Blue Seven “Clean Start Project” – Raw Denim Event Re-Cap

Note: This is a special guest post from Jacob Peregrin, who is a part of Blue Seven – a clothing store based in Oklahama City – and the owner of a previously featured Nudie Grim Trim. Blue Seven recently wrapped up their raw denim project, “Clean Start Project”; and Jacob was kind enough to give us a re-cap.

Blue Seven is a locally owned and operated clothing store in Oklahoma City. Our shop carries everything from local artist’s and screen printer’s work to stylish brands for men and women. However, over the past three years we have focused more on our passion for denim.

Blue Seven Clean Start Project Re-CapWe wanted to find a way to share our love for raw denim with more local Okies. Our idea was to put 18 people with different lifestyles and professions in a pair for six months and record the monthly and final changes over that time.

These professions included a high school art teacher, a leather worker, business men, a tattoo artist, a coffee roaster, a graffiti artist, musicians, a screen printer, and just about any other job that allows for jeans seven days a week.

The main result was a showcase of how different people and lifestyles transform a pair of raw jeans. Another result was how each of the 18 participants shared the story of raw denim with everyone they came into contact with.

As is often the case though, all good things must come to an end. At the end of the six months, we took over a laundr-o-mat to give each pair their individual wash, then set up an event to display the monthly progression and final product.

The brands we used included Levi’s, Naked & Famous, Nudie, and Cult of Individuality.

What were the results, you ask? Some of the most notable break-ins include:

Eric Lyon – Nudie Dry Dirt Organic Average Joes

Eric Lyon - Nudie Dry Dirt Organic Average Joes

Eric Lyon – Nudie Dry Dirt Organic Average Joes

Eric works as a high school art teacher at PCO in Oklahoma City and wore a pair of Nudie Dry Dirt Organic Average Joes. His jeans were worn cuffed, albeit slightly long; and the bottom of the cuff tore so badly that we had to patch them up to keep them connected.

He also wore them baggy, which accounts for the wider whiskering, and what seems to often be the case with Nudies – the crotch blew out pretty early!

Ashley Smith – Nudie Tight Long Johns

Ashley Smith - Nudie Tight Long Johns

Ashley Smith – Nudie Tight Long Johns

Ashley is a tattoo artist and co-owner of No Regrets Tattoo and Brass Bell Bicycle Studio in Oklahoma City. She wore a pair of Nudie Tight Long Johns that wore nicely over the six months.

For instance, as a result of her pocket knife and phone abrasion while she was tattooing, her back pockets were essentially just became threads.

Another interesting feature is you that can see the color change from where she cuffed her jeans high. The unexposed denim that was inside the cuff is still a deep, truer indigo color.

Rusty Nix – Levis 501XX STF

Rusty Nix - Levi's 501XX Shrink-To-Fit

Rusty Nix – Levi’s 501XX Shrink-To-Fit

Rusty Nix owns an accessories brand called Neves based out of Oklahoma City, and works primarily with leather goodstook. He took on a pair of Levi greenest 501xx STF, which gained a dirty hue from his constant exposure to leather dust and leather stains.

In fact, before we washed his jeans we collected about a golf ball sized amount of leather dust from inside the cuffs!

Dusty Gilpin – Levi’s 511

Dusty Gilpin - Levi's 511

Dusty Gilpin – Levi’s 511

Dusty Gilpin is a graffiti artist and owner of tree and leaf clothing, a local screen print and design shop.  His grey raw Levi’s 511 are definitely the most colorful jeans from the project.

The immense amount of screen printing ink and spray paint mist made for quite a color palette, and you can even tell which knee he drops down on while painting.

Caleb Arter – Naked & Famous Left Hand Twill

Caleb Arter - Naked & Famous Left Hand Twill

Caleb Arter – Naked & Famous Left Hand Twill

Caleb Arter is the owner here at Blue Seven, who without his vision and creativity there would not be a shop in Oklahoma offering raw denim! These Naked & Famous Left Hand Twill Weird Guys were special for Caleb as they were his first pair of raw denim to break in.

You can actually see the two finger marks beneath his phone mark where he would push the phone up out of his pocket.

Jacob Peregrin – Naked & Famous Elephant

Jacob Peregrin - Naked & Famous Elephant

Jacob Peregrin – Naked & Famous Elephant

My 22 Oz. Naked and Famous Elephant skins show some pretty extreme fades. I am admittedly hard on denim, but believe the fading is truly due to the weight of the denim.


The jeans were actually so slow to give that they left bruises on my waist for the first month. Regardless though, I had a lot of fun patching these, as well as everybody else’s jeans!

Blue Seven Clean Start Project Re-Cap

The project and event was quite a success. We educated people about raw denim, broke in some jeans, and had such a good time that we are already planning and gearing up for next years event!

Quite a few people have begun applying for participation next year, and we’re happy to already have one contestant lined up in Sweden! To check out all the monthly progressions and to get to know all the contestants, check out our blog.

Stay Raw!

-Jacob
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