FAQ | Can I wash them?

“Are these the jeans you can’t wash?” is a common question that we are asked at Olé. To be fair, over ten years ago I was also washing my pairs only once a year due to what I was reading on the internet. But things changed as I got older, educated myself and started to care more about my hygiene and the hard-earned dollars that we were putting into quality products. We feel that raw fabric is an awesome partner to help document one’s life and you also get to reap the benefits of nice fading and denim evolution. That’s why we believe it’s important to take care of your jeans to allow for them to last longer.

When it comes to denim care, we are happy to say treat them however you’d like but do offer a few recommendations that we practice. Not washing your jeans can lead to a couple of different outcomes, one being early fabric tears and the other being a lack of second dates. If the jeans have been spilled on, smell funky or haven’t seen laundry detergent in a while, give them a wash. Washing your pair of 306’s will clean the dirt and bacteria that the jeans have acquired that can over time break down the cotton fibres leading to quicker tears, more repairs and eventually unwearable.

Our recommended washing care:

When washing the jeans we skip past the ocean washes and recommend something simple. Fill a tub or container with cold water and use detergent (Ex. Woolite Dark) to hand wash your Olé Denim to remove stains and odor. Let them soak in that tub for a half hour to 45 minutes before draining the tub. When you are finished washing them,  refill the tub/container with cold water. Flip your jeans inside out and let them soak for another 15 to 20 minutes. After the soaking process, let the jeans hang dry.

Whether you’re staying raw forever or washing every couple of months, we hope you’re enjoy your pair of Olé Denim!

Education | Wabi-Sabi

wabi

Wabi-sabi at its core, is the Japanese art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in nature and the acceptance of the natural cycle of growth, decay and death.

In layman’s terms it is authenticity over everything.

Wabi-sabi embraces the cracks and crevices, the marks of time, weather and well loved use. It is finding the beauty and embracing these imperfections as something marches through time. It is the undeclared beauty that waits patiently to be discovered.

For us, it is the evolution through wear.

We all start out with the essentially the same indigo canvas. From afar each pair is consistent in indigo colour and craftsmanship. But as the denim canvas begins to journey through life with you, your pair begins to loose indigo, whiskers and honeycombs begins to form a road map of your adventure. Every loose thread, blown crotch or ripped pocket bag has a story. This is wabi-sabi. Once small, subtle imperfections begin to grow, developing a patina and taking on character and aesthetic all its own. This is what we pride ourselves on and is pursuit that has captivated denim enthusiast around the globe.

It is all in the imperfect details.

The Japanese view of life embraced a simple aesthetic
that grew stronger as inessentials were eliminated
and trimmed away.

-Architect Tadao Ando