Levi's Vintage Clothing

[Paul T]

5 hours ago, setterman said:

I certainly hope my 76s don't lose any more inseam. They're short enough. Funny thing is, I'm pretty sure my 78s started with a 34" inseam, and I had to have them hemmed to get them to the 31.5" the 76s are already at.

as for thread color, according to Dr Heech's excellent thrifters thread at denimbro, the cooper orange was the more common color in the 70s, and the only color by the end of the decade. I wonder if lvc using any lemon yellow in the 78s was correct.

The tobacco colour is historically correct - that's one of the hallmarks of little e jeans.

Lemon yellow had completely gone by 1970, the orange went a couple of years later. Colours of the 'fixtures and fittings" ie belt loops etc varied across the factories. But essentially orange is early 70s, tobacco is late 70s. I have posted photos of my old 76 pair on here before, can't seem to find them but if i do will post them.

It's so unusualy to see the full tobacco stitching, given how much orange and yellow we see, that for me it's one of the real pluses of the jeans. Perhaps because I associate that colour scheme with originals rather than repros.

Edited March 9, 2017 by Paul T

[propellerbeanie]

@TheJPdude Ahh, I see. I'm only 5'7" and I've got long legs, so I usually like my inseams to be about 30.5". Most of the time I cuff my jeans to 28" or so, but having it at 30.5" gives me the option to have my jeans sit on top of my shoes with a break in the fabric.

@Paul T Great info as always! I've also found that the '76s don't have a selvedge coin pocket. When and why did they get rid of that?

[setterman]

Something I've noticed with the standard '76, the denim reminds me of what SDA uses in their 101.  The Cone denim is lighter weight and far less dark, but they both have a similar feel.  And they start with a tighter weave, that just gets tighter and more dense when shrunk.  Doesn't feel like they'll breath as well as other jeans, and will naturally be more stiff without adding more starch to the mix.  And like SDA, they don't seem like they're going to have as much give at the waist as some of us might be used to with other brands.    

I'm pretty pleased with these.  My favorite pair out of all the LVC models I've owned, and while not big E, IMO should be the flagship of the LVC 501 line up.   

[Maynard Friedman]

I believe the selvedge coin pocket ceased to exist in the 60s, at least that is the transition reflected via LVC models - it's there in the 55 and gone with the 66.

[Paul T]

Maynard is right, the coin pocket selvage disappeared by the time bar tacks appeared.

My late 70s pair were all tobacco, bar the belt loops and IIRC the inner chain stitch which were orange.

[propellerbeanie]

@Maynard Friedman Oh thanks. Had no idea it was gone by the '60s.

@Paul T Do you know the reason why they got rid of it? I've never really looked at pattern making for selvedge denim jeans, but why did it even exist in the first place? I'm assuming they wanted to make use of and/or not waste material... Did they use looms of different width that didn't allow for a selvedge coin pocket to be utilised or something? Sorry for all the questions, but never thought about this till now!

[Paul T]

5 hours ago, propellerbeanie said:

@Maynard Friedman Oh thanks. Had no idea it was gone by the '60s.

@Paul T Do you know the reason why they got rid of it? I've never really looked at pattern making for selvedge denim jeans, but why did it even exist in the first place? I'm assuming they wanted to make use of and/or not waste material... Did they use looms of different width that didn't allow for a selvedge coin pocket to be utilised or something? Sorry for all the questions, but never thought about this till now!

There were lots of changes, nearly all of them simply to speed up production and some to lower costs. "Leather-like" 2-horse label was cheaper, so was removing back pocket rivets. Keeping selvage on the outseam is already quite wasteful. I would be pretty certain that not using selvage in the watch pocket allowed them to use a very slightly shorter bolt of fabric.

[TheJPdude]

@Paul T As always, thanks for the pictures and insight. You're a living treasure. 

 

I also noticed that while the 78s didn't have the 'tear off tag' on the patch, the 76 do. It's yet another nice nod towards the original.

Edited March 11, 2017 by TheJPdude

[TheJPdude]

Also forgot that I owed some post soak pics. Excuse the angle; my 4' tall son took these.

[Broark]

So Unionmade has the mirror jeans up on their website...for 495 dollars!
Sorry but that is just insane to me. And I've spent a lot of money on jeans before.
Maybe they'll go on sale. 

[lance]

delete

 

Edited March 13, 2017 by lance

[Iron Horse]

5 hours ago, Broark said:

So Unionmade has the mirror jeans up on their website...for 495 dollars!
Sorry but that is just insane to me. And I've spent a lot of money on jeans before.
Maybe they'll go on sale. 

I've heard the price is backwards too; real price is $594.

 

 

[propellerbeanie]

8 hours ago, Broark said:

So Unionmade has the mirror jeans up on their website...for 495 dollars!
Sorry but that is just insane to me. And I've spent a lot of money on jeans before.
Maybe they'll go on sale. 

That price is pretty ridiculous... I'd consider it if they were one of the twelve using the true deadstock fabric though lol

[Paul T]

So... I had one of those days when I had 'time' to catch up on my various tasks which turned out to be no time at all. But I did manage to drop in at Cinch for about eight minutes and do a comparison of the dead-stock vs repro left-hand cone denim.

