Why are my jeans fading? – Readers’ letters #26

Published at Sep 6, 2019

By David Hao, maximum soft tailoring

Pourquoi mon jean déteint-il ? – Le courrier des lecteurs #26

Have your new jeans left blue marks on your favorite white sneakers? You are in the right place. Is this normal? What to do ? Here is the answer.

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“These jeans have rubbed off on my sneakers, is there a problem somewhere, is this a sign of poor quality?”

The bleeding is rather extreme here. Source: Heddels

We love our good old blue jeans . And when you buy your first denim, in addition to its rigidity , you may be surprised that it rubs off on other light-colored clothing (typically sneakers). Some even think this is a defect.

We're going to see why your jeans are fading, and what to do if one of your favorite items of clothing ends up with blue marks.

THE DISGROGEMENT OF INDIGO OBSERVED IS NORMAL

One of the characteristics of raw denim is that it is "saturated" with new indigo, and will therefore evacuate all that, especially at the beginning. Hence the indigo stains on light shoes or inside a light sweater whose bottom is in contact with the jeans.

It's not at all a quality problem !

Indigo is not a dangerous material that stains irremediably.

If you have stains on shoes, simply clean them . For the specific case of light-colored suede leather shoes, we can recommend Topy rubber . You may also consider using a nubuck soap .
If you have stains on the bottom of a light-colored sweater or shirt, just wash it .

However, you should not wait too long, otherwise the indigo will soak into the material , making it more difficult to clean.

And if you want to know more about the history, harvesting and working of indigo in clothing (and not only that), I can only strongly invite you to read Milone's fascinating two-part book on this subject:

Large squares dyed with indigo in Japan.

The most drastic solution would be to send the jeans to the washing machine, but as a result, you would get... washed jeans, with a lighter color and a much "smoother" appearance.

Nicolò therefore offers you a compromise: the salt and vinegar bath method, mentioned in his raw denim care guide . This process will be able to fix a good part of the indigo and remove part of the excess.

So, there are basically two schools of thought regarding this phenomenon:

People who do not like this disgorgement are therefore invited to use the technique indicated in the article above.
Those that deal with the initial disgorgement of the jeans: wear them with darker clothes or swipe on light shoes, or even leave traces of indigo. Nicolò has a pair of white sneakers with a few traces of indigo... and everything is going well. Some even find a certain charm in its purplish blue traces.

THE CASE OF BLACK, GRAY OR WASHED JEANS

Black or gray jeans do not bleed because they are not dyed with indigo, but with sulfur most of the time. However, sulfur does not disgorge.
Jeans purchased washed will not bleed because they have already been washed in the factory, which has the effect of removing the excess indigo present in the jeans in their raw state.

Factory washing of jeans can be done using large industrial washing machines.

Finally, keep in mind that bleeding from jeans does not last forever . Although not all jeans bleed the same, after 10, 20 wears, the bleed will slow down a lot, until it disappears completely.

And at this precise moment, your white sneakers will thank you.