We had already recommended Repair Jeans in particular in this article on the very good feedback we had). The least we can say is that we were not disappointed.
This is why Geoffrey and I went to meet this true denim enthusiast like few (or more) of whom remain today, with around forty years of experience. Georges Cohen is the craftsman who gives a second life to your jeans. He created Repair Jeans a few years ago in the south of Paris (Metro Porte d'Italie). The completely atypical place is worth the detour in itself: a true denim temple.
Georges, the denim artist.
For 40 years, Georges has been immersed in jeans. He knows all the stages of manufacturing inside out, from design to production, including the different weaving techniques (I'll come back to that). In short, it's a real living encyclopedia of jeans. And what's more, he only asks to share his knowledge: he's a real provider just like we like them.
Georges, benefactor of your jeans
We entrusted Georges with two jeans to repair and the least we can say is that he is not content with vulgarly "patching up" the jeans with a patch here and a little thread there. Georges (really) gives a second life to the canvas by recomposing the weave of the jeans: the warp and the weft. And it’s tough, I guarantee it!
As a reminder: the weave of the jeans is the way the canvas is woven. This weave is made up of warp threads and weft threads. It is the crossing (= weaving) of the threads which makes the fabric. The horizontal threads are called the weft: they pass above and below the horizontal threads (the warp).
Before repair.
After repair: a canvas that regains its full thickness.
How does he do it?
Once you have shown Georges the bobbles in your jeans, Doc' Georges walks through the door of the operating room and gets down to business.
This is where the miracle of resurrection takes place!
Georges takes a piece of denim and slides it under the area to be repaired. He selects the appropriate thread for the color of the jeans, sets up his machine and off he goes!
Here is the beast. Its machine easily supports all weights of denim fabrics such as the 14 oz of Renhsen jeans for example.
This is where the magic happens...
After repair, the frayed canvas will no longer exist. It will be renewed and consolidated.
We can clearly see that the piece of jeans, inserted inside the jeans, serves as a support for inserting the thread into the chain of the jeans fabric.
On Geoffrey's 2 jeans (holes in the crotch because he wears his jeans quite fitted and he has good legs), the repair costs 30 euros per pair of jeans: a particularly attractive price when you have bought high quality jeans and that we want to give it a second lease of life. Georges can repair your jeans, no matter how damaged they are. All prices are available on the website, which is quite well done.
And you can send him your jeans from all over France via this form .
Repair #1.
Repair #2.
You can see that the warp and weft (the weave of the denim) are perfectly "densified". To the touch, the repaired area is stiffer than the rest of the jeans, a bit as if the canvas was in its initial state when purchased. Obviously, the blue thread you see in the image will fade (like your jeans do over time) and it will practically no longer be visible. The repair area will also soften.
The chain stitch
Once these repairs were completed, Georges spontaneously offered to do the chain stitch hem of one of Geoffrey's jeans to share his passion with us even more.
As a reminder: the chain stitch hem is a detail found at the bottom of the leg of jeans. On high-end jeans, we often find this famous chain stitch, instead of the simple classic stitch. It's a thicker, stronger kind of seam. Looks great when hemming.
We can clearly see the difference between chain stitch (left) and classic sewing (right).
The machine that Georges uses for chain stitch.
A few adjustments and discussions later, Georges begins the “chain stitch” operation.
Original classic stitching.
The hem is then undone to apply the new stitching.
In less time than it takes to say it, Georges removes the chain stitch: the jeans are now ready. Let's go !
When applying the chain stitch, be careful not to leave a finger there.
And that's the job: a beautiful, authentic hem.
Overview of jeans
During these few hours spent with Georges, we talked at length about jeans. The famous Japanese canvas (the selvedge) was one of the topics of discussion. And if you've been following the site for a few months, you'll probably know that it's the benchmark denim fabric, known for its strength and good aging (with pretty washes ). If you want a refresher on the selvedge canvas, it’s here.
Selvedge jeans, the canvas of the samurai
Selvedge jeans are distinguished by the thickness of their canvas. The unit of measurement to quantify the thickness of denim is oz/m² (1 oz = 28.4g), but in common usage we just say oz, because we always refer to the weight per 1 m² of canvas . It generally hovers around 14 oz, starts around 11 oz, and can reach 20 or 22 oz on the thickest canvases (except in special cases, like the crazy guys at Naked&Famous ).
