Paul T

nevadas were £250 sterling, so I would guess $501 was the price. Maybe they discounted it all the way down to $500 cos the Lot Number didn't apply! There was another (not so nice) heavily patched early 501 that was $501 for a run of 501 too.

I would guess that it's formaldehyde which is used in cheap leather - it's also used in chipboard and a million other things. Maybe we should go back to the old days when they used dogshit for tanning leather...

That second one, a 1937 repro, is the Limited Edition. It's called the Indigo Heart. I have a pair in front of me. They're pretty nice, although the quality of wear etc is not on a par with, eg, the indigo immortals - they're not high contrast. Personally, I tend to prefer the Deadstock versions of all of these, unless you get the very best finishes like the Indigo Immortal, and especially the Nevada $45000 replicas, which do seem to have better wear than anything you can get yourself. Does anyone know who does the wear on all of these? I know Bart Sights did the really good ones from 2002/2003.

Mind you, everyone who's seen the denim duffel bag that comes with the wartime Ltd Edition thought it was a really cool 50 year old vintage item...

Interstate and American Classics on Endell St, London, also the Lee store in Carnaby St. Selfridge's have had the Edwin-made Lee in stock in the past but I haven't seen any recently.

Well yes, you're right, on old jeans which aren't pre-skewed, the fabric will try to follow the direction of the weave as it shrinks. That's why Levi's twist one way, and Lee the other, as lee is a l/h twill. But when the Red jeans (and Rogan, and teddy Smith, and Michiko Koshino) were designed, they made the leg twist symmetrical, ie one leg one way, the other leg the other way, simply cos it looks better like that. The Leiv's deisgners were inspried by the look of old jeans, but didn't copy them slavishly. Those first Red jeans - in an almost hemp-liek fabric - didn't look AT ALL like any old Levi's I've seen!

I spoke to Rikke about this. The idea for the twisted seams came from vintage jeans - she took that characteristic and exaggerated it. The idea fro the Type 1/RED came from much the same source - she was looking at old ads for jeans and realised how striking all the stitching and rivets would have looked in victorian times, so again she exaggerated it for the Red range.

I thought selvage denim DID twist after wash, in exactly the same way as non-selvage, but the difference is that older jeans weren't pre-skewed.

NO. It was a woman named Rikke Korff designed the Levi's Red, and Engineered. She also designed the Red range that became Type 1, with a guy called Z, I think.

THe Edwin-made ones are very good quality. I'm interested to hear that they shrink, too. The European-made repros went through several phases - initally made in Eire, and supposedly Sanforized (altho they still shrink too), with more details such as the pocket linings. Then they were made in Malta, without the Sanforized tab, and finally in Poland.

I think they're all great jeans, particularly in terms of value for money, and when they first appeared were better than the competing 'Capital E' Levi's. The denim used was dark, with a gree hue, and if you dry-clean them for the first six months or so give a great, high contrast fade. The Euro ones have a cut a bit like 1947 501s, with straight legs, and a high, but not too high waist.

I think all the Lees, japanese, and at least the early European, were made with Fabric from Nisshinbo. If i get some spare time I'll post pix of some well-worn examples I have.

I'd be interested to see photos. The Polish-made Lee 101s I've seen have half-selvage, rather like Serge's signature photo, with the selvage side conventionally woven. I suspect, like ringring, that this is wide-look selvage with stitching added - certainly it would be very easy to do.

Teddy Smith in france produced some, that were pretty much a copy of LEiv's Engineered. and Michiko Koshino made some, which were pretty much a knock-off of Levi's Red.

Cheaper leather has the grain printed on. After a while you will recognise this. Good leather is irregular, and might even have marks from barbed wire etc. It will tend to be more of a matte finish, and the texture will be less plasticky. And yes, it will smell more like... leather. But beware, even some expensive leather stuff won't lost. I bought my girlfriend a Tanner Kroll bag, and it hasn't worn well. Bill Amberg stuff, in comparison, is far hardier.

517 are good jeans - I wish I'd bought more of the US-made ones when they were selling them for $40 or so in Canal jeans. But the denim does look different from shrink to fit 501s.

I'm certain there's a 1944 501 in addition to the ones Purest listed, and there might be a women's 701 1944 too (i had the booklet but can't find it). Duffel bag is for the 1944s (I think with the washed version) and a green wartime tee-shirt; there will be a small exhibition about the war/ wartime Levi's at Cinch in London - so I suspect they will be UK-only. The 1879 jeans (washed and rigid) will be available in the UK, and it wouldn't surprise me if the washed version is Ltd Edtn too. The generic theme of the collection is GIs and Mods...

