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Levis Vintage Clothing is the vintage, or heritage part of Levi Straus and Co. This part of the brand is dedicated to producing collections inspired by the long history of the brand and the vintage pieces in their archive. At the heart of their lineup are a series of jeans representing all the major evolutionary steps of the blue jean. Starting from the very first 501 all the way back in 1890.

Levis have been around a long time and were doing business in San Francisco long before they decided that rivets and denim would be the best thing since sliced bread.

They came up with the blueprint for the blue jean in the 1870s and patented the idea to rivet the stress points of the workers waist overalls (what we all know as blue jeans) they were producing. 15 years later in 1890, the patent expired and other companies could start using rivets on their clothing too.

By this time, Levi Straus and Co had become synonymous with quality workwear and had a fair few garments to their name. To make it easier for the retailers to order the pieces, they assigned lot numbers to each item. Clothing made to the highest quality standards and using the finest denim were given a lot number 5 at the beginning. 501 for the waist overall (jeans), 506 for the blousen (denim jacket) and so on.

So it was in 1890 that the first pair of Levis 501s were born.

They were a little different from what we know as the blue jean today. For one thing, they only had 4 pockets. The 5th would not be added until 1901. There were also no belt loops, pants in these days were kept up by suspenders. The denim was a lot lighter than we are used to as well, weighing in at a lightweight 9oz. There are a few things that we would recognise, such as the two-horse patch and the gull arcuate.

The Levi’s Vintage Clothing 1890 jeans are a fascinating step along the way to the iconic garment we call the blue jean and I am really excited to see how these break-in. Stay tuned.