How to Go 8 Months Without Washing Your Jeans

— -- In May 2014 Levi Strauss & Co. CEO Chip Bergh was at an environmental forum talking about ways to save water when he came clean about his own dirty jeans.

“These jeans are maybe a year old and these have yet to see a washing machine. I know it sounds disgusting ... but I have yet to get a skin disease,” he said.

He added that jeans don’t need regular washings and that denim aficionados would say never wash your jeans.

The social media wave that followed surprised everyone -- especially Bergh. Some said it was gross, but others admitted they, too, were infrequent washers.

Me? I got excited. LESS LAUNDRY!!!

That day, I purchased a pair of light-colored boyfriend jeans from Levi Strauss & Co. and vowed not to wash them. I donned the jeans at least once a week: wearing them to the grocery store, out with friends, shopping, on an airplane a few times, even to my twins’ birthday party.

After about 25 wearings they started to feel a little waxy when I put them on -- nothing gross, just like there was a little film on the inside.

It ended up being eight months without a wash. I estimate a total of 32 wearings. They yellowed a bit, and they had a little stain up by the hip -- I think it was birthday cake.

I didn’t freeze the jeans (Bergh says it’s a myth that cold temperatures de-germ them), but, overall, the jeans weathered the eight months remarkably well.

I headed to the streets of San Francisco to ask people whether they thought they looked dirty -- and while some did point out the birthday cake mark, people were generally surprised that they had not been washed in eight months.

Levi Strauss & Co. estimates that I saved 130 gallons of water by not washing my jeans, and this conservation was the initial impetus for this campaign. The company determined that a pair of jeans is responsible for 919 gallons of water usage in the entirety of its life. Half of that water is from the cotton-growing and manufacturing processes. The other comes when consumers regularly wash the jeans.

While the sustainability aspect of not washing jeans appeals to many, Jonathan Cheung, Levi Strauss's head of design, said real denim-heads love the look of unwashed jeans. He showed me a pair of his own jeans washed weekly and a pair that had rarely been washed. The deep indigo of the unwashed jeans was much better looking than the flat color of the washed jeans. Also, the creases on the unwashed jeans matched those on the jeans Cheung was wearing.

"These are the creases I’ve made in my jeans,” he said, pointing out that they weren’t pre-distressed, but rather molded to his body.