They're coming in a rigid and a washed finish. And there will be a limited edition version, with a dufffel bag, T-shirt and other stuff, which might just be available at Cinch in London.

Haha, this is a subjective question, I have both the Indigo Immortal and new-ish looking 1901 jeans which I'm pretty sure are much the same cut as the 1890, and a couple of women both commented they looked great. They are quite antifit, so they kind of hang flat, I think if your bum's not too big they will look good and not unflattering. Getting the right size is key (if you buy the rigid pair, try on the washed pair first). I did have a pair of 1880s natural Indigo rigid jeans which were too big, and with that antifit cut they made me look like Coco the clown. Rare as they were, I had to flog them on the 'bay.

The uniqlo suggestion is a great one. It's on Regent St. Check out Liberty's, also on Regent St, and Selfridge's, just up Oxford St, for a wide range of denim. Cinch, the Levi's shop, is on Newburgh St, just off Carnaby St. Then there's Interstate and American Classics, with more traditional-style denim - Edwin, LVC etc - 15 minutes walk away on Endell St. For CDs and vinyl go to Berwick St in Soho.

If you're up by 9am on Sunday, get to Brick Lane, a great street market, then have curry for lunch, or coffee at Spitalfields market. Look at SCP for modern furniture, on Curtain Road. Just off Brick Lane is loungelover, an excellent (but expensive) bar...

kyl, the easiest way to think about it is that selvedge is short for "self edge" - ie the denim doens't need extra stitching to stop it unravelling. The pictures above should show the difference clearly. If there's an overstich, to stop the denim unravelling, it's not selvedge. The coloured lines were originally introduced so that the mills who produced the denim (for instance Cone, who made denim for both Lee and Levi's) could differentiate the denim they were sending to different clients.

I am pretty certain these are not Sanforized - the first Euro reissues, made in eire were, and had repro-style tags, the second lot were made in Malta, and were not sanforized. They wouod have also had a small 'Dry' tag, as the idea was you simply dry cleaned them to keep them marked size. Of course they didn't tell you they weren't sanforized at the time, so consequently mine are effectively a size below my Levi's even though they've only ever been wahsed cold ... all the same, I wouldn't describe them as a baggy fit, and would say these reissues have perhaps a very slight taper, certainly the legs are way narrower than the cut of 1930s Leiv's which I normallly wear.

I still have around 12 pairs of these jeans. I sold most of the early sanforized ones off on market stalls, but these were the jeans that made me start off buying new, because they were really well-made for the price, hard-wearing, and are simply nicer jeans than little e selvage Levi's.

They're good jeans, but these look like the middle version of the Euro reissue, probably made in Malta, which aren't Sanforized, so you have to allow for shrinkage. They're a left-hand twill, like the originals, with plain white selvage, no redline, again like the originals, with a reasonably narrow leg, like 47 Leiv's, but more shaped, less anti-fit, around the backside. Denim is slightly greener than the Leiv's Cone fabric (I think this fabric comes from Nisshinbo) and it looks great raw. Dy clean them for the first year, and you get a great high-contrast fade. They age beautifully. For £60 these are good value.

I'm certain the new range has a 47 reissue. Check out levis.com, the range should be on there by now, try the Europe site if you can't find it on the US one.

I've just seen some more fake selvage in Urban Outfitters. These were True Religion womens pants, which have the normal busted outseam, but with pink strips stitched to the outside edges, to approximate a thick pink selvage line.

I'm looking for vintage denim and leather, primarily. I remember one biker store on Woodward that was good for jackets and converse, (dont' remember much denim). Anyone here know of any good stores or thrift-shops in Detroit, Ann Arbor or the general area?? Or any interesting shops/locations not denim related, too. TIA.

actually, people within Levi's have mentioned they thought this year's LVC collection was uninspired compared to previous years. Sure, those 1890s and 1947 jeans look great, but they are basically repeats or revisions of earlier models. But, for instance, in the Fall 2003 range there were terrific coveralls, (the Kover-up), cool women's western jackets, a slim-fitting 1930s biker leather jacker, and a real favourite of mine, the 1907 Sunset Chambray shirt - all of them funky, unusual items that complemented the basic range of 501s and denim jackets.

Hopefully this is just a glitch, and we'll get a few more off-the-wall items next year. Does anyone know how the prospects for LVC are seen within LS&Co?

They're pretty good copies though... touches like the stock control strips on the leather-like patch are pretty convincing, even if the assemblage of details, like selvage watch pockets (which are incorrectly sewn here) are wrong... wonder what the denim, and pocket shape etc, looks like in the flesh?

Has no one apart from me seen full-on fake selvage? IE a strip sewed on to a busted seam? I've seen it on some H&M jeans. Looked pretty cool, actually, especailly given the price...