Here at Heddels, we love a good fade story. For this installment of Fade of the Day, Lu from Companion Denim in Barcelona is sure giving us a good one. He wants to show off his Barcelona-based friend Lionel Boukobza’s fades.

Lionel has worn these custom jeans (no longer available, btw) for the last three years and has washed them about 5 times. During this time and washing interval, these jeans have been through a dramatic transformation. It’s not like one of those corny before-and-after pictures on infomercials with the dramatic transformations. No smoke and mirrors here; these are real hard-fought fades.

The Italian-made Candiani Mills denim used on this pair started as an intimidating, rigid, black and faded to an almost unrecognizable, bright yet shadowy, blue. The honeycombs are sharp and thin, grasping to any indigo that’s left behind the knee. The knees themselves look like the spot where a meteor from space impacted earth. These jeans are almost ready to tap out but are kept alive through robust repairs done in the Companion Denim studio.