Buck Mason is bringing back its Full Saddle Jeans for fall in two new denims, and both are woven by Kaihara Mills in Japan — the mill behind some of the most sought-after selvedge on the market.
The first is a 13.75 oz. raw selvedge; it’s the first time the Full Saddle has come in a raw finish, which is no small potatoes. It’s cut in Buck Mason‘s high-rise, straight-leg silhouette, sanforized to minimize shrinkage, and (naturally) left unwashed, so that indigo will fade organically with wear.
The jeans take their shape from the blue jeans of the 1940s through ’60s, with copper rivets and a metal tack button fly rounding out the details. It’s classic Buck Mason workwear design through and through.
The second option is a 13 oz. rinsed selvedge, also from Kaihara, woven on traditional shuttle looms for a more textured, organic weave. Unlike the raw version, it’s rinsed at the factory for a softer, more lived-in feel right out of the box, while still controlling for shrinkage.
We’re past the raw denim heyday, but that’s okay
Raw and selvedge denim had a real moment in the late 2000s and early 2010s, when denimheads were always one-upping each other by finding the most obscure, heavyweight, weird-weave denim around. That particular area of discourse has faded from the broader conversation, and what’s left is smaller but arguably healthier: selvedge has settled into a steady niche instead of disappearing, and it’s picking up a new audience that has nothing to do with the old forum era.
For the uninitiated, here’s the long and short: pre-distressed, algorithm-driven fast fashion is very rarely produced from raw denim, because raw denim arrives stiff, often uncomfortable for the first few weeks, and needs actual patience before it starts to look like anything.
That’s the whole point; a fade you earn yourself is different from one a factory manufactured for you, and there’s a growing group of buyers who’d rather have the real version. Beware, though — it’s hard to come back once you’ve take become raw-denim-pilled.
Buck Mason offering both a raw and a rinsed take on the same silhouette, at the same price, is a smart way to meet people wherever they land on that spectrum. And going back to Kaihara Mills specifically keeps the jeans tied to actual shuttle-loom manufacturing rather than just borrowing the aesthetic; there’s a difference between a jean that looks like heritage denim and one that’s actually made the old way.
Where to buy it
Both the raw and rinsed Full Saddle Jeans are available now at buckmason.com for $278 each.
