Our Favorite Instagrammers – @swissjeansfreak
Name: Ruedi Karrer
Instagram Name: @swissjeansfreak
Amount of followers: 25.8K
Age: 57
Residence: Zurich, Switzerland
Occupation: Geographer and founder of the Jeansmuseum of heaviest fadings
I was born in a little alpine village in the Swiss mountains in a poor family with 9 brothers and sisters. Since childhood, I’ve always had a passion for nature and wilderness. In summer, I like running and mountaineering and during the winter season you will find me on the slopes, I am a fanatic skier. I am concerned about sustainability and how mankind can survive in a sustainable way in the long term.
My favorite places are my parents place, the mountains and the denim fairs in Amsterdam and Berlin. I love traditional Swiss food and indulging in sweet treats such as Swiss chocolate.
- Why do you share your outfits? And why Instagram?
I started to share my denim evolution pictures on My Nudie Forum and Superfuture to show people the power of strong natural denim evolution. I shared a lot of jeans from a lot of brands to keep the raw denim spirit alive. In 2012 I switched my posts to the upcoming and fast growing social media platform Instagram. The reasons behind posting were the same, keeping the Raw Denim Spirit alive, however, it was way easier to post and in no time the audience reached was far greater. Besides posting pictures, I like checking other accounts, because you can’t ever get enough of strong denim evolution, can you?
- What makes your Instagram feed so special?
What I want to show is that raw denim fits in every situation. I wear my denim outfit at the office, during outdoor activities, as work clothes on construction sites, at funerals or at a wedding : literally everywhere.
Most important to me is to show people that they can break in their raw denim gear in a natural way and the result will be incredible. I also want to encourage people to wear their raw denim items as long as possible, and when eventually the time has come for their denim to go, they can contact the Jeansmuseum, where the retired, but well loved, jeans can get an eternal life. This helps me to keep the raw denim spirit alive by showing the power of denim evolution on many heavy faded samples to the visitors.
- Where does your inspiration come from?
I just love raw denim so much, that I have to share it. And with showing people this power of denim evolution on my Instagram account I want to convince other raw denimheads to keep their retired raw denim gear alive for ever or otherwise donate them to the museum. This sensibilization is my main inspiration for posting pictures and a second reason is to make other young raw denim newbees become real hardcore raw denim addicts too, to help keeping the raw denim spirit alive.
- Where does your love for denim come from and when did it start?
I started wearing jeans in 1973, when the first 2 Levi’s jeans arrived in our family in a clothes donation parcel. I started to learn more about Raw Denim and saw other people with amazing faded jeans on the streets. My denim addiction became more and more after I learned about the power of denim evolution. Later I stopped soaking or washing my raw denim items, just observing the natural denim evolution. And since I love strong patina as well, it was never a big deal for me considering how long you can wear them.
Some of my tricks include wearing oversized jeans, airing them a lot, and start breaking into a new jeans at the beginning of the cold winter season and wearing them in 3 different settings: office, outdoor and at the end as work cloth on construction sites or in the forest.
Raw denim jeans and jackets are like little babies to me and I just want to save as many jeans and denim jackets as possible from the garbage bin. It’s almost killing my raw denim heart when I see other people throwing away their raw denim gear. Raw denim became a sort of fetish as well, I don’t know if I could live without raw denim anymore..
- Your top 3 favourite (denim)brands? And why?
This is such a difficult question… I just love all kinds of raw denim that have great evolution potential. I do really have a weakness for Greencast and Heavyweight denim.
Here we go, let me try to name my top 3 denim brands: 3Sixteen, APC, Atelier La Durance, Benzak Denim Developers, Big John, Denime, Eat Dust, Edwin, Evisu, The Flatheads, Imperial, Iron Heart, Lee, Levi’s, Momotaro, Naked & Famous, Nudie, Oldblue Co, Pace, Pikebrothers, Pure Blue Japan, Rising Sun, Rogue Territory, Samurai, Strike Gold, Studio d’Artisan, Sugar Canes, Tellason, Tulp, Unbranded Brand, Warehouse, Wrangler, and many more. Okay.. I clearly can’t name the three best.
My favorite items are :
– A heavy used vintage Lee blanket lined storm Rider 101-Lj jacket from the mid sixties.
– A never washed Greencast left hand twill G-star US-Lumber jeans from 1999.
– A never washed Big Smith jeans from the seventies
– Levi’s Big E blanket lined 559 jacket, also never washed.
6. What is your favourite accessory?
I don’t care about accessories, I don’t even have a wallet. I just walk around with a tee and my sandals. The only accessories I always keep with me are my Jeansmuseum flyers.
7. What items do you wear the most at the moment? Why?
As a slow fader I usually wear one jeans at the time. It will take me 2 or 3 years to break them in. My rotation since 2007:2007 – 2009 – G-Star US First 2010 – 2011 – Denime2011 – 2013 – Strike Gold 23oz. for about 875 days of wear.2013 – 2015 – Iron Heart 25oz. 989 days of wear. 2015 – 2016 – Strike Gold 23oz again & and APC jeans. Since November 14 2016 I started wearing a Nudie Loose Leif and a Benzak Denim Developer Greencast jeans in a weekly rotation. By switching them every week I will compare their denim evolution
- What is your favourite shop? And what is your favourite webstore?
The VMC store in Zürich is definitely one of my favorite stores. They have an incredible selection, sold by some authentic raw denimheads. Also in Zürich, the DeeCee Style is worth paying a visit. Also Tenue de Nimes in Amsterdam and the DC4 store in Berlin belong to my favorite stores. My favorite online stores are Nudie, Cultizm, and several other online stores from other raw denim brands.
- Do you care about the production process?
I care about wearing jeans with less ecological impacts and also produced under better social labour conditions. And I always wear unwashed raw denim without any further treatment like, bleach, stone wash or whatever to lower the ecological impact. And since I never ever wash my raw denim gear, I save some water as well!
- What are your dreams for the future?
To find some sponsors to build up a real Jeansmuseum of heaviest fadings to keep the raw denim spirit alive and convicing all raw denim heads over the world to never ever throw away any old worn-out trashed raw denim items and giving them an eternal life at the museum. This should become real at least for all items with strong authentic denim evolution results and/or patina.
Besides this, jeans are the most common piece of clothing in the world and still not one single brand independent Jeansmuseum exists worldwide. Therefore, in my opinion they deserve one museum at least.
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