Hey, I'm Jax.
My first pair of real jeans came from my aunt: a pair of Nudie Jeans. I had no idea what I was doing. I just wore them, every day, for two years, until the crotch blew out. When I finally looked at them, they told a story. Every whisker and honeycomb was something I'd done.
Then came my APCs. I wore those for about five years and washed them twice. The crotch blew out more than once, and every time my mom patched them back up. Those jeans were basically a family project by the end. When they'd given everything they had, I traded them in through APC's Butler program, the one where they take back your worn pair, clean it up, and resell it, and got half off a new pair.
That's when the obsession got me. I sold the new pair because I wanted Iron Hearts. Then I sold those too. Somewhere in there I grew out of raw denim for a while.
Leather went the same way. I picked up a used AllSaints jacket on Grailed for $250, expecting it to break in and become mine. Two years later it looked exactly the same. Nothing changed. Then I discovered tea-core leather, black on top with a brown core that comes through as you wear it, and I got it: leather can fade just like denim. Indigo horsehide that turns brown and white-core leather that shows through. Same idea, new material.
Now I'm diving back in with both feet.
Here's what always bugged me: when you're about to drop a few hundred dollars on a pair of jeans or a jacket, you have no idea what it'll look like after a year of real life. You get one glossy product photo and maybe a lucky Fade Friday post if you dig through Heddels, Reddit, and Instagram. APC's Butler program showed me how much that "after" picture matters.
So I'm building the library I wish I'd had: every fade I can find, organized by brand, model, weight, months worn, and washes, so you can see where a piece is headed before you buy it. Every photo is credited to the person who earned it, and it's shared with their permission.
If you've got a fade you're proud of, I'd love to add it. Send it in.
Jax
Austin, TX