3Sixteen CS-100x Classic Straight Jean Raw Indigo Selvedge

Most clothing is finished the day it leaves the factory. Raw denim is not, which is the whole argument for it. A jean like this arrives at its stiffest and darkest, and everything that will eventually make it worth owning has not happened yet. It happens at the knee, at the thigh, along the seat, in the fold behind the wallet, over months of an ordinary life. The indigo used here is rope-dyed, meaning the dye wraps the outside of the yarn and leaves a white core beneath it. That is the mechanism behind every fade you have ever admired on someone else’s jeans. Abrasion removes the surface, the core shows through, and the pattern that emerges belongs to one person’s body and one person’s habits. Nobody else can produce it for you, and no wash program can fake it convincingly.

This is a slow proposition in a category built on speed, and it asks something of the wearer that almost nothing else in a wardrobe asks. That is precisely why it endures.

Why we selected it

Much of what we carry is European or Japanese and works in the conceptual register. 3Sixteen is the counterweight, and this jean is the reason we brought the house in. When someone asks us for one pair of jeans, singular, meant to be worn until they fail, this is the pair we hand them. It is also the clearest statement of the idea that runs through the whole store, which is that a garment can be better in year five than in week one. We would rather sell one of these than four pairs of something that arrives pre-aged and has nowhere left to go.

3Sixteen began in New York in 2003 and built its reputation on this jean, developed with Kuroki Mills in Okayama, Japan. The 100x fabric is the reference point the rest of the line is measured against.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent cotton, in 3Sixteen’s own 100x raw indigo selvedge, cut and sewn in the United States. Selvedge denim is woven on narrow shuttle looms that finish their own edge, which is the clean banded seam you find when you turn up the hem. The five-pocket layout is the standard one, unaltered. The fabric is sanforized, so the first wash will not transform the garment, though it will move slightly.

Fit notes

Classic Straight is the least mannered cut in the line: straight from the knee down, with no taper doing work at the ankle. Raw denim reads tighter on the first wearing than it will on the tenth. The fabric has no give at all when new, then relaxes across the waist and knee as you wear it and draws back in when it is washed. Buy the waist you can fasten and sit down in comfortably rather than the one you hope to reach, and expect roughly two weeks before the jean stops feeling like a piece of furniture. We are happy to talk sizing through by phone or in person, which for raw denim is genuinely worth the call.

Styling

With a flannel and a plain tee this is a working uniform and needs no help. Under a work blazer it does something more interesting, because the formality of a two-button jacket over raw indigo is the oldest good trick in men’s dressing and it has not worn out. Boots or a substantial low shoe. Cuff it or do not; the selvedge edge is there either way.

Care

Raw denim is the exception to almost every care rule we give. If you want the high-contrast fading these jeans are capable of, wear them for several months before the first wash, then wash them inside out by hand in cool to lukewarm water and hang them to dry away from direct heat. Never tumble dry. Between washes, air them. Our general care guidance covers the rest.

Related pieces

For the same fabric without the break-in, the CS-100xk in Rinsed Indigo Kibata. For the house in black, the CT-222xs Classic Taper Stonewashed. It is worn with the Crosscut Flannel and the Pima Cotton T-Shirt Pack more often than with anything else. Everything we currently hold from 3Sixteen is listed together.