The chair in the corner of your room has long since retired as a place to sit. Its job now is to hold clothes you've worn that don't seem to need a wash just yet. Last night your favourite raw denim jeans landed there too, folded in half, under yesterday's T-shirt and a towel that was still damp.
This morning you pull them out of the pile. As the waistband passes your nose, you catch a faint sour smell. Your hand is already halfway to the laundry basket.
Hold on. After a full day's wear, that kind of smell usually comes from sweat that hasn't had a chance to evaporate. For this, a breeze often works better than soap.
The Sour Smell Comes from Sweat Trapped in Thick Fabric
Raw denim tends to be thick. The wide-leg navy blue raw denim jeans, for example, are 100% cotton, with no stretch fibres blended in. Cotton soaks up sweat easily, and fabric that thick is slow to release it.
Sweat on its own barely smells. The smell starts when bacteria from your skin break it down, and those bacteria are happiest in fabric that's warm and damp. Folded on that chair with the towel on top, your jeans stayed damp until morning.
How to Air Out Raw Denim and Get Rid of the Smell
First, turn the jeans inside out. Sweat clings to the side that touches your skin, so that's the side that needs the air. Hang them by the waistband from a hanger with clips, so both legs fall straight without touching each other. Don't have one? An ordinary hanger works too, as long as you clip the waistband to the bar with two clothes pegs.
Put them somewhere breezy, like a porch or a room with the fan running. They don't need to go out in the sun. For a light smell, one night is usually enough. In the rainy season the air is more humid, so give them longer. Better still, hang them up that same night, the moment you take them off.
Signs Your Raw Denim Really Needs a Wash
Give them another sniff the next day. If the smell is still there after a night in the breeze, or it comes back soon after you put them on, sweat has built up in the fibres. That's when they need a wash. The same goes for a musty smell, like the inside of a damp wardrobe. That smell comes from fabric that stayed wet too long, and airing alone rarely clears it.
Some signs are easier to see than to smell. On dark raw denim, dried sweat can leave faint white lines around the waistband. And a bakso broth stain isn't going anywhere just because the jeans spent a night on a hanger.
Don't be afraid to wash them. As our article on making raw denim last explains, washing simply makes the colour fade more evenly. Just follow the care instructions on the black raw denim jeans page: wash them inside out in cold water, then dry them in the shade.
The part people often miss comes afterwards. Wash in the morning so the jeans have all day to dry. Before you put them away, feel the waistband and the crotch seams. If they still feel cool to the touch, the fabric isn't dry yet. Jeans folded away like that can come out of the wardrobe smelling musty.
The chair in the corner can go on being your second wardrobe. Only your raw denim moves to a hanger.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should you wash raw denim?
There's no fixed number of wears. If you ride a motorbike under the midday sun every day, the signs that your jeans need a wash will show up sooner than if you spend all day in an air-conditioned room. Go by their condition, not the calendar.
Does freezing raw denim really get rid of the smell?
It doesn't help much. Freezing temperatures only stop the bacteria behind the smell from working for a while. Once the jeans warm up on your body, those bacteria get back to work. A night somewhere breezy does far more.
Can you spray raw denim with fabric freshener to get the smell out?
Yes, as long as the fabric is dry. Freshener only masks the smell. Spray it on jeans that are still holding damp sweat, and the smell comes back as soon as the scent fades.
If there's only a small stain, do you have to wash the whole pair?
There's no need. Just spot clean it: wet only that area with cold water and a little soap, dab it with a clean cloth, then rinse and hang the jeans up to dry. Don't scrub hard, or the colour in that spot can fade before the rest and leave a pale patch.
Can you machine wash raw denim?
Yes. Use the gentlest cycle and just enough detergent, with no bleach. For the first few washes, put the jeans in on their own. Raw denim still bleeds a lot of dye at that stage, so anything washed with it can end up stained.