 100,000
I picked three denims great for daily wear tailored to a budget of around KRW 100,000: Moia's [20%] washed denim (light indigo) with a fresh color, THREE TO EIGHTY's Regular Fit Jeans as a neatly falling standard style, and INSILENCE's 체인트윌 벌룬핏 데님 팬츠 BLUE highlighting a rounded three-dimensional feel. Denim is a garment where tweaking just the silhouette immediately changes the mood of the entire outfit.
The small copper rivets set into the corners of jeans pockets originated in the early 1870s from the hands of tailor Jacob Davis. Hearing miners' complaints that pockets tore easily, he drove in studs used for horse saddles, but he actually lacked the $68 to register a patent. In the end, he sent a letter to Levi Strauss, the merchant who supplied him with fabric, offering half the patent rights if he covered the costs, and as that proposal went through, the history of today's jeans began.
Where shall we set our criterion among these three to look at first? Shall we go with light-tone denim, a curved silhouette, or draw the line under KRW 100,000?
Final Selected Products
