What makes a great pair of jeans?

I submit my six year-old pair of Levi’s 511 dark wash, seldom actually washed skinnies.  It’s been cuffed and rolled, scuffed and crumpled, stains and dirt caked into weathered grooves.  A crotch blowout repaired at a Korean dry cleaner is Astoria Queens, signs point to another before too long.  One of the few times I washed it was when I returned from a long vacation to find it caked in mold – war Shenzhen will do that to ya.  It gave when my waist favored the Chipotle craze, and it took when I my calves fell into triathlons.  They still sit among the top of the pant stack.

So when I caught wind of the initial craze of premium denim, I stood unconvinced that a pair of jeans five times the price of my good ‘ol blues was worth the hit to my back pocket.  You can take your precious red seam stitches and kick rocks.

But as my admiration grows for the art and skill imbued in honest clothing, so does the attraction of finer cloths. And eventually dark washes, glorious fades, and even those red train tracks put me on course for my first pair of raw denim. The question is, which one?

Well, time-killing stroll in northern China decided it for me.