Disagree with some of the reactions to this tweet. Will offer what I think is a better framework for understanding…

Disagree with some of the reactions to this tweet. Will offer what I think is a better framework for understanding when you should cuff your jeans. 🧵

Prior to the 1970s, most men cuffed their jeans. This was not, as it has been suggested, because they were poor and needed jeans they could grow into. Rather, it has to do with how denim, as a fabric, was made.

Most jeans today are sanforized, which is to say that the fabric has been put through a mechanical process to remove shrinkage. Sanforization was invented in the 1930s, but sanforized jeans weren't broadly popular until after the 1960s.

Thus, the reason why men of that period cuffed their jeans has less to do with their physical growth and more to do with how jeans slowly shrank over time with repeated washing. See Marlon Brando in The Wild One, playing the role of a rebel in his 20s. Grown man; cuffed jeans.

The 70s marked another important shift: denim went from being woven on narrow shuttle looms to larger, more efficient projectile looms. Shuttle looms send a bobbin (held by a small boat-shaped carrier) across the loom, leaving horizontal weft threads between the vertical warp.

This creates a self-finished edge (selvedge), which makes the edge less likely to fray or unravel. Denim that has been woven on a shuttle loom has an open edge, so it has to be finished in some way when made into jeans (typically done with an overlock stitch).

The spread of these technologies made jeans more stable (sanforized, pre-shrunk) and cheaper (projectile looms are faster, more efficient). This, in turn, gave those pre-70s jeans new meaning. For people in certain communities, ownership of those jeans gave them cultural capital.

This is especially true in Japan, where a subset of people — from the 1950s forward — became enamored with classic US style. David Marx has a great book on this (I recommend it). It's about how Japan kept classic US style alive, even as Americans largely abandoned it.

For people who love classic style, cuffing jeans — esp ones with selvedge stripes — is part of a look. To be sure, many of these jeans are sanforized, as this takes some of the guesswork out of shrinkage. But the cuff is part of the style. IG amekajihead, urbancomposition

So, when should you cuff your jeans? A friend who works as a graphic designer once suggested a useful rubric. Cuffs, he said, are like serifs. If your style leans modern, then no cuffs makes sense. If your style leans traditional, consider cuffs. Like Helvetica vs Times New Roman

IMO, if you think of style as a social language shaped by history, you will have a more stable view of dress. You will no longer ping-pong between meaningless declarations (e.g. cuffs are out, pleats are in, etc), switching your style every five years.

derek guy@dieworkwear · Mar 29, 2026

I dislike this kind of thinking. Are pleats in or out? Are the modern or antiquated? This kind of thinking is rootless and driven by ready-to-wear trends. Let me give you another way to think about pleats: one informed by tailoring and regional traditions. 🧵

Sorry, a typo. This should say that denim that has been woven on a projectile loom has an open edge. And thus it has to be finished in som way when made into jeans.

derek guy@dieworkwear · Jul 30, 2026

This creates a self-finished edge (selvedge), which makes the edge less likely to fray or unravel. Denim that has been woven on a shuttle loom has an open edge, so it has to be finished in some way when made into jeans (typically done with an overlock stitch).