1890's Levi's Lot 201 found in Mojave Desert

[Charlie Delta]

Look alot like naval/mil issue denim, esp with the "not to be sold" on the tag.

Not sure if they belong in this thread btw, might move them later.

[airfrogusmc]

Not that there was any doubt, but Lynn Downey at Levi's has authenticated these.

The seller got a good price, considering the much rarer 1886s jeans fetched $42,000, and Levi's weren't bidding on these. But of course getting the bid aint' the same as getting the money.

I was telling someone last Saturday how eBay sales were tailing off, as shown by the mediocre price I got for my 1966 502s. Shows how wrong you can be.

A few more pix for the detail freaks, like me and Ande:

mmm, check out those early rivets...

and the early button design. I like that people asked for a factory code. As if Lev's had more than factory when they made these..

On the interior view, you can see how orange the stitching is - almost red in this (lousy) pic...

Rivets on my 1880s. After several years of wear they look almost identicle to the ones on these jeans.

[andewhall]

Yeah it would be good to find some more info on the origins of the orange thread, you would imagine they would have just used navy blue thread. I guess in the beginning they used the natural colour thread, as it was probably the cheapest? I have found orange thread holds it colour far longer than lemon, orange may be one of those tough pigments/dyes.

It's interesting seeing these, because it reminds me how brightly-coloured the stitching is.

We always think of Edwardian/Victorian clothes as sober and restrained. But the Spring Bottom pants were made of blue and gold coloured denim. The 333 pants had purple stitching. Then these would have been a royal-ish blue, with bright orange stitching. Whether this was a colour scheme Levi's invented, or whether it was common before, I'd love to know. But they must have looked pretty whacky.

When Rikke Korff designed the Red range that was developed as Type 1, she wanted to capture some of that graphic, almost cartoon look that jeans must have had in the early days; these are a pretty good example of what she meant.

[Charlie Delta]

Very interesting indeed....

New thread about this perhaps?

[Paul T]

Back in the LVC thread someone, can't remember who, slagged off the 201 replicas for their stitching, saying they looked like Nudies! I always thought the 20s replica (apart from the year they fucked up the pockets) was one of LVC's best products, I can't wait to wash mine and see how the fading comes out, because I do love the look of these old jeans, the denim in particular on the old 201 has always been my favourite. I will add the eBay pix to the 201 thread when I get a moment.

Cash PM'd me about a TV documentary where they looked at what cowboys wore in the 1890s. Public perception is that clothing was all sober and black, but surprise surprise, it turned out cowboys liked bright colours.

Interesting point re the orange thread retaining its colour. I would guess that the graphic look of early Levi's, just like Nudies today, was part of their appeal. But there hasn't been a lot of research, AFAIK, of how jeans fit in with other clothing and workwear in the 1890s. No one really knows if Levi's created a trend, or simply followed one - it's certain there were other denim pants before Levi's, that didn't have copper rivets, but I have no idea if they had a Levi's-style cut.

[airfrogusmc]

Back in the LVC thread someone, can't remember who, slagged off the 201 replicas for their stitching, saying they looked like Nudies! I always thought the 20s replica (apart from the year they fucked up the pockets) was one of LVC's best products, I can't wait to wash mine and see how the fading comes out, because I do love the look of these old jeans, the denim in particular on the old 201 has always been my favourite. I will add the eBay pix to the 201 thread when I get a moment.

Cash PM'd me about a TV documentary where they looked at what cowboys wore in the 1890s. Public perception is that clothing was all sober and black, but surprise surprise, it turned out cowboys liked bright colours.

Interesting point re the orange thread retaining its colour. I would guess that the graphic look of early Levi's, just like Nudies today, was part of their appeal. But there hasn't been a lot of research, AFAIK, of how jeans fit in with other clothing and workwear in the 1890s. No one really knows if Levi's created a trend, or simply followed one - it's certain there were other denim pants before Levi's, that didn't have copper rivets, but I have no idea if they had a Levi's-style cut.

Paul the 20s 201s break in and fade beautifully. I'll try and get come photos of my 20s 201s (555) later. What are ya wait'n for. If they come out half as nice as your 47s did WHOA....