Indigo Invitational Celebrates the Best in Fades
In high school, author Bryan Szabo was anything but a denim head, opting instead for thrift store suits. Denim is somewhere between a romance and a religion for Szabo, now in his 40s, who in 2019 founded the Indigo Invitational, a social media-driven competition to identify the pair of jeans with the best fades.
The event, which asks contestants to share photos of their jeans throughout the course of a year to show the natural wear and tear, completed its third tournament in April with more than 1,000 competitors. Szabo, who became a denim convert when he laid eyes on his first pair of Nudie Jeans in 2009, edited the pool of contestants to 50, and from there, the online denim community voted on the best.
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Australian artist and denim head Alex Scheibner won the 2023 Indigo Invitational with his pair of 25 oz. straight jeans by Brave Star Selvage, taking home a $350 gift card from Brave Star Selvage and a $500 gift card from Self Edge.
“In my work as an artist [and] blacksmith, I’m constantly exposed to hot, sharp and heavy metals. I learned early on I could rely on denim to protect me,” he said.
Scheibner said he found his way to Brave Star Selvage for its low-cost, super-heavyweight, high-quality jeans. “They are basically denim artists,” he said about the Made in USA brand. Scheibner wore the heavy-duty jeans for 365 days, resulting in high and low creases at the knees, an outline of a wallet on the back pockets and a repaired crotch. He even waded through flood water wearing the jeans. “I’m totally surprised by my win but grateful and happy I could represent Australia and wear Brave Star to do it,” he said.
Looking to the next Indigo Invitational and beyond, Szabo wants nothing less than to “start a revolution.”
“I think raw denim is this kind of touchstone for a very large community of denim enthusiasts,” he said, adding that he would like to see 5,000 to 10,000 competitors every year and participation from legacy brands like Levi’s and Wrangler.
This story appears in Rivet’s summer issue. Click here to download the entire issue.
