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The values that I identify with in raw denim:
Durability - These jeans are meant to last years - even with everyday use. The seeking of wear, only acquired through extended, repeated use encourages keeping and using them for a long time.
Conservation - Energy required to wash and sand most jeans isn't wasted. These are processes that attempt to create the illusion of long-term wear, but greatly decrease the lifespan of the product.
Authenticity - The wear marks of raw denim are legitimate, 'earned' evidence of commitment to an object and a process.
Individuality - Because the denim isn't pre-washed or pre-worn, the jeans break in and conform to the owner's body - permanently making them uniquely theirs.
History - The jeans become a record of the events and objects in one's life, with physical evidence of the bike crash, spray paint can explosion, or cell phone.
Don Norman makes the claim, in this essay, that simplicity is overrated. According to his research, people will often buy products with more features, even if they are more complicated. Consumers feel like they are getting more for their money, even though these features will probably never be used. Fewer features imply less control and less value to many users.
I should also read Don Norman's Emotional Design.
Christine Atha, in her design historian candidate talk, mentioned the difference in the value of things (goods or materials) in the West vs. the developing world. Because of the abundance of objects, we often don't conserve, respect, or appreciate the things that surround us. In the U.S. we had to learn, especially since World War II, how to use (throw away) all the new disposable items, like paper towels and food packaging. Things and material lost value. I should read the rest of Waste and Want, by Susan Strasser, if I decide to go this direction. Chapter Seven quotes historian John A. Kouwenhoven from 1959:
A commitment to democracy - and a certain indifference to waste and untidiness - are prerequisite to abundance ... waste is as much a result of democracy as abundance.
How can Americans relearn not to take material (and natural capital) for granted?
The values that I identify with in raw denim: