Paul T

Tread carefuly. These CANNOT be vintage! Thai fakes notoriously have leather patches; any original Levi's with leather patches in decent condition are worth $1000 plus. Thai fakes are worth more like $30. These jeans are now flooding the vintage market - in fact, Urban Outfitters in the UK have temporarily stopped selling vintage Levi's, as they've been caught, by certain eagle-eyed observers, selling dozens of fakes for $300 plus.

If you buy a fake knowing it's a fake, fair enough, but be warned.

Aaaarrrrggghhhh! For once the US has items not available in the UK. We just have the 1933 Towrope jeans this fall - no pre-1933 models, apart from the 1900 workpants, which are nice, but are duck, not denim.

Try and post photos if you can! I'm owed some Levi's for work I did from them, and i'm now majorly depressed, it's the early 1900s distressed models I tend to like. UI've seen the original bunkhouse jeans & they're beautiful.

Anyway, given that for the last couple of seasons US buyers got a raw deal, good for you. Boo hoo...

These have been mentioned before. I'm pretty sure they're not Boss Of The Road copies, I've seen 1900s Boss Of THe Road and they look just like Levi's: they look to be like a straight leg version of Levi's spring bottom pants, which were pre-1900s. (they could of course be a copy of a Boss Of The Road Leiv's Spring Bottom copy I guess).

But as with lots of clothes there were plenty of similar items produced by various companies, so they could have been simply based on an obscure pair they found in a thrift shop.

The original spring-bottoms were a kind of bell bottom and were dressy Levi's in a blue & gold denim for the more up-market dude

I would think Levi's can simply bring more legal pressure to bear in the US than in Japan. Do the HP examples have the red tag?

Levi's arcuate is one of the clothing industry's oldest trademarks. Lee originally copied it, so did dozens of other companies, some might have even used it before Leiv's but they all stopped by the mid 30s.

The only place ithe arcuate is not trademarked is in Spain, which is why Lois have a similar design.

The red tag with Levi's is trademarked, as the the red tag alone (without lettering), and well as its positioning. This varies country by country, but Levi's seem to have trademarked it in most countries, bar Japan (That's why you'll see red (and other) tags on Japanese jeans). This means, for instance, you can't have a blue or green tag in the Levi's position in the US or UK.

I think SC could probably get away with their arcuate in the US and UK, they've probably just got rid of it as they can't afford the legal bills...

Hi, yeah, busy here... anyway, just remembered that I THINK these were made by Blue Bell, who made Wrangler, somewhere I have info but I'm a month away from being able to find it.

The selvage denim is probably made by Erwin Mills, the first denim mill to produce Sanforized fabric - they also produced denim for BlueBell (wrangler) and probably other big companies like Lee. Their factories are all loft apartments now...

pix here...

http://www.owdna.org/mill.htm

They look great, don't they?

But why red selvage? Lee never had red selvage. The hair on hide patch looks strange, too, and if it's Edwin-made should have a model-ticket attached.

Loads of other details seem perfect, quite a few seems atypical if they are a '37 model. and they're good looking jeans. But either Edwin have cut a few corners with a new range, or else these are some of the best vintage repro counterfeits we've seen to date.

My broadband is real slow today & I don't have time to search, but can anyone find the link posted here before to the current Edwin range? Might give more definitive clues.

Good question.

Evisu on some of their own literature are said to have launched in 1991. yet Evis already produced a line of denim in 89, if not some time earlier. Edwin were producing selvage by 89. LVC Japan produced a 502 repro with selvage denim from Kurabo in 87. Would love to know when Studio D'Artisan first produced a vintage replica.

Interesting historical guesswork. Good price too. But the denim looks poor to me, should ideally be natural indigo and unbleached cotton, and I'm not convinced by the detailing. Does make me wish Leiv's would hurrry up & reissue their 1880s jeans again.

Good for them for making the jeans in Texas, altho LVC jeans are still made in the US, albeit in a contractor's factory.

yes they're the heath, yees they're nice. You have a sample garment, the one that's sent out to retailers to look at, or to magazines for shoots. Yours is very slightly unusual in that it's 34W 32L, samples are nearly always 32-34.

i have exsamined the original Heaths quite closely and they're very nice jeans. They're based on a pair that was sent in to Leiv's some time ago and was customised by the owner who worked in a mine in Nevada, the new version is a fairly close copy of the original pair that is now in the Levi's archives. they are a late 20s, early 30s cut, from when Cone started doing the fabric.They're from the spring 2006 season.

