Black Denim: The Other Discipline
Black Denim: The Other Discipline
Getting black is easy. Keeping it is the hard part.
Blue Came First for Practical Reasons
When denim became jeans in the late 1800s, it was indigo blue, and that was not an aesthetic decision. Indigo was available, it was affordable, it was one of the oldest dyes in the trade, it held color reasonably well by the standards of the day, and it hid dirt.
Black on cotton was a different problem. It required different chemistry and more of it. Cloth made for hard labor did not need a color range, so nobody bothered.
Black twilled denim shows up in an American maker's records as early as 1903, so the cloth existed. It did not sell in volume until the 1950s, when industrial sulfur vat dyes arrived and made a deep, fast black affordable. Then Elvis wore black denim in Jailhouse Rock in 1957 and the question was settled. By the 1980s black jeans were everywhere.
Sulfur Black Behaves Differently
This is the part worth understanding, because it explains every complaint anyone has ever had about black jeans.
Indigo sits on the outside of the yarn. When it wears off, what shows underneath is more indigo, just lighter. The fade is gentle because you are moving through shades of the same color.
Sulfur black penetrates further into the fiber, and when it breaks down under friction and washing, what shows underneath is the grayish white of raw cotton. That is a jump, not a gradient. It is the same amount of wear reading as a much bigger change.
So black denim is not worse than blue denim. It is less forgiving. There is no such thing as fade-proof black, and any claim otherwise is marketing.
The Ways Black Gets Made
Warp dyed black. Sulfur black on the warp yarn, undyed weft, woven like normal denim. It fades to gray at the high friction points, and some of us like that a great deal.
Over-dyed black. The cloth is woven, often with indigo already in it, then dyed black on top. The indigo underneath acts as a barrier, so the fade travels through black, then blue, then white. Three colors instead of two. It is the most interesting black there is.
Piece dyed and reactive black. The garment is sewn from undyed cloth and dyed after, or a reactive black is used instead of sulfur for far better colorfastness. You give up dramatic fading and gain a black that stays put.
Charcoal. The honest middle. It starts a shade off pure black, so when it moves it does not shock you, and it reads as considered rather than faded.
How to Keep a Black Pair Right
Wash it inside out, in cold water, and only when it needs it.
Use a gentle detergent with no optical brighteners. Brighteners are designed to make white cloth look whiter, and on black they leave a dull haze.
Never tumble dry black denim. Heat is what kills it. Hang it and let it be.
Do not soak it in hot water for shrinkage. Spot clean when you can.
Accept that a black pair worn every day will move toward gray, and decide in advance whether you want that. I do. My charcoal jacket has been going gray at the elbows for years and it is the best thing in my closet for it.
What We Make
Our black and charcoal pieces are woven for us in Japan on the same selvedge program as the indigo. The BLACK Cowboy Jeans have the teardrop pocket and the cut I wear most in the evening. The ONE CHARCOAL Jean Jacket is the one I take when I do not want to explain myself to anybody.
Black is the discipline. Blue tells everybody where you have been. Black keeps it to itself.
A Way Of Life.
Shop the Story
Black Bear Brand BLACK Cowboy Jeans
The Black Bear Brand ONE CHARCOAL Jean Jacket
Black Bear Brand BLACK Western P-Snap Shirt
Related Reading
Indigo: The Oldest Blue, and Why It Fades Like Nothing Else
Selvedge Denim, Explained: The Self-Edge, the Sanforized Fit, and the Story in Every Fade