There aren’t a lot of things I’d call “essential” in men’s clothing. You need a “sincere suit,” maybe also a shoehorn. And if you wear denim, you’ll likely need a repair shop. Even the best jeans blow out at some point, which means – whether you’re reluctant to throw out a favorite pair or trying to get those beautiful sky-blue fades – you need someone who’s good at patching and mending.
There are lots of options these days for denim repair. In addition to your local tailoring shop, you can try Denim Surgeon, Self Edge, Schaeffer’s Garment Hotel, Indigo Proof, Standard & Strange, Context, and Darn & Dusted. There are probably a dozen more that I’m missing, but my go-to source for the last couple of years is Denim Therapy in NYC.
Denim Therapy was started ten years ago by Francine Rabinovich, a former ad executive who was inspired by an old pair of jeans she couldn’t throw away. She decided there must be hundreds of people like her, so she started a speciality shop just for denim repair. Today, the company employs three seamstresses, who together push out about a thousand repairs a month. The strangest request they’ve received? Emily Mcintosh, who serves as the company’s Operations Manager, tells me they sometimes get stuff from people who have been involved in motorcycle accidents. “You’ll get these jeans where the EMT had to cut the person out of them, and we’ll have to figure out how to sew them up so they look normal again.” Not an easy job, depending on where the cuts were made.
Most repairs are a lot more straightforward. And, as you can probably guess, a good 75% of them deal with crotch repairs (where jeans most frequently wear out). Like all good denim repair shops these days, Denim Therapy uses a process known as darning, which is essentially like reweaving new, color-matched threads into the hole. You can see the process being demonstrated by Andrew Chen of 3sixteen and Self Edge above. I find darning to be a lot better than patching, particularly for areas where you want the repair to be less visible, but not every place offers it.
Among those who do, not everyone does a good job. Denim Therapy reinforces their darning with a gauze backing, which isn’t always the default at other shops. I’ve used some darning services that blew out just six months later, with the repair tearing at the edges. My Denim Therapy repairs, on the other hand, have lasted years. You can see some before-and-after photos of their work at Heddels.
The company has a ton of other services – they can fix stretched out buttonholes, replace buttons and rivets, and do basic alterations (e.g. tapering, hemming, and taking in the waist). If you want that wabi-sabi, patched-up look, like the Rare Weaves and J. Crew photos above, they can do that as well. “Customers just need to tell us if they want high or low contrast patches,” says McIntosh. “We have an endless supply of patches to choose from here.”
The only thing they can’t do is fix worn-down cuffs. That’s partly because they use that gauze backing, which would show when you fold the cuffs over, and partly because darning makes the fabric too stiff. In those cases, I just cut the cuffs off. Frayed hems look good with boots, I think.
Last month, Francine sold the company to a new owner, Jessica Azoulai. I’m told things will mostly stay the same, but Azoulai plans to introduce a few new services next year. That includes custom embroidery, patch work, and distressing. Repairs, however, will remain at the heart of their business.
If you ever have a pair of jeans that need fixing, I couldn’t recommend their services more. Shipping to and from NYC adds to the cost, but the quality of their work is great and I’ve had a hard time going anywhere else since discovering them five years ago. If you’re patient, you can also sometimes hop on promotion (they do them about once or twice a year). This month, for example, they’re offering 15% off any order with the checkout code FALL2016. Just note, they have to receive your jeans by November 15th for you to use the code.
McIntosh’s advice for how to make your jeans last: “Wash them in cold water, either in the tub or laundry machine, and use a gentle detergent such as Woolite. Don’t ever put them in the dryer. You don’t have to wash them after every wear, but washing them regularly will keep dirt from wearing down the fibers. And be sure to bring them in at the first sign of problems. It’s easier to repair a small hole than a big one.”
(photos via Gear Patrol, Heddels, and Denim Therapy)
