Massimo Alba Oceano Jean

Almost all the selvedge denim worth having comes from Japan or the United States, and both of those traditions descend from the same place: workwear, heavy weights, hard fabric, and a garment that is supposed to be a project. Italian selvedge is a different animal with a different ancestry. Italy came to denim through sportswear and through tailoring, and the Italian instinct has always been to treat a jean as a trouser rather than as equipment.

That is what this is. Selvedge denim, meaning it is woven on a narrow shuttle loom that finishes its own edge, which is the clean banded seam you find when you turn up the hem. Shuttle looms run slowly and produce a cloth with more character and more irregularity than a modern projectile loom does, and that irregularity is most of what people are paying for when they pay for selvedge. But the cut here is straight and clean, sitting far closer to the Ionio2 than to a work pant, and it is made to be worn with a jacket rather than against one.

The denim is rinsed rather than raw, and that is not a small distinction. A raw jean arrives stiff, unwashed, and loaded with loose indigo, and the whole first year of owning one is a negotiation: how long before the first wash, how much shrinkage is still to come, where the creases are going to set. Rinsed denim has been through water once after dyeing, which takes the shrinkage out of it and the loose indigo with it. It arrives dark, settled, and finished. It will still fade where you wear it, at the knee, the seat, and the edge of a pocket, because that is what indigo does on cotton; it simply does not ask you to run a project first.

If you have been avoiding denim because it reads as too casual for the rest of what you own, this is the pair that solves it.

Why we selected it

Serious American raw denim is a project, and this is the opposite argument inside the same category: a selvedge cloth, rinsed and ready, for someone who wants the denim without the project. It is also the piece where the Italian menswear we select and the American menswear we select meet each other, which happens less often than you would think.

The Oceano is the least Italian-looking garment Massimo Alba makes and one of the most Italian in construction, which is roughly the joke the house has been telling for twenty years.

Materials and construction

One hundred percent cotton selvedge denim, rinsed, made in Italy. Straight leg. Colour: Wax, which is the name of the colour and not a description of the finish.

Fit notes

Straight through the leg from the knee down, with no taper doing work at the ankle. Because the cloth has already been rinsed, what you try on is close to what you keep and there is no shrinkage to plan for, which is the practical difference between this and a raw jean. It will still relax at the waist and the knee across the first weeks of wear and draw back with washing, so buy the waist you can sit down in comfortably rather than the one you hope to reach. Cuff it or do not; the selvedge edge is there either way.

Styling

With the Larry crewneck or the Liam sweater and the Baglietto over the top, which is the version that makes the case. With the Lars shirt worn open. Boots or a substantial low shoe.

Care

Denim wants washing far less often than most cotton. Wash it cool and inside out when it needs it, hang it to dry away from direct heat, and air it in between. Never tumble dry. None of the raw-denim ritual applies here: this cloth has already been through water, so there is nothing to protect by holding off the first wash for six months. Our general care guidance covers the rest.

Related pieces

The Winch2 Trousers are the corduroy, the Stan Cotton Trouser is the double-pleated cotton, the Lars Shirt is the striped cotton shirt, and the Baglietto Jacket is the wool jacket. Everything we carry from Massimo Alba is listed together.