How to date your Dior HOMME jeans
so you don't get scammed by false advertising resell pages who don't know jack shit and only care ab making money (odysseyrebuild who is blocking and deleting your comments if you point out he is lying)
mainly jeans. i will not talk about suit pants/slacks etc !! i will update the thread with a few images for reference later on. when i say "raw denim" i am talking about the blue pairs, not the grey/black pairs.
general info:
MIJ tags stayed the same until AW06, where they were changed a bit (more info down below). since AW06 til AW07, the MIJ tag didn't change at all anymore.
MII tags changed with SS05 and from what i recall they stayed [[roughly]] the same until AW07, hedi's departure. the main change that took place was the font, it was ugly as shit in AW04, but they fixed it in SS05 (changed the symbols a bit too).
on MIJ pairs released in japan (that is, with the japanese care label containing the season code), there is a mismatch between the fabric tag and the japanese care label. the japanese care label advises washing at 30 degrees celsius, whereas the fabric tag advises washing at 40 degrees celsius. i believe this mistake was not rectified at all during hedi's tenure, and it does not occur in MII pairs.
in AW06, the following fabric tag changes on MIJ jeans took place: they changed the font of "COTON, COTTON, BAUMWOLLE, COTONE", they added the japanese kanji for the word cotton right below "COTONE", and they changed the care instruction symbols just a little bit - the most notable change being the fact that they made the washing temp bigger ("40" got bigger starting AW06).
the "no bleaching" symbol (2nd from the left) on washtags was never blacked out on hedi jeans. it was always just crossed out (X-ed out). if you run into a pair of jeans with the "no bleaching" symbol filled black / blacked out with just the edges of the cross barely visible, it is a kva pair.
clawmark detailing tends to vary from year to year. it gets cleaner. the clawmark in SS03 is really "raw" and distressed, whereas by SS07 it more or less turned into 5 lines in contrast with the denim fabric.
hedi slimane didn't do a lot of crazy stuff with material blends. i will list the few i remember off the top of my head. the AW07 jake jeans are a mix of 98.5% cotton and 1.5% elastane. another pair with a mix of materials is the super slender pair from SS07, which is 55% rayon 40% cotton and 5% polyurethane. the glitter jeans from SS06 were 50% cotton, 20% polyester, 20% polyamide and 10% polyurethane. the super skinny super low rise jeans from AW06 are 97% cotton 3% elastane. the black whiskered trousers from AW04 (rereleased in SS05), which were 67% polyester and 33% cotton. most of the time, he stuck to 100% cotton.
elastane is a specialised fiber obtained from polyurethane. polyurethane was also used when coating a particular pair of AW07 jeans, so it's not always elastane. the japanese label always uses the japanese word for "polyurethane", but you should be able to tell if it's part of a fabric blend or used for coating.
i have yet to see a hedi slimane pair with exactly 2% elastane, so it's safe to assume the 2% elastane MII pairs are a kva specialty.
any MIJ tag that contains the word "Composition" and advises a wash at 30 degrees is from the kva era. if your "AW07" (cough cough) luster's fabric tag has the word "Composition" on it and tells you to wash at 30 degrees, that pair is an SS08 re-release (pics below).
from what i recall, the 100% cotton fabric in raw MII pairs had a little more give to it, and overtime the measurements themselves would stretch i believe half an inch to an inch or so due to wear (and i mean proper wear for days-months, not try them on once and store them in the closet). this wasn't necessarily the case with the denim used in MIJ pairs, as to my knowledge they don't stretch noticeably with wear, if at all (my AW05 clawmarks haven't stretched one bit and i've worn them quite some time since november of last year, YMMV for raw denim though).
SEASON-BASED ANALYSIS:
SS03:
used EU sizing, size tag was near the fabric tag (44, 46, 48 etc.)
for the blue & mudwash clawmarks, the leather tag had no outside "border stitching" and only had a top stitch in brown.
for the iconic grey ghost clawmarks, the leather tag had a border stitch and it was fully black.
the "Dior" word on the tag was really small and just below center.
AW03:
changed to US sizing (26, 27, 28 etc. became the standard for all pairs i believe, unsure)
from the top of my head all pairs should have an outside border stitching on the leather tag, even the blue clawmarks, unlike SS03.
font on the leather tag stayed [[relatively]] the same, so did the size tag positioning.
if i remember correctly, some pairs in this era also had a little washtag like the SS04 strip jeans had.
SS04:
i will talk about the claires and strips here.
there are two major distinctions:
bleu claire jeans had the size tag near the fabric tag, and the leather tag was really 2003-esque, with a tiny ass font just below center. brown stitching at the top, and with an outside border stitch unlike SS03.
strip jeans (destroyed wax denim or whatever the name is) moved the size tag at the top of the waistband, being i believe the first pair to do so. the leather tag as a whole got smaller, but the font got bigger.
AW04:
leather tags similar to the destroyed strip jeans. washtag font on MII pairs was atrocious and they changed that next year. nothing notable i can think of here to be honest. main pairs here are the rust jeans which had the godawful font, some corduroy jeans and the black whiskered trousers.
most pairs used a hook, with the exception of the whiskered trousers if im not mistaken.
