Fade Friday – Iron Heart 634 MINI (12 Months, 0 Washes)

This is a guest post from our forum user, Megatron1505, who sent us a denim fade like no other seven months ago – the Iron Heart 634 MINI – that his then five year old son, Tommy, had been working on.

Now that Tommy has outgrown them after a year of wear, Megatron1505 was good enough to send us an update.


In April of this year, RawrDenim.com ran a Fade Friday feature on my (then) 5 year old son’s very unique pair of Iron Hearts, the IH-MINI. Unfortunately, as children have a tendency to do, my son has grown, and we are swiftly approaching a time when we have to retire his first pair of quality, Japanese, raw denim. As you will see, however, he has made quite an impression on them.

Tommy received the jeans from the founder and owner of Iron Heart, Haraki-San, after meeting him at the Iron Heart UK party which was hosted by the company’s worldwide distribution managers, Giles and Paula Padmore.

Tommy asked Haraki for a pair of jeans just like the ones his dad wears, and Haraki was as good as his word; providing jeans which he originally made for shop displays in Japan.

We received the jeans at the beginning of December 2011 and to no surprise, they quickly became Tommy’s favourite item of clothing, wearing them wherever he went.

In May of this year, we reached a point where Tommy was becoming too tall to wear them any more. I asked Giles for his help and he hand carried the jeans back to the Iron Heart HQ (The Works) in Japan for Haraki to come up with a solution. Haraki’s solution was somewhat unique, in that we had expected him to fit a “false cuff” to the bottom of each leg or simply extend the length.

However, in typical Haraki attention-to-detail fashion, he fully deconstructed the jeans in order to add in extra pieces of denim as his reason was, “to preserve the boy’s fade pattern where it should be”. Absolute genius!

Needless to say, Tommy has really put these jeans to the test in the last 12 months. We will be sad to retire them but will be sure to give them a place of pride in a frame on his bedroom wall.

Though Tommy is not quite big enough for even a small pair of raws from anywhere else at the moment, we will begin searching for his next jeans. The bar may be set high for his next pair given the Iron Heart 634 MINI, but when the eventual pair does hits his legs, Heddels will be the first to know!

Details

  • Name: Iron Heart 634 MINI
  • Weight: 21 Oz.
  • Fit: Straight Cut
  • Denim: 100% Zimbabwean Long Fibre Cotton
  • Length of wear: 12 months
  • Number of washes: 0

Photos – Before

Iron Heart 634 Mini

Iron Heart 634 Mini

Iron Heart 634 Mini

Photos – After

Front - Iron Heart 634 MINI

Back - Iron Heart 634 MINI

Thigh - Iron Heart 634 MINI

Whiskers - Iron Heart 634 MINI

Whiskers - Iron Heart 634 MINI

Back Pocket - Iron Heart 634 MINI

Leg Opening - Iron Heart 634 MINI

Leg Opening - Iron Heart 634 MINI