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Jeans celebrate 150 years of life, but they do not age: how a work uniform from the 19th century is still the fashionable garment

2023-01-21T11:01:50.907Z


Symbol of equality but also of capitalism, ubiquitous and global as well as a mirror of individuality, the Levi's 501 celebrates a century and a half of existence without having lost an iota of its appeal and success.


His name was Homer, Homer Campbell, and he was a miner.

Six days a week breaking stone in the bowels of Wickenburg, Arizona, to see what work uniform was going to withstand so much work.

For three long years, his Levi's 501s held up, mended, patched, tied with string when there were no buttons to hand, until he decided they weren't enough.

"They fall off me," he lamented in the letter sent along with the pants, which he returned via postal mail to the Levi Strauss & Co. headquarters in 1920. He intended, of course, that they send him another pair, new, on the face , as guaranteed by a company advertising slogan at the time.

Homer got away with it, but Levi's too: a glance was enough to see that no, those dusty jeans did not fall apart in the hands, they were even in relatively good condition;

what did not resist were the tinkering and extra parts added by its owner.

The brand then wanted to keep the garment, which went through trade fairs and various events (it was featured with honors at the inauguration of the Californian Disneyland, highlighted among the attractions of the Wild West, in 1955) to attest to the extraordinary strength of its product. .

Durability was this.

Those 501 today occupy one of the showcases in the Levi's archive room that encapsulates the history of the flag at its headquarters in San Francisco, not only as proof of resistance to the passage of time, but also as testimony of its time.

Homer, they are affectionately called in memory of the cobbler and protestor miner.

“One of our mottos is 'Live your Levi's', which, yes, sounds like a marketing phrase, but it bases its certainty on the fact that these are garments that are going to stay with you forever, that are going to grow old with you.

And it doesn't happen often that a brand resonates like this in people's lives”, says Tracey Panek, the current person in charge of preserving and continuing to expand a legacy that goes beyond the label itself.

Because the story of Levi's is also that of the generations of users who feel it is theirs.

It's been said:

A pair of jeans is capable of telling the existential adventures of whoever wears them, their way of life, their work, even their height and what they once carried in their pockets.

If it is about 501, then there is no biography that can resist them, anonymous or famous.

For 150 years now.

Two young people, in Paris, in the post-war period, with their 501. Levi's Archive

bestseller

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Of the jeans, the great blue, it is not that it has legendary origins, although a century and a half of permanence, with its patina of cultural relevance, they give to cover it with no little epic.

In the beginning, the thing was about rivets, some copper reinforcements at certain strategic points (the corners of the pockets, the lower end of the fly) to avoid tears in the usual cotton fabric in the manufacture of work clothes, especially the overtrousers (overalls, in English) that the miners wore over their holiday ones so as not to spoil them.

It was a stroke of genius for Jacob Davis, a tailor from Reno, in the neighboring state of Nevada, who came up with the idea of ​​using the rivets from the fastening straps of the equestrian blankets to reinforce the pants that a client had ordered for her husband, a rude lumberjack.

Instant success, so much so that it soon ran out of steam.

“They've become so popular that I can't keep up with the demand fast enough.

My competitors are jealous and unless I patent them they are all going to copy them,” he wrote in July 1872 to Levi Strauss, his San Francisco textile supplier.

And he offered him half credit in the invention if he agreed to second and sign the record.

To convince him, he sent him two samples: some made in the typical white canvas and others in the consistent cotton twill dyed in indigo blue in the French style (hence its name, denim, a contraction of "from Nimes").

There was no doubt: in May 1873, the invention was officially patented.

And Levi Strauss & Co. became its sole producer.

“They've become so popular that I can't keep up with the demand fast enough.

My competitors are jealous and unless I patent them they are all going to copy them,” he wrote in July 1872 to Levi Strauss, his San Francisco textile supplier.

And he offered him half credit in the invention if he agreed to second and sign the record.

To convince him, he sent him two samples: some made in the typical white canvas and others in the consistent cotton twill dyed in indigo blue in the French style (hence its name, denim, a contraction of "from Nimes").

There was no doubt: in May 1873, the invention was officially patented.

And Levi Strauss & Co. became its sole producer.

“They've become so popular that I can't keep up with the demand fast enough.

My competitors are jealous and unless I patent them they are all going to copy them,” he wrote in July 1872 to Levi Strauss, his San Francisco textile supplier.

And he offered him half credit in the invention if he agreed to second and sign the record.

To convince him, he sent him two samples: some made in the typical white canvas and others in the consistent cotton twill dyed in indigo blue in the French style (hence its name, denim, a contraction of "from Nimes").

There was no doubt: in May 1873, the invention was officially patented.

And Levi Strauss & Co. became its sole producer.

everyone is going to copy them,” he wrote in July 1872 to Levi Strauss, his textile supplier in San Francisco.

And he offered him half credit in the invention if he agreed to second and sign the record.

To convince him, he sent him two samples: some made in the typical white canvas and others in the consistent cotton twill dyed in indigo blue in the French style (hence its name, denim, a contraction of "from Nimes").