SS05:
the whiskered trousers come back in different editions: the original polyester cotton blend (only in black), and now a new 100% cotton pair that came in multiple colours - red, black, pink, white.
the SS05 whiskered trousers exclusively used a button-clasp (i don't know the exact term) closure instead of the usual hook.
the leather tag got a smidge wider and i believe shorter this season, the word "Dior" is still just slightly below center.
raw rigid denim pairs from this season had a brown stitch at the top of the leather tag.
AW05:
raw rigid denim pairs had a black stitch at the top of the leather tag this time around.
the "Dior" font stayed relatively the same throughout all pairs if im not mistaken. the leather tag itself on velvet jeans is thinner i believe (and perhaps with a slightly different texture) as opposed to the clawmarks etc. this is not exclusive to velvet jeans, i think the red rust pairs also have a thinner leather tag.
velvet jeans had the same button-clasp (i genuinely don't know the term) closure, whereas clawmarks and red rust jeans (i believe the raws did too) had the usual hook.
SS06:
crash jeans had the button-clasp closure, but they are a kitsch and an absolutely disgusting pair of jeans. i have never once in my life seen an uglier pair of jeans and i hate them with my entire heart. i have never, ever in my life hated a pair of jeans more than i hate the crash jeans from SS06. save your money. talking about them makes me want to puke. they are ugly, and like the dirty waxed bleu claires, i will never understand the appeal.
the leather tag on crash jeans is quite different than what we have seen before. the top stitching is black. the leather tag is much thinner and it looks like they have made it longer.
the "Dior" word is a lot lower than before, i would say it's roughly a finger's width above the bottom of the leather tag, so no longer slightly below center, but a lot lower than the center.
the most common clawmark pair comes in blue and the leather tag is similar to the crash jeans in this case, but the top stitch is brown. the closure system implemented is a hook, as seen before.
raw denim pairs have a shorter & wider leather tag, a brown top stitch, and "Dior" is once again slightly below center as opposed to the previous two pairs i've talked about.
the glitter jeans have a washtag similar to the destroyed strip jeans, so no fabric tag for them, but if you're willing to pay $7000 on a pair of jeans i believe you have the braincells required to at least legit check them. the leather tag is similar to the crash jeans and clawmarks, with a black top stitch, but i won't go more in depth because this is such a unique pair you would recognise it from a mile away
AW06:
MIJ tag change mentioned above
clawmark leather tag stayed the same like the one in SS06
super skinny-low rise pair has the same leather tag as clawmarks and comes with a strip-esque washtag.
i believe starting with this season they opt for the button-clasp closure more often (cummerbunds, clawmarks etc.)
iirc the top stitch on raw denim jeans from this season is black.
SS07:
codes changed but this thread is for when you don't have the japanese care label.
brown top stitch on raw denim jeans.
under my cars from this season had a button-clasp closure and were 100% cotton. the SS08 (kva) rerelease is 2% elastane and with an actual round ass button instead. the leather tags are different if you were to look at the two pairs side to side, but i don't remember the exact differences. i believe the 08 pair has a more boxy leather tag and the "Dior" is positioned closer to the bottom, whereas the 07 pair has the "Dior" more below center than usual but not as much as the crash jeans for example. a brown stitch connects the fabric tag to the pocket, whereas on the 08 pair the fabric tag is connected to the pocket by a blue stitch.
another notable pair is the sky wash (find again) and its leather tag is similar to the 2007 edition of the under my car jeans.
AW07:
button clasp closure on the patchworks and co., i believe on most jeans atp.
raw denim jeans had a brown top stitch and has a hook closure system. a black stitch connects the fabric tag to the pocket.
the "Dior" font was slightly thinner / less bold than it usually is. also this time it is slightly off centered as well, the word itself is a little more to the right unlike any other season in the past. look at a pair of jake jeans and you will notice it instantly.
i don't know if i forgot something or got something wrong. i will add pics over the next few days. TIL that elastane is specialised polyurethane. up until writing this thread, i believed only the jake jeans had elastane, but i was mistaken. anyhow there still is no hedi pair with exactly 98% cotton 2% elastane blend.
reference images:
ss03 tags https://imgur.com/a/ICoBI6t
aw03 tags https://imgur.com/a/YuchRAz
ss04 tags https://imgur.com/a/loRvdUq
crash jeans leather tag https://imgur.com/a/KzLScp3 (seen on plenty ss06 and aw06 pairs)
"dior" being offcenter on aw07 jeans https://imgur.com/a/zDBbjvD
MII tag change (aw04 vs ss05) https://imgur.com/a/62CWATS (font got much cleaner, symbols adjusted)
MIJ tag change (pre-aw06 vs aw06 & post-aw06) https://imgur.com/a/UKs0ysA
kva blacked out "no bleaching" symbol https://imgur.com/a/G0uWF8y (also MII 2% elastane haha, you can clearly see the second symbol from the left is fully black and the cross is barely visible, compare with the MII tags above)
AW07 lusters (look at the fabric tag) https://upstairsgarments.com/products/aw07-dior-homme-navigate-waxed-denim?srsltid=AfmBOormtVwLSYUgS5xg0w9xdCmxrPVOH8fOABavw3aNcaXC4hF6FFT2
MIJ tag seen only on kva jeans: https://imgur.com/a/3HERwI6 (SS08 onwards)