In recent years, among the truly committed, truly discerning jeans shopper, a beau ideal has taken hold: raw selvage denim in styles that evoke the rugged workpants of yesteryear. Think Marlon Brando in “The Wild One” (or his jeans, anyway).

Where does one go to buy a pair? Ideally, Japan, where denim brands use old-school shuttle looms to fastidiously reproduce the styles of 1947. Luckily for New Yorkers, raw selvage can be found at several shops in the city that carry the coveted Japanese brands or make their own denim in that vein, or both.

Consider Self Edge, at 157 Orchard Street, a store open for six years that treats denim like a religion. Self Edge stocks only brands from designers who have “soul to what they do,” said Andrew Chen, a partner of Self Edge New York.