Levis Vintage Clothing
A company that needs little to no introduction, Levi Strauss is credited with being the ‘inventor’ of blue jeans as we know them, after patenting with Jacob Davis their riveted ‘waist overall’ in 1973.
Levi moved to San Francisco in 1853 to open the West Coast strain of the Strauss families New York business seeing great opportunity for a similar wholesale dry good store in the heart of the Californian Gold Rush and with the development of patent #139,121 took Levis Strauss & co. to be the house hold name it is today…
But the Levis we now sell aren’t such a house hold name. Levis Vintage Clothing (LVC) is a subsidiary of Levis, which wasn’t started in earnest until 1996, though Levis in Japan had been producing a few replicas since 1987. These replicas became more and more sort after in Europe building on the brand and expanding the line incorporating clothing other than denim from Levis own vast archive. The denim used on all selvedge LVC products is produced in the Cone Mills factory in North Carolina and has supplied its denim to Levis since 1915, making these reproductions as authentic as can be. Throughout the years the iconic 501 waist overalls (jeans weren’t called jeans commonly until the 1960’s) has changed is style, construction and cut meaning there is a range of fits and styles to choose from to suit most tastes.
The two main types LVC denim we sell are ‘raw’ un-sanforized and a ‘one wash’ version. All raw un-sanforized denim will shrink and go through a breaking in period and the one wash has had this done for you achieving a softer denim which will not shrink.
Shrink to fit denim is not a science, and there will be an element of variation between each pair of jeans. If unsure ask us how you would like the jeans to fit and we will do our best to recommended a style and process to you, but, the rest is up to you.
You may want to sit in the bathtub to achieve that shrink to fit look or wear from raw and only ‘wash’ them if you’re accidentally caught in the rain, no matter how you do it, the best way for a pair of jeans to achieve that timeless look is to be worn like a second skin.