Brandon: denim geek.
W hen jeans became a lifestyle garment for mass consumption in the 1960s (and less and less a professional garment), denim became relatively light: 9 or 10 oz. In fact, traditional looms were abandoned by the Americans after the Second World War, in favor of Japan in the midst of reconstruction.
For the Americans, this was an economically profitable operation since modern machines can weave more canvas with the same quantity of cotton. While reducing fabric scraps thanks to wider looms.
Selvedge (“shuttle”) loom.
It was only in the 2000s that we saw a real comeback of selvedge canvas, mostly from Japan (which has perfected traditional processes in the meantime).
If you have already purchased selvedge jeans, you have probably been surprised to find that at first the canvas is very cardboardy and that it takes a week to relax it, due to its great rigidity. Made on traditional looms, this cotton twill weave is in fact more rigid than American industrial fabrics. But then why?
You will respect selvedge jeans.
Some details on the making
Well the main reason is that these looms are 70 cm wide (unlike the more modern ones which are 140 cm wide).
What seemed economically aberrant is today a boon for the Japanese, who, as great "geeks" and masters of tailoring, have continued for decades to produce canvases with better tension thanks to these famous looms, which contemporary and industrial machines cannot match. Concretely, the weave of the canvas is woven tighter, which therefore provides this rigidity to the entire canvas.
But then rigidity = solidity?
In this case, we can say yes. The other advantage of the traditional loom is that it weaves a continuous thread from length to width (the weft). You should know that the longer the wire, the stronger it will be. And the famous edging, generally red (and which allows you to distinguish selvedge jeans at first glance: see our article on high-end jeans ) is created by this weft which makes a return loop on the edge of the cloth. Because it is at the joints of the canvas that tensions are concentrated.
This is why selvedge jeans are stronger than classic jeans: they are simply more resistant to the stresses experienced when you wear jeans due to their specific manufacturing process. This process is certainly slower and therefore more expensive, but the quality suffers. You will keep this type of jean for longer... before it passes into the expert hands of Georges.
Old Japanese engraving with a loom.
How is the fabric of jeans woven?
Three brands largely contributed to the democratization of jeans in the 20th century: Levis, Lee and Wrangler. Brands that you probably all know even if Levis seems the most familiar to you.
Before differentiating themselves and expanding their ranges, these brands originally offered selvedge jeans (and still offer them on specific collection lines that are not often found, such as Levi's Made & Crafted). However, they all had a different making technique ...
You have understood, the weave of the canvas of jeans results from a very tight weave. This is made from a warp originally dyed blue and an ecru or white weft. The weft threads are interwoven at a 90 degree angle with the warp threads, generating a diagonal line pattern. This is called cotton twill weave.
You can clearly see the diagonal lines, check one of your jeans!
The majority of jeans are made from a "right hand" fabric, that is to say where the diagonal of the fabric rises from the lower left corner to the upper right corner, as Levis can do by example.
We can clearly see the characteristic diagonal of the right hand twill.
The Lee brand, on the contrary, uses a left-handed twill fabric. It's not just a question of thread orientation, because left hand twill also requires two warp threads instead of one. And the left hand twill that we obtain is known to be softer to the touch.
Naked & Famous explains the difference between right and left hand twill.
As for Wrangler, this brand uses the... broken twill technique. The diagonal weave of the twill is deliberately reversed at both ends of the warp to form a random design. The natural interweaving of regular twill fabrics is thus reduced, which eliminates the twisting effect of the canvas at the leg level. In other words, the jeans have a better hold and the fabric deforms less under the stresses that jeans are subjected to when wearing them: there is a better distribution of stresses thanks to its specific weaving.
A broken twill style denim fabric.
A Wrangler denim jacket belonging to Georges woven with the broken twill technique.
Another example of Broken Twill on Wrangler jeans.
It was an opportunity for us to tell you a little more about jeans, we only learned more thanks to Georges.
For our part, we are generally very attached to our jeans because they accompany us every day (or almost) and the fading, or should I even say the patina that appears, reflects our habits for a unique result. As the German philosopher Ulrich Plenzdorf, who we-just-discovered-for-the-purposes-of-the-article, would say: “ Jeans are a behavior, not a piece of clothing . »
All you have to do is send your old jeans to Georges (or better, have a chat with him). You will not regret it !
