Levi's Vintage Clothing

[killer b]

erk. double post.. dunno how that happened...

[bluegoldblues]

Nice man, liking the fit...Big look!

Heres what youve got to look forward to.

[Paul T]

s

interesting what you say about the pre-skewing paul - they have a slight leg twist at the moment - does that right itself to end up straight as time goes by?

That.... I don't know! I rather doubt it - my guess would be the pre-skewing isn't always 100% effective. I don't recall seeing skewing on recent STF, it's possible they've changed the method over the years.

[Dr_Heech]

It's great they're staying 'local'.

I look forward to seeing these being worn in. Will you try and keep washing to a minimum and see if they're capable of a high-contrast fade, or will you adopt the authentic late 70s washing cycle?

Sorry, they've already been sold on to a malaysian customer

(joke!)

Not sure, probably try and keep washing to a bare minimum. Unfortunately, I have so many pairs of neglected jeans (55's,551z's,44's,1915 201's, 1920 201's, OG Roys and a pair of 1930 101's + at least 6 pairs of BNWT's waiting..)

Will defo try and shelve the RxC's for a little while next year, gotta spread that love around.

BTW (speaking of local) - I'm up in Saaf London this weekend if you fancy a pint?

.

[colgems1966]

nice score DR! i am jealous. seeing all that hairy raw denim makes me sorry i sold off all my 70's 505s

[killer b]

Nice man, liking the fit...Big look!

Heres what youve got to look forward to.

i could handle that... cheers.

here's the promised fit, also posted elsewhere...

keyone

mexx

80s vintage 501s

marlboro classics

don't remember seeing any fit pics from you blues...

[bluegoldblues]

haha my girlfriend warned she would break up with me if I started taking pictures of myself wearing jeans and posting them on the internet! The blog is enough for her!! but Il try and sneak a few fit pics past on the other thread.

I used to work at Marlboro Classics before it folded in the UK good to see people still wearing it!

[killer b]

10 years of heavy wear, resoled twice and still going strong. probably my favourite everyday boot, and they only cost me 8 quid from tkmaxx.

wondered why i'd stopped seeing it about - shame they folded, i have a few of their bits & pieces - always decent quality.

[Dr_Heech]

haha my girlfriend warned she would break up with me if I started taking pictures of myself wearing jeans and posting them on the internet! The blog is enough for her!! but Il try and sneak a few fit pics past on the other thread.

I used to work at Marlboro Classics before it folded in the UK good to see people still wearing it!

Cant rep BGB, but I really liked the Marlboro classics stuff (always turned up in TKmaxx). They did cheapish, but satisfactory repros of all sorts of vintage.

(sorry to go off topic)

.

[killer b]

i guess 'always turning up in tkmaxx', while good for us, is probably not too good for the clothing label in question...

[bluegoldblues]

House of Fraser still stocks it but only limited (and boring) stuff.

Yeah it was a shame some of their stuff was great they even had a "premium" selvage denim range for a short while, but ultimately it was very expensive (all italian made) and a very small minority of high street shoppers understood the whole workwear/western thing. Its still owned by Valentino and is all over europe. - *pointless fact * in Denmark they sell more polo shirts than Ralph Lauren do! haha

[robbie]

^^^

" House of Fraser " - dude, I live in Nebraska.

[bluegoldblues]

Marlboro Classics can't trade in the USA because of Philip Morris.

Drive to canada!

http://www.marlboroclassics.valentinofashiongroup.com/index.html

[robbie]

sorry, i was being a smart ass (my last name is Fraser).

[Joseph Hill]

Dang, they won't even let us see the website.

[kit714]

So I recently purchased my 2nd pair of 44501xx from Inventory stockroom, as most of you know, LVC is now made in USA. Comparing this pair with my MIJ pair (2008), there were a lot of small differences to the construction and fabric to the jeans. The biggest difference is the painted arcuate, I've seen bright orange, purple-ish arcuates before for 44s...this pair had brown painted arcuates. The bartack was very visible and front pocket was no longer made with green herringbone. Most surprising of all, it came with a letter from Levis, hidden in the left back pocket. The letter addressed the rationale behind the 44501 during WWII. Most of us know about this rationale, but coming from levis themselves was different. The envelope is a very old type of paper and from a close look at it, I can see that the writing/stamps/postage are all printed. Sorry if its late pass.

