It didn’t take long. By the time I was on my second pair of raw jeans, I had set my sights on a raw denim western shirt.
Over the years, I made a few valiant efforts, but I kept getting sidetracked. I would buy a shirt and put a few dings and dents in it, but then something else would catch my eye. I couldn’t remain disciplined. The grail of the faded western seemed to be forever out of reach.
Enter the Redline Rally. Truth be told, I started the shirts and jackets fading competition for selfish reasons. I wanted to fade a selvedge western properly, and I knew that, with hundreds of the world’s best faders nipping at my heels, I would remain disciplined.
Before we look to the future, a few words on where the 33 came from. Iron Heart’s signature selvedge western debuted in 2010. It was not Iron Heart’s first denim shirt, or even their first denim western.
That honour belongs to the IHSH-02, a 14 oz. selvedge western that followed hot on the heels of the IHSH-01 (the brand’s first ultra heavy flannel) in 2006.
The IHSH-02 was relatively popular, but Giles Padmore (then the head of Iron Heart UK) thought a lighter version would be a good seller for the brand. He encouraged Iron Heart boss and designer Haraki-san to trim some of the weight off the shirt. The result was the 12 oz. IHSH-27, which debuted in 2009.
A fast favourite among the Iron Heart faithful, the shirt was made from a raw (i.e. unwashed), sanforized selvedge. It didn’t shrink as much as loomstate denims, but it still needed to be soaked before wearing, and special care needed to be taken to dial in the shrinkage.
