When or how you started wearing Ironheart
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@sabergirl nice! I love it so much down there. The city just breathes character — the patina on everything makes it feel so alive. Not to sound schlocky, but a well-worn pair of IH would fit right in
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I bought a pair of Edwin x Folk jeans off grailed as my gateway into the whole selvedge scene, and kinda.rabbet holed.from.tbetr while looking into heavyweight fabrics and looking into articles talking about "best flannel shirts" and so on. At first the price was a bit on the frightening side, but after not being able to srop thinking about the purple rain western and eventually just biting the bullet, I was hooked.
Had been wanting a pair of bibs for a long, long while and bought the N&F ones because they were closer in fit to what I typically wear (more slim). I just wasn't satisfied and again dove deep and grabbed the 805's. I think my early experience trying to.digure out what I wanted and joining this forum from the jump really got the ball rolling. I'm pretty new to the community by and large, but it's been great -
Love the stories!
In the last semester of college in early 2011, I began dating a lovely Spanish woman who was in one of my classes. She wore a super heavy black denim vest she'd proxied from Japan that intrigued me. She told me it was Iron Heart which I might have heard of at that point but idk for sure if I had. At her urging, I went to Self Edge with some college graduation money and bought some IH-301S and those were … just epic jeans. I haven't been able to get enough since.
Our relationship imploded (she also introduced me to cocaine & taught me how to drink professionally) but I've continued to enjoy IH and safely leave the rest behind
Forever grateful. -
@henry_david wow cocaine, booze and IH is quite the combo… She sounds like a very interesting person, but I’m glad you were able to walk away with the positive (IH) and leave the more potentially damaging traits!
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Me too @jerkules
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Haha @henry_david this sounds like my 20s. Can't say I regret it, but can't say I miss it either…
One thing I do rather enjoy about being a sober guy is having extra money to put down on IH
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Other ppl: "You must save so much money now."
Me: [scrambles to pay necessaries while wearing $500 bibs]
cc: @popvulture
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I started when this Mississippi boy lived in Minneapolis. I was looking for heavy stuff to keep me warm without having to do the Michelin Man thing all the time. IH happened to be dialed in to my aesthetic so it worked out great! First pair were 643S which I sold here after getting denim ADD from all the great fabrics and cuts IH has created. I will return to the flagship denim one day, but the 777N is next in my IH queue after my current 666S-18 retire.
Kudos on not getting sucked down the black hole of addiction folks. I have seen too many lives destroyed and lost. In fact, just lost another one last week. Even if the addiction doesn't ruin your life and the lives around you, the justice system can, even if you are just dabbling, since we treat illegal mind-altering substance abuse as a criminal more than a mental health issue.
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! So sorry to hear that, man — was this a Jackson person? Whatever the case, that's always such a heartbreaking thing. As someone who's beyond grateful to have come out the other side of it, I'm always gutted to hear about people who aren't so lucky.On the IH origins topic, good on you for being able to tolerate Minneapolis! Haha I couldn't do that shit, no way… NY cold was as much as I could take.
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Man, @Matt do you remember Levis Hard Jeans? I remember they did a whole ad campaign around them in the late 90s — of course I was drawn to them and picked up a few pairs over the years. I remember they were cheap because nobody wanted them, but I think they were selvedge, and they definitely faded really well. I wish I still had em! I remember a particularly destroyed pair I wore through my first couple years of art school in NY. They were all blown out and had dots of ferric acid all over them from etching.
I think after that, it was picking up some APCs in the mid 00s for a blip of interest, then followed by a deep dive into selvedge around 2012.
First pair of IH was 555-01, and they absolutely blew my mind. They were more comfortable than anything else, but also way burlier, and despite the fact that people consider the 21oz to be mellow faders, I thought (and still think) that denim is my personal fave as far as fading goes.
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lmaooooo I love how this is bracketed by a Taco Bell spot and a MINIDISC ad
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It was @popvulture and I had no idea he had those demons–probably hadn't seen him since high school, and it wasn't a problem then, so they developed afterwards. Great human being as are so many of those who succumb to this disease.
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lol those look sick af @popvulture
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Other ppl: "You must save so much money now."
Me: [scrambles to pay necessaries while wearing $500 bibs]
cc: @popvulture
hahahahaha
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Dude, I did not know what you were taking about until I watched the ad. I totally remember that dudes voice and the “flesh eating locusts.” My early and late 90’s were spent first in high school then in college so I was way too drunk to be worried about even wearing pants much less what kind they were.
After lots of reading up online I jumped right in with the first non VMC round of 666XHS. I just sent them to RELOVE last week. My 21 oz Beatle Busters are now my oldest pair and I think I’ll keep them forever.
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Hahaha I know, the ads in the 90s were having a real Hunter S Thompson moment, weren't they?
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Great stories! Thx @goosehd for starting this thread and how cool that your first IH's where the 805's.
My first pair was a pair of 634S-21 which sill is my favorite cut. This pair was bought too large, I didn't konw anything about stretch and after some wear I realized I should have sized down but I still have it. It must have been around 2014 or 2015 when by chance I stumbled into Vienna shop Lowdownondenim which doesn't excist anymore but was an IH dealer at that time. Until that moment I never heard anything about japanese denim, selvedge denim, raw denim aso. But I always had a great love and interest in fabrics. Before I started wearing (IH) denim I almost daily wore bespoke suits and dress shirts. A complete transformation started. This stuff realy infected and thrilled me. I always had an interest in well made things. When I now look at a well made and well aged pair of IH denim I do it with the same love I look at one of my old Harris Tweed Jackets, just things that age with lots of character and made to last.
