Acne Mens Jeans Review
Eddie Pozo
My first & only pair of Acne Studios jeans were bought at the height of my Sofia Coppola obsession in 2010 on The Outnet. They were super ill-fitting, but if they were a Coppola favourite, so be it.
I did some digging and reading over a year ago across these subreddits and ended up getting a pair of Rag & Bone jeans in Fit 2, the very first pair of jeans I had ever spent $200 on. I originally ordered a pair in size 31 but they were too big, so I returned and reordered a pair in a size 29. They were definitely snug but since wearing them literally EVERY SINGLE DAY since Early June 2019, they've stretched and have come to fit perfectly but have also taken a beating and the crotch blowout on them has just been getting too big even after getting patched once. I've usually washed them once a week and always let them hang dry. I've even re-dyed them black about 4 months ago because they were becoming pretty faded. I'm a bit of a minimalist so I try to buy things once and use them as long as I can. So quality and making sure i'm buying exactly what I want/need obviously matters most to me.
So what i've done this last week was order some pairs of jeans from Acne, A.P.C., and a personal favorite brand of mine for their shirts, Allsaints, in my size/what the website fit calculator recommended based off the measurements I took from currently well worn Rag & Bone jeans.
So after comparing all 3 of these i'm almost wondering if I should just get another pair of Rag & Bone jeans? Just this time in a size 30/30 instead of 29/33. I already know I love them and they're on sale right now as i'm writing this for $146. The whole point of writing this post was to find something else and get some input on maybe another brand that's worth trying.
After taking all of this into account and comparing & contrasting everything, I feel like I like the Acne jeans the most. I just wish they tapered more going towards the leg opening. I'm sure of course this can be fixed by simply going to a tailor. I'm just not familiar with any in my area or that specialize in tailoring jeans and they all seem kinda sketch. Of course if I bring a pair of $200 jeans to any of these people i'd want them to do a good job. So if anyone has any tips on this sort of thing or even any recommendations for trustworthy online Tailors, please let me know!
I'm considering picking up a pair of Acne jeans, but hesitant to pay around $300 for a pair of pants. My main frustration with all the skinny jeans that I buy is that they all stretch out after a few months. My jean collection consists of only Topman and All Saints (haven't been that pleased with them). Any advice would be awesome. Thanks!
In the denim world, Levi's, Lee, and Wrangler are the most influential denim brands of all time, having (literally, in one case) invented the category and spent more than a century shaping how we think of blue jeans. As denim went from mining gear to workwear to closet staple for every human on earth, these three brands' impact on menswear and fashion is incalculable. They're all also massive brands, some of which have sub-brands (we'll get to those), so knowing how to parse The Big Three's massive catalog is crucial to getting historically good denim at solid prices.
Not including Levi's in this list would be like omitting Michael Jordan from the Hall of Fame. Levi's isn't just the most well-known jeans brand on the planet, it's the one that literally invented the damn things (way back in 1873). After all these years, they're still the yardstick by which all other jeans brands are measured. The straight-legged 501 remains thee iconic pair of jeans, available in a million fits and rinses. The 505 has a slightly roomier thigh, a bit of taper, and a zip fly (versus the 501's button fly).
Lee was one of the early denim pioneers, and the first to use a zipper fly. (Oh, and it invented overalls, too.) Today, the brand tends to ride on the budget side of the spectrum, with fits and washes that trend particularly dad-like. That said, Lee's denim continues to deliver on the brand's legacy of hard-wearing, good-value jeans.
Gap's iconic khakis commercials from the late '90s made the mall brand a mecca for dusty tan chinos, but the brand is rooted in denim. It continues to produce solid jeans at reasonable prices while offering a smattering of more upscale selvedge options, too.
J.Crew's jeans selection is reliably solid; its bread and butter 484 slim-straight fit is a particular standout. But look to J.Crew's workwear-inspired Wallace & Barnes sub-label and you'll find some genuinely great jeans with vintage details that would raise the brow of any denim connoisseur.
For many menswear fans, A.P.C. was a gateway not only into raw denim but into menswear as a whole. A.P.C.'s minimalist aesthetic coupled with high-quality fabrics made its logo-less jeans a hit in the late 2000s, when fashion was beginning to sober up from logomania. To this day, the Paris-based label continues to produce streamlined jeans and denim products better than most.
Acne Studios is better known these days for envelope-pushing fashion, but the Stockholm-based brand opened its doors as a film studio back in the '90s. When it started making a limited run of jeans exclusively for friends and family, the brand found its bag. Acne's got its hyper-sensitive finger on the pulse, with beautiful washes, full cuts, and surprising details like detachable denim belts.
