The 18 Best Raw Denim Brands for Men and Women

We spoke to denim makers, sellers, and buyers to learn more about the best of raw denim from Japan to America.
We spoke to denim makers, sellers, and buyers to learn more about the best of raw denim from Japan to America.
When Brooklyn Denim Co. opened eight years ago, “every person in Williamsburg was coming in asking for A.P.C.,” says owner Frank Pizzurro. But Brooklyn Denim Co. didn’t carry A.P.C., so instead they suggested Tellason as an alternative. “That’s what we use as a good starter jean,” Pizzurro says. It fits a lot of different people, it holds up really well, and it’s not high maintenance. Denim heads will enjoy that it’s made of all Cone Denim, the last American denim factory, which actually just closed last December. Pizzurro found that Tellason had a similar fit to A.P.C., but wore better and lasted longer. It’s been one of their No. 1–selling brands ever since.
Naked & Famous was founded in Montreal in 2008 and has since been name-dropped in its fair share of rap songs. The designers here use Japanese selvedge denim in more playful ways than just about any other brand making jeans today. They once designed the world’s heaviest jean at 32 ounces (the average pair is 12 ounces); they’ve made glow-in-the-dark jeans, scratch-and-sniff jeans, and jeans that change color based on body heat, but the vast majority are more tame and very accessible.
Lately, when people come into Brooklyn Denim Co., they come in asking for 3sixteen. It’s actually designed by Kiya Babzani, the guy who started Self Edge. It’s made in San Francisco using Japanese raw denim.
Japan-based brands are primarily for people deep in the know, and it’s not often easy to find their product in America. Brands like Sugarcane, Momotaro, Samurai, and Flat Head are highly regarded, but hard to find because they’re made in smaller runs and tend to be more expensive, so stores here just don’t carry them. They also tend to feel different than American-made denim because they weave the fabric differently in Japan, but also use even heavier weights, so there’s a lot of texture in these fabrics. We’ll start here with Iron Heart. It’s a Japanese motorcycle brand that emphasizes construction. That’s why they design 24-ounce jeans (double the average pair), which are going to feel really, really stiff when you first buy them. Still, Shuck from Heddels says they’ve built a cult following over the last five years.
Stevenson Overall Company is known for mimicking that raw, vintage-style denim, while still incorporating more modern details that make it unique. These are the kinds of details that only the fellow denim-obsessed might recognize, though, like handmade belt loops and curved back pockets that allow the jean to age differently than more traditional looks. Also, they’re made on one of the only single-needle production machines in the world, so whereas it usually takes five to six different machines to make a jean, these are made with a single sewing machine. That’s the same way a jean would’ve been made 125 years ago, so it’s incredibly labor-intensive, but doesn’t look all that crazy on the rack. “That’s one of the most geeky jeans without being gimmicky,” says Babzani, founder of the raw-denim-focused store Self Edge.
Pure Blue Japan is another one known for its textured, irregular fabric. Shuck says they feel like they’re written in braille. Because of how that fabric is run through the weaving machines, the indigo on these jeans fades into an unusual striated pattern you won’t find elsewhere.
The owner of Real McCoy’s is a Japanese businessman who, in a past life, drove around America in a Volkswagen bus collecting old jeans and WWII jackets. Now, he re-creates everything he found then exactly to the stitch. He goes extreme. And by that I mean that since there were fabric rationing during the war and the stitching wasn’t as good, he’ll purposefully stitch Real McCoy denim poorly so that it most accurately represents how it looked 70 years ago. “It’s like visiting a commissary in 1944 for American military clothing,” says Shuck.
Right now, the top-of-the-line denim is that which is made by a one-man brand. There are two of these such people in America worth noting. The first is Takayuki Echigoya, who makes bespoke jeans out of Japanese denim in his Bed-Stuy studio under the name Bowery Blue Makers. For 20 years, Echigoya was a vintage-clothing dealer, and about two years ago he began re-creating those vintage dead-stock American looks using two dozen vintage sewing machines from the 1890s to 1950s. There are two options when buying from Echigoya. You can buy them made-to-order online or make an appointment to have him fit and design a pair of jeans just for you, where you can give him exacting specifications, like what your rivets should look like or where your belt loops should align on the jean.
There has also been a tendency among brands who have done men’s jeans to just shrink the pattern for women, but that doesn’t work nearly as well. Raleigh Denim is one that’s designed new cuts to fit women. They do have 2 percent stretch, but that’s not much, and Pizzurro offers this one when women come in asking for raw jeans.
Babzani from Self Edge also developed a line of women’s denim under his brand 3sixteen. It’s been around for about ten years and includes a wide range of sizes and fits, but they all have stretch in them, which will get a side eye from the real obsessives. So, Babzani teamed up with the people behind PRPS and developed a line of four jeans and a denim jacket for women that are all made in Japanese factories and are up to par with the best of what’s out there for men. “It only took 12 years to figure out,” Babzani jokes. They’re available at Self Edge stores, but won’t come online until May 1.
Railcar began as a one-man operation, making jeans out of a bedroom in L.A. Now, it offers nine different women’s jeans, some 100 percent cotton and some with stretch.

The 18 Best Raw Denim Brands for Men and Women

Men's Best Made Selvedge Denim

Women's Jeans

💕👉 {K$e} 2024 naked in raw winter

The Best Japanese Denim Brands to Shop Now

Buy Your Raw Denim Now and Enjoy Sick Fades Come Spring

Top 10 Raw Denim Selvedge Jeans Brands In The World: 2024 Edition

Top 10 Raw Denim Selvedge Jeans Brands In The World: 2024 Edition

The Best Raw Selvedge Denim Jeans Guide: Read Before You Buy