There was no doubt: in May 1873, the invention was officially patented.

And Levi Strauss & Co. became its sole producer.

everyone is going to copy them,” he wrote in July 1872 to Levi Strauss, his textile supplier in San Francisco.

And he offered him half credit in the invention if he agreed to second and sign the record.

To convince him, he sent him two samples: some made in the typical white canvas and others in the consistent cotton twill dyed in indigo blue in the French style (hence its name, denim, a contraction of "from Nimes").

There was no doubt: in May 1873, the invention was officially patented.

And Levi Strauss & Co. became its sole producer.

some made in the typical white canvas and others in the consistent cotton twill dyed in indigo blue in the French style (hence its name, denim, a contraction of "from Nimes").

There was no doubt: in May 1873, the invention was officially patented.

And Levi Strauss & Co. became its sole producer.

some made in the typical white canvas and others in the consistent cotton twill dyed in indigo blue in the French style (hence its name, denim, a contraction of "from Nimes").

There was no doubt: in May 1873, the invention was officially patented.

And Levi Strauss & Co. became its sole producer.

Initially referred to with a double X, as marked on the delivery notes, it soon became known as 501, the batch number of the model.

This is how it has gone down in the annals: the blue jean par excellence, the garment that has uniformed the world.

"It is possible to refer to and explain the society of the last 150 years by observing the evolution of the Levi's 501," says Panek, who refers to its inclusion in Items: Is Fashion Modern? greatest impact in history, the cowboy at the head.

That its creators were a couple of Jewish immigrants—Davis, a native of Latvia, and Strauss, a German from Bavaria—now takes on a deeper meaning.

“It seems to me more important than ever to point this out, although it is still part of the proverbial American narrative, the myth of the American dream:

Anyone can reinvent themselves and get ahead in this country.

Strauss would be surprised to learn that the product with which she grew up here after leaving Germany can now be purchased in her hometown, which is also a very American story”, continues the historian, herself of New Zealand origin.

Ad for jeans in the Glasnost era, mocking the red 501 label. Levi's Archive

A true Indiana Jones of fashion, Panek tirelessly tracks down any product evidence that helps complete the brand's narrative, taught in California elementary schools as part of what it meant during the post-Civil War gold rush: “Here on the West Coast, I tour ghost towns, mines and caves, because that's where the original 501 the miners wore.

They just told me they found a consignment of rivets in a town in Utah."

The tips via social networks now make it easier for him, "people who are enthusiastic about the brand, fans who send us their clothes full of personal stories," he says, showing a pair of 501 customized with embroidery, patches and graffiti, a souvenir of the hippy era of an user.

His favorites, for that matter, are the ones known as Calico jeans,

some 501 from 1890—the oldest in the house's possession—discovered in the 1940s in an abandoned mine by Barbara Hunter, who had no qualms about wearing them in her student days before returning them to the Levi's archive, which also holds the that Patti Smith and Steve Jobs once donned.

Or those that have resulted from collaborations with designers and exclusive ready-to-wear firms, from Yves Saint Laurent to Vetements.

It is easy to understand the reach of the king of cowboys, even with his contradictory duality: a symbol of equality, but also of capitalism, the embodiment of freedom in Western popular culture and a bargaining chip in many countries where its sale was prohibited for that reason. himself, a glorifier of youth while preaching the benefits of aging, ubiquitous and global at the same time as a mirror of individuality.

Levi's advertisement during World War II encouraging the purchase of war bonds. Levi's Archive

The findings of the head of the archive serve, on the other hand, to inspire the creative teams.

Paul O'Neill, design director of the brand's collections, constantly turns to them to study the weight of the denim at a certain moment, check a type of seam or review old elements such as the buttons to hold suspenders.

“Actually, the 501 has long since reached the end of its evolution, it's already jean perfection,” he concedes.

“There is no need to change it, not even, let's say, adapt it to our days, that's what the context in which it is used is for.

Working with a product like this is a privilege”, he continues, while recalling the model's characteristics: button fly, straight leg, designed to fit the body as it shrinks after the first wash (that of the

shrink to fit

: put it on and get wet with it in the bath or shower).

On the occasion of the 150th anniversary, O'Neill has recreated the original 501, the 1873 one (which is sold in a limited edition with a facsimile of the patent), and several later versions, between 1890 and 1937. The novelty lies in the 501 of season, those of the spring/summer 2023 collection, made of sustainable fabric, invoice and production.

A commitment from Paul Dillinger, global vice president of innovation at Levi's, who has spent a long decade experimenting to find the appropriate circular solution.

“With a jean like the 501, the only reason to innovate is to come up with an idea that improves it, but without anyone protesting it, without disappointing the fan base,” he explains.

"We have taken almost 12 years for that very reason, until we found the hemp fiber,

whose cultivation is much less invasive than that of cotton, more resistant, the best natural dyeing process, the production system that consumes less water... The truth is that the most sustainable jeans are the ones that are already in your closet, but I can help so that, if you are going to want new ones, they will last forever.

Hence our latest leitmotif: 'Buy better, use it longer'.

Source: elparis

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