LVC question and a hello

[nightdeposit]

hey people,

this board is an insane wealth of knowledege, it hadnt occured to me until recently to use the internet as a source of information about denim. i have spent many hours recently perusing and soaking up the vibe here. it scares me that there are other people who focus on little details with the zeal that i do. what was once a passing interest is now slowly growing into an obsession.

i now know more about cone mills denim, japanese selvedge, etc than i ever thought possible. the minutae is endless...

i have a question for those with deeper LVC knowledge. theres a group of jeans just put up on ebay, from the first season of reproductions. does anyone own any of this stuff and if so do the prices seem reasonable? theres a pair thats calling my name, im just wary of coughing up the dough, if it seems like the quality was sub-par and or this stuff might be not-impossible to find again.

thanks for the time!

heres one of the auctions

http://cgi.ebay.com/1937-Levi-501-XX-201-XX-Buckle-Big-E-Jean-34-x-36_W0QQitemZ200025956484QQihZ010QQcategoryZ52392QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[Paul T]

Howdy, welcome to this weird and warped world! Those jeans in partiulcar ARE interesting, and the pieces are reasonably historic in that they were the first LVC. The modern LVC are not notably worse in any single respect, and in my view a few of the later reissues were even better, with fantastic specialist denim. But these are made in the old Levi's factory, and the 201s in partiulcar are the only time they've ever been reissued (by this point, the 201 was essentially identical to the 501, earlier models had, in particular, different denim). The price is high but not outrageous.

[tweeds]

to add on to Paul's post - nightdeposit, you'll find fellow LVC fans in the threads below, some of the collections and knowledge they have is stunning.

general LVC thread - http://www.superfuture.com/city/supertalk/showthread.php?t=14314

link to further threads - http://www.superfuture.com/city/supertalk/showpost.php?p=138901&postcount=5

you can find photos of the 201s you posted in the page i linked

check out the superdenim encyclopedia sticky at the top of the forum, they point you out to the gold threads that have been posted here.

also, i thought there was another run of the valencia st 201 repros in the 1999 LVC collection? the ones with the white patch...

[Paul T]

to add on to Paul's post - nightdeposit, you'll find fellow LVC fans in the threads below, some of the collections and knowledge they have is stunning.

general LVC thread - http://www.superfuture.com/city/supertalk/showthread.php?t=14314

link to further threads - http://www.superfuture.com/city/supertalk/showpost.php?p=138901&postcount=5

you can find photos of the 201s you posted in the page i linked

check out the superdenim encyclopedia sticky at the top of the forum, they point you out to the gold threads that have been posted here.

also, i thought there was another run of the valencia st 201 repros in the 1999 LVC collection? the ones with the white patch...

t.i.p is right that there have been several further reissues of the 20s 201, but I think this is the only reissue of the 1937 201. The 20s version is the more unusual jean, I personally prefer it - the denim in particular on the reissue of 2001 or so is lovely, as it is on the original article - the 1937 is in most respects identical to the 501 of the same year.

[tweeds]

some day i shall snag myself a pair.

isn't $380 a bit much for those jeans, though? one problem with LVC is the exhorbitant prices.

[airfrogusmc]

I had two pair and just sold a pair a month or so ago. I didn't pay near that much for mine but these are rare in raw new with tags shape. And I bought mine a while back. I really like the early cone mills denim on these. The denim is heavy and very dark and wears in very slowly.

Here are two pair side by side. The more faded pair are the ones I sold. The darker pair had only been rinsed twice at the time of these photos. THis will give you an idea of how they fade. But again this denim doesn't fade like other LVCs I've had. Its much slower.

One thing they are much smaller in the waist than any other LVCs I've owned. I usually take a 38 waist but these 40 waist fit snugger in the waist than most of my 38s. It is a high price but these are from 96/97 and raw NWT are getting few and far between in these. If you really want them grab'm now cause you might not find them again...

[airfrogusmc]

Oh I also have a pair of 37 501s from a few years back and these 37 201s are much nicer than they are.

I also agree with Paul about the 1920s 201s the 555 blue/green line selvage but early version. They are some of the nicest LVCs you can get if you can find them. The ones released last year had double needle stitching on the arcuate.

But in my opinion these 37 201s are some of the nicest red line LVCs you'll find.

[nightdeposit]

thanks for all the feedback. i just dont know, its a bit spendy as someone on here stated. the quality does look insane on those and the person selling them could be right, they might not turn up again in a NWT state. but they're REALLY selling 'em on that auction. damn adjectives!

in some ways ive never been a fan of the buckleback, that might be a deal breaker. i' will keep a look out for those blue/green selvedge..

the 551zxx the same person has up for auction are quite nice as well. i thought xx denoted STF, why do they appear on a pre-shrunk repro?

i have never really cared about repro until recently, as i bought 4 pairs of 1947 501's in Japan over the summer.

its true, its a sickness. ive got it bad.

[airfrogusmc]

Bro get out now wihile theres still a chance....Heres what they look like being worn. I was like that until I bought my first pair of bukle backs now thats all I wear. Its great to have room in the thighs and you can cinch'm up so you don't have to wear a belt.

Took this photo to show the McCoys Dubow A-2 but you can get the idea of the fit.

[Paul T]

I think there's a temptation when you're in the throes of a new obsession to over-research it, and go for the 'ultimate' piece of kit, when in reality it's not the ultimate piece of kit for you. I did it with cameras, I had an excellent Leica CL, their budget camera, and felt compelled to save up and buy the M4, their ultimate photoreportage camera, as used by blah blah blah. But the first camera was mroe usable and I actulaly take better pictures with it.

There's no reason at all why those 37 201s should look better than modern japanese 47 501s. In fact, the ones you bought from a store are almost certainly better, because they're guaranteed to be the right size.

I was debating this with the dude who cuts my hair five minutes ago. I used to buy original Levi's. And I sold my last pair of original 70s 501s a couple of months ago for £140. They went for that much because they were 'the originals'. Yet my newer Lee reissues look way better, because I've learned to get a good fade and, crucially, BECAUSE THEY FIT ME! And they cost me less than half that. I really believe once you get to a certain level of quality, as in the Cone denim still available today, the denim looks excellent and wears well. Anything else is just more cherries on the cake - nice to have, but not worth obsessing about, when you could be wearing in the four pairs of great jeans you have already.

[airfrogusmc]

Paul I can tell you the denim on my 37 201s 1997 and the denim on my 2003 1947 is different. Is it better, well it breaks in differently.

The obsession does get nuts though. M-4 nice camera. I went the Hasselblad route. Now I'm all digital...