Denim was the cheap end of the 1969 wardrobe. It still is, and that is exactly why it got worn so precisely. When a pair of jeans costs a fraction of a tonic suit, the only way to make them say anything is to get the length, the fade and the boot underneath them exactly right.
Most of what gets written about skinhead clothing and denim comes from revival photographs, not 1969 ones, and the two do not match. The fold got deeper, the fades got louder and the leg got tighter, and every bit of that happened long after the fact.
Nineteen Sixty Nine and the Shrink to Fit 501
The 501 of that era was sold unsanforised, which meant the denim had never been preshrunk and would lose up to two inches in the waist and around three in the leg the first time it met hot water. So you bought a size up, got in the bath still wearing them, and let the things dry on your own body. It sounds daft written down. It produced a fit no factory could copy, tight through the seat and hip with none of the modern slouch.
Red tab, button fly, five pockets, and a leg that hung straight. Wrangler and Lee got plenty of wear too, particularly across the north, and anybody telling you the scene ran on Levi's alone is repeating a story rather than a fact. What actually mattered was that the denim was clean, sharp at the hem and short enough to show the boot.
- Unsanforised denim wants buying one to two inches up in the waist, because you will lose that and more in the first hot wash.
- Sanforised denim, which covers almost everything sold now, moves about one per cent and can be bought true to size.
- A warm bath and drying on the body is still the quickest route to a raw pair sitting right, though a hot machine wash and a careful air dry gets you most of the way there without the theatre.
Turn Ups, and Why They Were Worn Short
Modern revival shots love an enormous turn up. Four inches, folded once, sometimes stitched down. That is not what 1969 looked like. The original was one to two inches, folded twice if the leg ran long, and the purpose was to expose the boot and a flash of sock, not to draw attention to the fold itself.
- One inch on a single fold, two if you want a bit of weight sitting at the hem to keep the leg straight.
- The hem wants to finish above the top of the boot, roughly level with the fifth eyelet on an eight eyelet pair.
- A pair of tartan socks showing in the gap is doing a job. Plain white towelling does the same thing in July.
- Press the fold. An unpressed turn up drops within an hour of walking and looks like the jeans are simply too long.
Bleach, Splash Bleach and How It Was Actually Done
Domestic thin bleach, sodium hypochlorite out of the same bottle that did the kitchen floor, diluted something like one part to ten in a bath or a bucket. A full soak gave an even overall fade, anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour depending how far you wanted to push it, followed by a long rinse and a full wash cycle. Splash bleach was the other route entirely. Wet the jeans, lay them flat on a yard, flick neat bleach off a brush, wait, rinse hard.
Two warnings from experience. Bleach carries on working long after it looks finished, so rinse for longer than feels sensible and always follow with a proper wash. And it weakens cotton permanently, which is the reason most properly bleached pairs from that period have gone at the knee. If you want the effect without the chemistry, buy it already done in the denim range.
Finishes, and Where Each One Belongs
Not every fade means the same thing, and the differences are worth knowing before you commit a good pair of jeans to a bucket. This is how we would sort them.
| Finish | Method | Where it belongs |
|---|---|---|
| Raw indigo | Unwashed loom state denim, starch still in it | Smart, worn with loafers |
| Home bleach | Whole garment soaked in diluted bleach | Even fade, the common 1970 look |
| Splash bleach | Neat bleach flicked onto wet denim | Random spots, gigs and terraces |
| Stonewash | Factory pumice tumble, commercialised through the 1970s | Later, and never the original look |
Stonewash is the one people get wrong. The technique is older than it looks, since Levi's credits Donald Freeland with pumice washing back in the 1950s, but it only reached the high street in volume through the 1970s. Either way it lands well after the first wave, so if you are dressing 1969 it is the finish to leave alone.
Selvedge and Raw Denim
Selvedge is the self finished edge a shuttle loom leaves behind, a tight woven band that will not fray, normally marked with a coloured thread down the outseam. Shuttle looms weave narrow, about 31 inches against the 60 inches a modern projectile loom turns out, so a selvedge jean eats more cloth and takes longer to cut. Cone Mills White Oak in Greensboro, the mill that wove Levi's selvedge denim for decades, closed in December 2017, which is a large part of why the good stuff got dear.
Raw means unwashed and untreated, fading where you move rather than where a factory decided. We like it and we sell it. We will still say this. Nobody in 1969 gave a monkey's about a selvedge line, because they were looking at whether the jeans were clean and whether the crease was in. Treating that little red edge as a stamp of authenticity gets the history back to front.
Leg Opening and the Modern Slim Problem
A 501 in a 32 waist measures somewhere around 8.5 to 9 inches across the hem laid flat, which is a straight leg carrying the smallest amount of taper. Most contemporary slim jeans come in at 6.5 to 7. That gap of two inches is the single reason so many people cannot make a boot work with new denim. The leg will not pass over the laces, so it rides up, settles on the shaft and the whole line falls apart.
- Eight inches flat or more if you wear boots regularly.
- Seven and a half inches is about the floor if you are in loafers and want the hem to sit clean.
- Ignore the word on the label and measure a pair you already own, because one brand's straight is another brand's slim.
- Anything sold as skinny will not take a turn up at all, so buy those knowing the fold is off the table.
Braces, Boots and Loafers
Braces over denim is a skinhead move and a suedehead one, and it still works if you keep to the rules. Half an inch to an inch wide, clipped instead of buttoned unless the jeans carry buttons, and worn up, never hanging round the hips like a builder on a break. Wide braces belong on a fireman. Our braces sit in that narrow range for a reason, and the colour wants to either match the boot or pick something out of the shirt.
Boots for winter and for standing about outdoors. Monkey boots with a plain sole do the job, or an eight eyelet if you want more shaft on show above the turn up. Loafers with jeans is a suedehead thing and a good one, though only on raw or dark indigo and only with a hem that clears the vamp. Bleached denim with loafers is a pairing we would never put together. Over the top, a Harrington or nothing at all.
Skinhead Jeans FAQ
Five denim questions, answered without the revival mythology.
- How deep should a turn up be on skinhead jeans? One to two inches, folded twice if the leg runs long. The huge four inch fold you see in revival photos is a later exaggeration. Press it, or it will drop within an hour.
- Were Levi's 501s the only jeans skinheads wore? No. Wrangler and Lee got worn heavily, especially outside London, and plenty of lads bought whatever the local shop stocked. The 501 became the shorthand later on.
- How do you bleach jeans at home safely? Dilute thin bleach roughly one part to ten, soak for twenty minutes to an hour, then rinse for far longer than you think you need and run a full wash. Bleach keeps working after the colour looks right and it weakens the cotton for good.
- What leg opening do I need for boots? Eight inches or more measured flat across the hem. Below seven the denim catches on the laces, rides up and parks on the boot shaft, which ruins the line completely.
- Can you wear loafers with jeans? Yes, and suedeheads did it constantly. Keep to raw or dark indigo, hem so the shoe is clear, and avoid it with bleached or splashed denim where the whole look gets confused.