As that URL says, that these are the limited edition ones, and are worth more that the basic LVC, i think they cost about twice as much, because the wear and the detailing is better. IN the uk they were at least £250, ie around $400! Sorry, I don't know if these are a 300 or 501 production run.

Edit: I have just checked that website, and it is pretty much all the information I have - it's taken from the original press release. Your jeans are atypical in that they should have redline selvage... but the ones on the website are atypcial in that they souldn't have a red tab (altho the jeans I've seen did have the suspender buttons and cinch). I have the press release which I can send u if you PM me, but it's essentially the same info as is on the website you've linked.

Edited by Paul T on Jun 6, 2006 at 04:39 AM

It's not that one is better than the other, they're just a different look. The 1947 is a vintage-style jean, with a reasonably high rise, but in quite a contemporary-looking, slim cut. For a vintage style it looks quite contmporary. The Straigt Sven is lower-rise, and is a more modern-looking jean. But for a contemporary style it looks quite classic!

Take a look thru the photos here, there are loads of them, and decide which looks works best for you. We can't tell you!

Should be identical to 555. 554 is code for in a Levi's factroy in Texas, San Antonio I believe (not a non-Liev's facotyr like current LVC). I have a few 554 models and they're great jeans

Look like no Levi's I've ever seen.

Both jeans are discontinued, so you will be lucky. They had stocks of the 1890s at the LVC store in Berlin, Buttenheim, a couple of weeks ago. I think they're on neue schonstrasse, might be worth phoning or emailing them and asking if they have stock - I'm sure they'll do a credit card order over the phone.

WHen did everyone's time get so precious?

I have probably answered a hundred threads about whther jeans are fake. Doesn't bother me, I do it when I'm bored & I don't mind helping people. So they're newbies, so what? Are we gonna have some kind of caste system? So cmf, it's OK if people volunteer information on your old workwear, but newbies aren't allowed to ask questions about their Evisu? So can they ask about old Evisu? What about new LVC? Where do you decide waht's acceptable, and who decides?

Yeah, there have been some tedious posts, but you're free to ignore them. If Minya posts a sticky, I don't mind finding some threads on fakes and posting them on there.

But if everyone's so up their own ass they don't want any noobs around, then most of the point of this place is gone.

The Edwin-made Lees are beautiful jeans, with good denim that wears in nicely, altho some poeple have mentioned they take some time to fade. Do a search here & you'll find lots about them.

Interesting, haven't seen these mentioned elsewhere. Did you get confirmation they were lot 54, mf?

Well, there's always Levi's stuff coming out we don't get to hear about but...

a) these are open selvage - ie what some people call fake selvage, made on projectile looms and

the arcuate is an old style that Levi's don't use any more - all the current jeans have a deeper, more vintage-style shape.

So are Levi's producing fake counterfeit? Is this a bona fide Levi's factory outlet or just somewhere that has a bit of Levi's signage???

Edited by Paul T on May 29, 2006 at 03:25 PM

Edited by Paul T on May 29, 2006 at 03:25 PM

I bleieve you will end up with an inch of shrinkage at the waist, so 32 inches should be ok. BUT a lot of 47s are made undersize- my 34W actually measured 33W, and have shrunk down to around 32. So whoever you're buying from, email to ask the measured size, not just the nominal size. If it measures 32 you should be ok, otherwise look for 34s that, like mine, measured 33 first off.

Yes, all those ebay pairs look ok to me...

Honestly, Allen, I speak to a lot of people from Levi's and they're often very frank about the fuckups on new LVC, but one thing I've been told is that the denim is pretty much unchanged. The new 47s are absolutely, definitely not 10oz! I have a pair from the spring range and I'm certain they're still 12.5 oz.

Of course you're right, if you can get the 555 ones for much the same price they're much nicer jeans to have.

I'm the other way, over the last 8 years I really got into the wider cinchback jeans and didn't like the 47s - for the last few years I've got right bacm into the cut, they're my favourite, so I sold quite a few of my 555 1933s etc. My only complaint with the 47 denim is that it's a bit brittle if you wear them after only a quick-ish soak.

The denim should be identical.

Many people prefer the idea of ther early 555 ones, as they're made in the old LEvi's factory at valencia, whereas the later R ones are contracted out to a non-Levi's factory. The non-Levi's-made LVC have had problems, but nothing I've heard of with the '47s. As far as the denim goes, that for the 47s is all made by Cone, to the same spec, and there should be no difference at all .

They made 501s for old women? Cool!

Later 501s are pre-skewed to eleminate leg twist. I think this happened when they dropped the selvage.

Wow. Sure makes me wish I could swap my mock-croc bowling bag for the real thing...