They are very similar in terms of texture, fluff etc. The repro fabric was a touch more grey - which gave it more of a 70s look, I guess there's a good amount of sulphur in there. In general, the repro fabric is on top - but you can easily tell the difference by looking at the loom errors.

As others have said, the straight 1976 looks great too and seems to be selling consistently.

[serotonin flood]

Great comparison!  Man I want a pair of the regular 1976s so bad but I don't think I can swing the full price at the moment.  I've been wanting to add a pair of Levi's to the rotation and the 1976 seems like the perfect fit to me.  Maybe one day

[propellerbeanie]

5 hours ago, serotonin flood said:

Great comparison!  Man I want a pair of the regular 1976s so bad but I don't think I can swing the full price at the moment.  I've been wanting to add a pair of Levi's to the rotation and the 1976 seems like the perfect fit to me.  Maybe one day

What size are you typically?

[Max Power]

Is there a website that has recommendable (=accurate) size charts for most LVC models?

[setterman]

cultizm seems reasonably accurate. Best bet is to ask here, or call a Levis store. 

[Sympathy-For-The-Denim]

also Unionmade provides the actual measurements.

[cool_hand]

where can I find a pair of 1922s?

[TJSchneider]

Pretty hyped, Grabbed a pair of the Mirror 501's. As a collector of random and numbered shit, I was pleasantly surprised to receive #321/501.

for now we have them up on the wall at The Shop, eventually Ill run em I'm sure. Neat little piece.

[EdwardBear]

2 hours ago, cool_hand said:

where can I find a pair of 1922s?

I have an untouched tagged made in USA pair on my rail, but size 32x36, and I keep debating whether to eBay them or soak them for a nice loose summer pair, but with several pairs of very early but mint condition MiJ Evisu 2001also sitting on the rail they have the priority...

[propellerbeanie]

Hey y'all, here are my '47s that have about a year's worth of wear. I bought them in September of 2015 and wore them daily for around five months before they felt dirty enough for a proper wash. They've gone through around nine machine washes since then, and they've had one crotch repair (more preventative than to fix any big issues). A hole has developed on my left knee, but not sure whether I want to darn it or hand repair... I'd say they're my slimmest pair of jeans and were definitely the "gateway" that eventually got me into straighter fits from other brands.

Pictures were taken on my phone in my bathroom, so it's not the most accurate colour (shins are the darkest part but maybs not that dark).

Hopefully I'll have time to take some fit pics! Here's to another year of wear!

[Max Power]

On Thursday, March 16, 2017 at 6:32 PM, setterman said:

cultizm seems reasonably accurate. Best bet is to ask here, or call a Levis store. 

Thanks, i never realised they had measurements there.

[beautiful_FrEaK]

Me neither

[serotonin flood]

On 3/16/2017 at 4:39 AM, propellerbeanie said:

What size are you typically?

I wear size 33-34 at the moment, but my goal is to get down to 31-32, been in the process of losing weight.

[setterman]

1976 fit after a little bit of wear. Waistband was just not giving, so I squirted it with some water and then it stretched it by hand. This stretched it out to a more comfortable measurement that's  a little closer to raw.

 

[TheJPdude]

On 3/20/2017 at 0:02 PM, setterman said:

1976 fit after a little bit of wear. Waistband was just not giving, so I squirted it with some water and then it stretched it by hand. This stretched it out to a more comfortable measurement that's  a little closer to raw.

I noticed that the denim was not softening up as well. I've had them on my body literally every day since I got them, and they're just now starting to relax. The upshot is that they are now starting to get a little hint of whiskering only 3 weeks or so in. I've done my best to be active in these (played some outdoor hockey in them, walked around the city a lot) so maybe that helps.

[propellerbeanie]

On 3/23/2017 at 4:59 AM, TheJPdude said:

I noticed that the denim was not softening up as well. I've had them on my body literally every day since I got them, and they're just now starting to relax. The upshot is that they are now starting to get a little hint of whiskering only 3 weeks or so in. I've done my best to be active in these (played some outdoor hockey in them, walked around the city a lot) so maybe that helps.

I'm finding that my fabric is still feeling a bit stiff, especially behind my knees. It has that "sharp", crunchy feeling when I bend my knees tightly (if that makes sense). I've only worn mine for around a week and the combs are setting in a nice way... same with the whiskers. Since I'm a student, I sit down a lot, so the ass fades are showing up first lol

I'll post some fit pictures of my '76s later today. They're probably my favourite fit out of the current LVC 501 range, although I have a feeling I'll need to wear a belt later on.

[setterman]

On 3/22/2017 at 1:59 PM, TheJPdude said:

I noticed that the denim was not softening up as well. I've had them on my body literally every day since I got them, and they're just now starting to relax. The upshot is that they are now starting to get a little hint of whiskering only 3 weeks or so in. I've done my best to be active in these (played some outdoor hockey in them, walked around the city a lot) so maybe that helps.

The waist wasn't a matter of stiffness, but a lack of give.  The top fly button and waistband button aren't too far away from each other.  Between their mutual support of each other, and the tighter weave of the denim, there's a lot less give than what I'm used to with LVC and Warehouse, and reminds me of my old SDA 101s and Valencia St 551ZXX.

The denim is much stiffer than we're used to with LVC.  But IIRC, after a couple times through the washer and dryer my 78s started softening up.  That stiffness, tighter weave, and less stretchiness is what I've kinda always expected outta the post war LVC 501s.