Ready Your Thighs for the Raw Denim Resurgence (2024)

A.P.C.'s low-rise jeans offered an entry point into the raw denim galaxy for an entire generation of menswear obsessives. If it's been a while since you've shimmied into a pair of the French brand's denim, this baggy, extremely 2023 pair comes with a touch of stretch to make your return a smooth journey.

Yesterday's raw denim was all about subtlety; you usually needed a magnifying glass to properly ID their origins. Today's versions are still made from top-notch materials, but their distinguishing details—like the bright red logo patch on the back pocket here—are a gatekeeper's nightmare.

Forget leg-lengthening surgery: all it takes to to make yourself look instantly taller is a pair of high-rise dungarees that sit right at your actual waist.

Any denim stamped with the Kapital seal of approval is the real deal, but the brand's sashiko-stitched jeans are a grail-in-the-making that puts the less artful stuff to shame.

What Taiga Takihashi's riff lacks in built-in stretch it makes up for in breathing room—the baggy fit helps the wear process feel a little kinder on your gams as you ease back into the raw denim waters.

The easiest way to make regular ol' raw denim feel like righteous, capital-F fashion? Add a carpenter loop and give the legs a runway-ready flare. (The Bottega Veneta tag doesn't hurt, either.)

3sixteen has been a favorite of in-the-know denimheads for over a decade. The next time you re-up on the brand's legendary Kiroki Mills denim, reach for a pair outfitted with a fuller leg—and, most important—a once-washed treatment that saves you the time (and pain) of breaking them in.

It's no surprise that Corridor—the Brooklyn-based brand bringing nice, normal clothes to the masses—cuts their raw denim a little wider and a touch softer than you might be used to. You know what else isn't surprising? How fast these'll become your favorite pair of pants.

You could wear these high-rise joints to a paint n' sip outing to score some authentic, well-earned splatters, but when the time comes to ogle actual art at your buddy's gallery opening, they'll look just as sick with a cardigan and derbies.

The bootcut revival isn't coming—it's already here. But Acne's gently-flared jeans give us hope that this time around, they won't be joined by droves of dudes in puka shell necklaces.

Pleats are the easiest way to loosen up a pair of tailored trousers. Who says that same logic can't apply to jeans?

Ultra-baggy, elastic waist joints that'll make you wonder why you ever forced your way into skinny-fit selvedge in the first place.

When even Rick Owens—the dark overlord of calf-hugging, stacked black denim—starts churning out baggy raw jeans (still in black, of course), you know something must be in the indigo-stained water.

Come for the storied Cone Mills pedigree, stay for the deliciously precise wide-but-not-baggy fit.

Business in the front, party—along with patches and pockets!—in the back.