LVC Catalogs

[SLAB]

lots of lovely items in there imo; i have seen that leather jacket on fleabay for 899$ i believe. some of the other items as well (such as the red striped shirt)

[Paul T]

Yup, there was still some good stuff - especially that jacket. But by now I think some of the washes were done in Turkey or Romania. The women's 701 was lovely, but of course didn't sell; the gree Ts were nice, but very short and baggy. I liked the duffel bag, altho I think this was a fantasy item, I recall I helped do some press for this collection and Lynn Downey got very stuffy when I asked if Levi's had ever made duffels. The 2005 collection was designed in Europe IIRC byu Gary Harvey, who also resgiend the 501 in a 1947-influenced style soon after.

Here's a taster of the 2003 book - this was the year of the Indigo Immortal, and the Blue Black jacket. The Indigo Immortal was the last truly great LVC wash, done by Bart Sights - eltopo has my old pair, which I still miss.

[Paul T]

Last post for today - the LVC Orange Tab collecton from Summer 2009, an altamont theme. Too shiny to photograph properly. This was distributed separately from LVC< into the normal Levi's stores. A nice little range, I thought it was great they were reviving that 70s OE look. But it was badly explained to retailers, I would guess, and sank without trace.

[kemar]

By 2008, rather than the hard bound 2003 volume, we get a flimsy brochure. Design is by The Kitchen, text is around 6 point, white out, so it breaks up and is impossible to even read. You can sense LVC was about to die thru lack of TLC. THey don't even mention the season, but I'm pretty certain it's 2008.

Are you sure ?

I'm certain I bought this t-shirt back in 2005.

[Paul T]

As I said, I don't know for certain as there's no date on the mini-catalog. But they mention the patent being 135 years old - hence 2008. If we have anyone with one of those items and they can check out the internal tags then we'll have an answer.

[roy6]

The California Confidential collection, with the beach stripe and griffin print Ts, was S/S 2004.

Keep it up Paul, I love seeing those bigger trade catalogs!

[Paul T]

Thanks, Roy and Kemar, I've corrected the post.

I have 2003 and 2009, I'll add when I can.

[robbie]

Last post for today - the LVC Orange Tab collecton from Summer 2009, an altamont theme. Too shiny to photograph properly. This was distributed separately from LVC< into the normal Levi's stores. A nice little range, I thought it was great they were reviving that 70s OE look. But it was badly explained to retailers, I would guess, and sank without trace.

I remember seeing a lot of the womens stuff from this collection at Marshalls and Ross. I didn't recognize much of it, and none of what I saw fit my wife : (

I agree though it had a lot of potential sad to see it not catch on more.

[roy6]

LVC Japan S/S 2005:

[roy6]

LVC Japan S/S 2004:

[Paul T]

A great year for LVC - altho a personal fave, as I curated their anniversary exhibition in Berlin that year. I got the blue black as part of my fee, as well as the Indigo Immortals that Cory now owns.

[Paul T]

[Paul T]

[Paul T]

[Paul T]

[dr.house]

Thanks Paul. great to see the blue and black in the catalogue...can't wait to get mine back from Scotland. Can you send me the text beneath the pic :eek: I guess my eyes are too bad

[Paul T]

I'm trying to distract myself from writing a pice for a particularly horrible newspaper...

[sacredblue]

^^Really good stuff. I have several dozen LVC pieces that I've kept stored away, unworn with tags that I might want to ask you about in the near future.

[lilldavid]

what's most interesting about this thread is, imo, that the LVC collections never really seem to be out of style. I mean looking at the catalogs from 2003 or even earlier the pieces are still highly wearable now. Maybe I'm biased or something since I really like the brand, but to me the garments really are timeless

[fardin]

thats true david. great stuff even back in 2003. whats a pity is that they dont have a catalogue like this now, not even anything on the internet to see the collection. i still cant understand why! it is like we have to wait till someone takes pics like from inspiration la to see they are bringing out this beautiful duck jacket. but there is no other infos on it or the rest.

[dr.house]

Thanks Paul, can't rep you unfortunately. What a nice jacket! And yeah, I agree with lilldavid, always wearable and true timeless stuff and- unfortunately in this case-I've got to agree with Fardin too, it's unbelieveable that they still got no website!

[Paul T]

won't have time to shoot this for a bit - but a quick reminder there were some good items in the 2009 catalogue, too. Again, I wonder how many 1960 701 they sold - but these were a cool item. Photographed in Dungness... I'll probably visit there again in the lifetiime of the ROY comp, but I don't look as toothsome as these girls I'm afraid.

[dr.house]

won't have time to shoot this for a bit - but a quick reminder there were some good items in the 2009 catalogue, too. Again, I wonder how many 1960 701 they sold - but these were a cool item. Photographed in Dungness... I'll probably visit there again in the lifetiime of the ROY comp, but I don't look as toothsome as these girls I'm afraid.

I've got this catalogue too. Pretty nice.

[roy6]

All of these images are from BOON Vintage, a Japanese magazine, mostly a Levi's advertising platform, from 1995. Not an actual catalog, but the only source I've found for images of very early Levi's repros. It is mostly actual vintage pieces, but there is a two page section of Levi's reproductions which shows the range that was available at the time.

The print quality of the magazine isn't so good, but from the left here are: a pre-'30s 501; a 1933 (or 20's 201) type, a 1937; a '63 551zxx; just visible on the right is maybe a '47 type, not at all sure.

Continuing from the left is what looks like a '50s boys model, a 1966, and the last one I have no guess for.

The jackets are, clockwise from top left: a 507, a '44 506, a '44 506 in bedford cord, and a 557.

Some have cast doubt on the likelyhood of a '40s 506 having been made in pique, but I recall having seen that material listed in even older Levi's catalogs, so I believe it could be possible.

These are actual vintage items, most of which later did get reproduced by LVC. The leather jackets (or a very similar version of them) were released as the 'Rough 'n' Ready' (left) and the 'Ride the Wild' (right). I guess the top jacket was a naval contract item, I'd love to see that reproduced.

An actual Levi's catalog from 1904, the illustrations show, clockwise from top left, an open front jumper, a 4-pocket sack coat, an early 506 with no pocket flap, spring-bottom trousers, 501s (probably closest to a 1901 repro), a closed front jumper, a vest, the one-pocket sack coat, and early denim bib-overalls.

[entertainment!]

Thanks for the pictures, Roy6. It's strange that the 1944 506 doesn't have four buttons instead of five. I wonder if they just used the same pattern as the 507 and changed the pockets.

[robbie]

man. that 30's deck coat is sick.

[roy6]

Thanks for the pictures, Roy6. It's strange that the 1944 506 doesn't have four buttons instead of five. I wonder if they just used the same pattern as the 507 and changed the pockets.

Yeah, all of the actual vintage WWII 506s I've seen pictures of have just the four buttons. This magazine even had a picture of a real one and Levi's excerpts from the OPA notice regarding garment simplification "for the duration":

[roy6]

LVC Spring/Summer 2003

[Dr_Heech]

@Roy6,

that's the other Lvc sweat I once told you I owned - 'washmarked 50's sweat'. Bought mine secondhand so didn't know the correct moniker. Thanks for posting.

.

[dr.house]

Thanks for sharing roy6, pretty interesting.