Levi's Celebrates History at L.A. Fashion Week
There will always be a new denim flavor of the month, but Levi Strauss & Co. has a leg up on what none of the new kids on the block has—a history. Levi’s celebrated its 155-year history with an installation titled “The 501. The Original” in association with GQ magazine on Oct. 19 at the Acme store in Los Angeles.
The installation blended the past, with pieces from the Levi’s archives, and the present, with a denim wall handpainted by Caroline Calvin, Levi’s senior vice president, global creative director. Calvin laid out 35 pairs of Levi’s 501 jeans side by side as one giant canvas and painted, on the back of this canvas of jeans, the words “love” and “peace” in alternating rows. Calvin’s inspiration from surfing was shown on the front of the denim wall with waves of water reminiscent of the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai.
The archive pieces were chosen by Lynn Downey, historian for Levi Strauss & Co.’s archives. The oldest pair of Levi’s jeans known to the company, dating to 1879 and found in a mining town in Nevada, were on display. The jeans made headlines when Levi’s bought the pair on the online auction site eBay for $46,000. Downey also chose a pair of Levi’s jeans and a Levi’s leather motorcycle jacket dating from the 1950s as a nod to the 50th anniversary of the death of James Dean and the image of the postwar rebel. “Every pair reflects the culture that it was made in,” Downey said.
Among the other items on display were rear-view photographs from 1967 of a pair of hippies, both men wearing the red-tabbed jeans, walking down Haight Street in San Francisco. Reproductions of vintage Levi’s advertisements added to the deacute;cor.
—Rhea Cortado