Here is the letter

To the owner of this 501 jeans,

1944:501 Jean (WWII)

Everything changed during World War II. The United States government told all clothing manufacturers that they had to remove a certain amount of metal, fabric and thread from their garments in order to conserve the raw materials for the war effort. levi Strauss & Co. did what they could to help. Off came the watch pocket rivets, the crotch rivet and the cinch and its two rivets (which eliminated both fabric and metal).

Buttons became standard issue during the war, and featured a laurel leaf design.

Sometimes the buttons are branded; sometimes the waistband has the laurel leaf and the fly buttons are plain. The only explanation is that delivery of sundries was hit and miss during the war years and we sometimes had to just use what they had to hand.

There was one rationing rule that was a little harder to bear: the order to remove the Arcuate stitching, becuase it was considered decorative and in other terms meant that it didn't have a function. Well, LS & Co. thought it did: it was one of the prime identifiers of the classic 501 jeans. Rather than lose this important design, LS & Co. worked out a system to paint the Arcuate stitching on every pair of 501 jeans that came out of the factory. The paint eventually washed off but having that stitching visible when buying the jeans was the important thing.

DESIGN DETAILS:

Cone Mills 12 oz red selvedge denim (14oz after wash). 2 back pockets with covered rivets. "E" red tab. Two horse health patch. Painted Arcuate***** . Pocket bad material varies during wartime

Enjoy:

Yours Truely,

Levi Strauss and Co.

All in all, I am very satisfied with the purchase. Just want to share this info some you sufuers

[tropicalbird]

Oh they switched colors again, now that I've gotten used to the pink arcs...

Vintage '44s have brown arcs, I wonder if they were pink when new.

[dr.house]

Thanks for sharing Kit. Can you do a daylight close up of the arcs? Brown seems very nice! What about the pocket fabric and the buttons?

[colgems1966]

arcs are a different shape from any 44's i've seen. remind me of the shape of my 67 505's in a way.

[colgems1966]

btw Kit i like them + rep

[killer b]

would this be a good place to ask about orange tab jeans btw? found a pair a few weeks ago which i'm guessing are from the 80s (talon zipper, no selvedge, ring around the back of the rivets), but no more than that.

when were talon zippers phased out? also, being the budget range, did orange tabs ever have selvedge?

[Paul T]

Don't believe orange tabs did ever have selvage. And Talons survived for a pretty long time. Do post pics, we don't have enoughh orange tabs on here. What model are they?

[killer b]

505s (the label says 20505 - not sure what the 20 signifies). i saw a webpage which said the particular talon zipper on these was used from the 60s - 80s, which is a fairly wide window.

will stick up some pics in a bit - between the 501s and the orange tabs i've been wearing 80s levis on rotation for a few weeks now. the other jeans are starting to feel neglected...

[colgems1966]

talon 42's were used up through 1983 or so. i remember the change at the time plus i've seen a lot of these. going by the date on the care tags the levis brand zippers start showing up in 1984. those old orange tabs have really grainy denim that have an interesting texture. they still can be found at bargain prices and are good jeans. i would avoid 90's era and up though.

[Paul T]

The orange tabs used OE denim from the early 70s at least - I Love the way it fades, very distinctive, I will try and shoot one of my old pairs sometime, but they can look every bit as good as vintage 501 - you tend to get a lot of horizontal striation on them for some reason and it looks great.

[tropicalbird]

I love them too. Has a similar feel to when cars didn't have crumple zones or safety glass. An inferior product always gets better with age.

[Paul T]

Just remember I photographed them around the time I found my Denim Box. Here we go - 601, probably late 80s, worn from new.

[i

[Stratos]

I'd love to have an OT 505, where did you find them and what are they worth?

[bluegoldblues]

The orange tabs used OE denim from the early 70s at least - I Love the way it fades, very distinctive, I will try and shoot one of my old pairs sometime, but they can look every bit as good as vintage 501 - you tend to get a lot of horizontal striation on them for some reason and it looks great.

If you are lucky enough to find a pair that don't flair!! but I do agree they fade differently to red tab 501's.

[killer b]

I'd love to have an OT 505, where did you find them and what are they worth?

4 quid from the age concern charity shop near work. no idea if they're worth anything tbh, but they're a fine pair of jeans - really stiff atm (they were unworn when i picked them up).

so i guess with the combination of the ring on the back of the stud (post 81 and the talon zipper (pre 83) we can date them fairly exactly to 81-83?