John Elliott made it in Los Angeles streetwear thanks to his focus on elevating the humble sweatpant, spurring on luxury athleisure's near decade-long dominance. But aside from hefty hoodies and tailored sweats, Elliott's jeans offer some of the most energetic distressing around, and have been spotted on countless elite-level fashion plates.
A lot of jeansmakers like to look backwards. But some of the best jeans brands think of the 501 as Cro-Magnon denim, with so much more evolution to come. They're combining artisan techniques with cutting-edge printing technology, doctorate-level pattern-making, and wild ideas to reimagine the experience of buttoning up in blue.
Designer Glenn Martens decade-long run at the legendary Y/Project has yielded some of the most viral jeans of the 21st century. Not hard to see why when your jeans also look like cowboy boots. From sculptural delights to trompe l'oeil, Martens' denim jeans are really denim creations, and feel like art school experiments in the best way.
Tender's approach to denim does not look like most other jeans you've ever seen. The U.K.-based brand focuses on clothes inspired by turn-of-the-century rail-worn designs, often employing natural dyes, indigo-alternatives, and unique pattern cutting to produce some of the most delightfully off-beat (and often heaviest) jeans you're likely to see.
Ralph Lauren's heritage Americana-inspired RRL sub-label is known as the triple-distilled essence of the menswear legend's personal cowboy-flavored aesthetic. Where Polo exists for the masses, RRL dives headlong into obscure references pulled from the company's bottomless vintage library. Witness the filled belt loops, hidden rivets, and throwback-style waistbands. And in the realest nod to modern denim reality, most of RRL's jeans are made in the U.S. using Japanese selvedge denim.
Glenn Liburd is a real-life denim legend, having worked decades in the denim industry with The Big Three, not to mention a stint at Savile Row. His encyclopedic jeans knowledge has coalesced into a brand that is truly the cream-of-the-crop. Custom, American-made selvedge denim with masterful construction, somehow delivered at a surprisingly accessible price point? Yes, yes, and yes.
Paul Kruize's jeans are bespoke, and the not-insignificant price you pay for that pleasure comes back in details you'll see and feel. While most other brands use a range of machines to make a single pair of five-pocket blue jeans, Kruize operates a single machine to produce his product. Additionally, he stitches the buttonholes by hand and makes sure that every seam is felled (a.k.a., covered on the inside, which takes more work). The result? Jeans that are as beautiful on the inside as they are on the outside.
No machines: just two pairs of hands, needles, and thread. That's all Keruk needs to make a pair of jeans. It's extremely rare for anyone to make a garment without a sewing machine, which makes these the ultimate grail for any denim enthusiast.
Designer denim sometimes gets a bad rap as being expensive without merit. That's not always wrong. But a select group of fashion-first labels are spinning jeans in futuristic ways while ensuring that the quality matches the head-spinning concepts. Brands like Diesel, Rick Owens, and Our Legacy in particular prove that legit designer denim exists, and can be just as expressive of a brilliant vision as anything else on a runway.
If you're looking for some of high-quality denim jeans with all the subtlety of an airhorn, welcome to Diesel. The Italian brand hasn't yet met a pair of jeans it can't warp, wash, and bedazzle into a maximalist showoff's dream. Under the creative direction of Glenn Martens, Diesel's denim innovations have helped put brand back on the fashion map, with its jeans regularly selling out.
Rick Owens' dark, brooding designs are instantly recognizable, but his wild takes on jeans still manage to steal the show. To be clear, they range from very expensive to very, very, very expensive. But of the countless designer brands taking their slice of the blue jeans pie, Owens is one of the few that actually delivers on quality by using serious, heavy-duty Japanese denim to make his mind-bending creations.
When it comes to denim, Acne assuredly knows a thing or two about nonchalant exclusivity. Revered for its unique designs and cool-kid image, the latest drop exemplifies both aspects superbly. Besides that, though, the Spring/Summer 2020 jeans have a heavy dose of history sewn into its seams that's definitely worth appreciating. For some background, in 1997 co-founder and creative director of Acne, Jonny Johansson, made a batch of 100 pairs of raw denim jeans with red stitching as a for-fun gift to friends and family. Quickly, the pants became a hot commodity causing the brand to extend its exclusivity well beyond the realm of denim. With jeans still at the core of Acne's DNA, the latest collection is an ode to said significant chapter with a re-launch of its most popular jean styles over the years, including the now infamous '97 batch.
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