Levi’s jeans have been a staple of many an American household for years, but according to Levi’s CEO Chip Bergh, you should never ever wash your jeans!
The revelation came last week at the Fortune’s Brainstorm Green conference in Laguna Niguel, California, where Bergh made his comments.
He spoke about the pair of Levi’s jeans he was wearing at the time, although we bet he didn’t pay the not small price tag for them that the rest of us need to pay:
“These jeans are maybe a year old and these have yet to see a washing machine,” adding, “I know that sounds totally disgusting.”
Hmmm, disgusting indeed; can you imagine not washing your jeans for a year?! Eww! But according to Bergh, the tip of the year is to just spot clean your jeans with a sponge or toothbrush and a little detergent , before air drying them – and never ever machine washing them.
So, apparently your jeans have feelings, so to speak, and are not just inanimate objects: “If you treat them right, they’ll last a long, long time — probably longer than most people’s waistline,” claimed Bergh.
But the Levi’s CEO isn’t alone in his assertions that jeans shouldn’t be machine washed. Designer Tommy Hilfiger also made similar statements about his garments. As well as Hilfiger, CNN’s Anderson Cooper told style expert Stacy London a couple of years ago that he washes his jeans very rarely indeed.
So it seems that washing your jeans rarely, if at all, is the word on the street. This is backed up by quite a few “in-the-know” people. Jolie Kerr, a writer for a column called “Ask a Clean Person,” says it depends on your lifestyle and hygiene preferences:
“Consider how you’re wearing your jeans and make laundering decisions accordingly. The way you’d care for a pair of jeans that you wear for yardwork versus ones you’d wear out dancing should be different — the function should dictate how you treat a pair of jeans,” she said.
And that seems like sound and sensible advice since you may own Levi’s jeans, or other pairs of jeans which you use for different purposes. But what do you really think about the advice never to machine wash? Do you think it’s good advice? Share your thoughts in the comments feed below.
