Before I started buying Oni Denim I walked into a Levi's store in my neighborhood and nothing was made out of denim anymore. Everything had stretch fabric, or were 60% cotton with a blend of other random things. It sucks that beautiful quality denim costs that much these days, but they look great and I wear them nearly every day. These definitely will last 20 years though!
Thanks. That's worth knowing, I'll investigate further. From my experience, Levis of recent years are nothing like the quality they were years ago, and to make matters worse they've somewhat changed the styling/fit within a given type (501, 505, etc.), which means one can no longer rely on a specific type to be a good fit without trying them first.
I'm one of those males who finds shopping for clothes a pain, so when the old tried-and-true method of simply calling into a shop and quickly selecting jeans from the badge type number and size failed I was a bit pissed off. These days, there are just too many types of jeans around for my liking (I now have to think before I choose), but no doubt that's half the fun for those who like shopping around.
Been checking around since my earlier reply and it seems you're right, quality denim is now expensive. I've avoided raw and high quality denim for years because it was expensive and it required me to be careful with it (I'm notoriously hard on clothes). It now seems that if I want better quality I'll have to do the research first.
BTW, decades ago when I was a kid all jeans were made of raw denim. We weren't allowed to sit on the sofa or lie on the bed etc. until our jeans had been washed several times so the indigo wouldn't rub off and leave blue marks on everything. One thing for certain was that they were a damned side tougher than any jeans I've worn in recent years.
Edit: your comment about stretch material just got me wondering if one of the main reasons for why manufacturers are now pushing stretch fabric so hard is that they don't have to worry as much about the actual fit nor their manufacturing tolerances (thus cheaper to make). I haven't had a pair of stretch jeans in years but some of my cargo work pants are made of stretch fabric. A while back, I made a single purchase of four pairs of the same brand and size and noticed a good half inch difference in the waist between them (and that was before I wore any of them, so the difference wasn't caused through use). At the time I didn't think anything of it as the 'slack'—so to speak—was taken up by the stretch.
