Quote: (01-17-2014 10:28 PM)puckman Wrote:
after many years I have found the perfect pants. I too have hockey butt, huge thighs and legs, which makes finding and fitting pants a Tough thing. For suits I am better off getting custom made, for regular pants I usually have to go up a size or two in slim fit to find the optimal fit. I wear these on the weekends http://www.kuhl.com/kuhl/mens/pants/
Dress pants without wearing a suit look dorky and I refuse to wear them anymore.
I also got into raw denim a few years ago. I found these after trying APC and AG's, which blew out fast and looked bad after a short time. I found RRL by Ralph Lauren, made of Japanese denim. I buy the raw and black pair, and have three pair now, that I wear to work usually with dress shoes and tucked or untucked dress shirt. My first pair are two years old, have worn them 300+, hand washed maybe 10x in my bath tub, and the fade is awesome. The crotch blew out about a month ago, and the RRL store fixed it for free! Now these arent cheap($225), but a few things; they will last you 5+ years easy, probably more if you hand wash occasionally. They are made from the best denim, look the best, imho the best jeans made. Have three pair for work and dont plan on buying another pair for years. If you are looking for a nice pair to go out in, esp the black ones, these are it.
Im not a huge fan of rrls personally and Ill expand on that below. But to clarify, most raw denim brands use Japanese Denim this isnt particular to Ralph Lauren, in fact RRL made the switch back to American cone denim last year, you will notice a downgrade in their denim from years past, far lighter, and just inferior, stock of the old Japanese denims is dwindling so expect rrl durablity to take a hit over the next couple years. APC and Nudie for example both use Japanese Denim and still do as do countless other brands. Your blowout issues with apc is easily explained, theyre quality denim but they are a lightweight denim, made for comfort and lighter weather, if youre hard on your jeans then a denser denim would be a better fit for you and rrls were denser but for those who arent particularly hard on their denim they get great wear out of the mid price apcs relative to the dollar spent, which is why I recommend them frequently, not many jeans that are sub 200 that have that quality. My biggest issue with RRL prior the denim switch was that they were an in between jean, they dont stand out in any one aspect, they lack the quality of a top tier jean, Ive got 2 pair of iron hearts, a pair of samurais, a pair of red clouds and another pair of japan blues and the production value and detail is far superior, they fade better and last longer, all around better denims even more so now with the cone denim being used by rrl. The top tier japanese brands come with a higher price point than rrls but you can find them for around 350 to even sub 350 if you look (some will be higher but red clouds are cheap if you can get your hands on any I got mine out of china from a friend and distribution outside of china is scarce but grab them if you can) and thats like going from an entry level beamer to a Lambo... for less than 100 bucks, over the life of the jeans thatll workout to less than 20 bucks a year on the high end and most likely less than that again unless youre very hard on your jeans. Then on the flipside RRL compared to apc or nudie or 3sixteens, they were a heavier denim so they did last longer but the latter 3 are trendier brands and have younger styling in mind and from a comfort point outperform which is why I believe that RRL went to american denim, to find a more wearable denim and compete in the more lucrative lightweight denim market vs the high end denim market which it was positioned badly for. Ive got 2 pairs of 3sixteens that are awesome, the fade is just sick, they are easily the jeans I get the most compliments on but from a value standpoint they suck as theyre not any better than apcs in terms of denim and construction, both lighterweight jeans. Comes down to what you like, what fits you and where your price point is but I believe there are better quality jeans and better wearing jeans but rrls are a good hybrid jean between cost and performance, or at least were, the american made denim if it is as light as it feels might just make it an overpriced mid tier jean instead of a well priced lower top tier jean. My thinking is id rather spend a bit more and get better quality or if im going to skimp on quality then im getting better comfort instead of middling on both but then im not hard on my jeans, that could change my perspective on the lighter weight brands.