If you've been into menswear for a decade or so, here's an instant nostalgia hit: First-time raw-denim owners complaining about their new indigo jeans staining white shoes; debates raging about the proper way to wash raw jeans; fade-obsessed sickos soaking unwashed denim in the ocean and attempting to de-stink jeans by freezing them in the fridge.

Brings ya back to 2011. Except this is all happening in 2026.

Yes, raw denim is once again the most vital fabric in menswear and even beyond, recalling an era when the pant-washing discourse was contained to forums instead of TikTok. This isn't a 180, though: It's a full 360. Raw-denim culture is almost exactly back to where it started.

The recent raw-denim boom began when it became the material du jour for a set of consumers likely too young to experience the late aughts and early '10s raw-denim boom. Back then, unwashed indigo denim jeans were all the rage and the highest badge of honor was a spotlight in Rawr Denim's Fade Fridays series.

And though many things are the same nowadays, some things are different.

Although conventional raw denim — read: slim and vintage-faithful Japanese-made jeans — is still part of the "2026 trendhopper" uniform, as the TikTokers are calling it, there's an increasing hunger for looser silhouettes currently being satiated by a slew of online-only labels only known to masters of the For You page.

But you know the hype is real around baggy raws because Zara's cashing in and UNIQLO's affordable unwashed option is pulling hundreds of thousands of likes. You can buy raw (or raw-looking) jeans from the biggest brands in the world, including Supreme and Denim Tears. Even A.P.C., the OG raw-denim-gone-fashion brand that provided many neophytes' first pair, is pushing its signature jeans to capitalize on the moment.

This stuff looks at least partially familiar because, as with the JNCO explosion from a few years back, young shoppers are assuming a nostalgia for a look and phenomenon not experienced first-hand. New to them, but proven by time. And this kind of generously fitting unwashed denim does have a throwback feel. It's Y2K baggy, which is to say really baggy, but also flared and even low-rise (a doubly ironic hybrid of two old trends).

Even if the newer stuff looks more like No Faith Studios than ye olde Momotaro, the raw-denim hype cycle has room for both. And so, it still feels like a time capsule. The people talking about when (or if) they wash their jeans, the superstition around achieving Good Fades... it's déjà vu for menswear folks of a certain age.

What's driving the buzz? It's not just Carti's giant raw jeans. Certainly, this is a form of blowback to the omnipresent lived-in look that's currently all the rage. When brand-new stuff made to look pre-distressed becomes ubiquitous, the most obvious act of rebellion is distressing your clothes yourself, earning the wear and tear through — well, wear and tear.

Isn't it nice that, in the age of AI, raw denim feels real?

Wearing, washing, and personalizing these rigid pants is an act of intimacy inherently removed from clothes that look thrashed when they come out of the factory and emdash-riddled essays generated at the push of a button.

Plus, raw jeans' dark hue looks "cleaner" than washed indigo but also has more depth than black denim, making it visually rich and even kinda dressy. It's arguably the ultimate do-anything denim and it only looks better with time.

One bit of advice from a survivor of the original raw-denim uprising: Wash your jeans. Loose or not, let's leave stinky jeans in 2011.

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