Levi’s 501. 150 years of the jeans that made history.
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The oldest Levi's 501s ever found date back to 1890 and were discovered in an old mine in Calico, a ghost town in the Mojave Desert in Southern California, in 1940. The model was named Calico in honour of the discovery and features a 'worn' wash on the front of the legs.

The iconic Levi’s model is 150 years old: from gold rush to indispensable fashion garment, here are 10 interesting facts about the world’s most famous denim that you may not yet know!

To understand the history of the 501, one need only think that it came into being in the late 19th Century to facilitate the travel of Gold seekers, who had to spend hours and hours in the open air, even in extreme weather conditions, and needed trousers that were tough and particularly durable.

Levi Strauss, a fabric merchant from the American West Coast who sold denim cloth, collaborated with and Jacob Davis, a tailor from Nevada, who came up with the idea of transforming those fabrics into trousers, reinforcing the pockets and the flap with copper rivets, to make them three times more resistant than all other products on the market. Thus on 20 May 1873, the Levi’s 501 was born: a jeans that everyone from gold diggers to Hollywood stars will wear.

Here are ten interesting fact you have to glimpse on it!

  • The number 501 referred to the first batch of fabric from which the first model of jeans produced by Levi Strauss and Co.
  • Before the 1980s, the 501 was called XX after the name of the factory that produced it.

  • The oldest Levi’s 501s ever found date back to 1890 and were discovered in an old mine in Calico, a ghost town in the Mojave Desert in Southern California, in 1940. The model was named Calico in honour of the discovery and features a ‘worn’ wash on the front of the legs.

  • The famous red tab on the back of the 501 was only added in the 1930s to distinguish the brand from all others. At that time, in fact, other trouser companies were starting to produce jeans in various styles, seizing on the great potential of the product. To differentiate itself Levi’s introduced five pockets, button fastening, matching belts with copper rivets and a leather label sewn on the back of the waistband.

  • In October 1947, just after the Second World War, Levi’s 501s were presented for the first time at a fashion show in Paris: the twins Eva and Priscilla Emery wore the women’s model, initially called the 701 – the same as the men’s model but with a more feminine cut – making it the garment of choice for fashionistas.

  • The 501 first appeared on the cover of Vogue in 1949. In November 2012, models Stephanie Seymour, Daria Werbowy and Lauren Hutton all posed in Levi’s 501s for the cover of Vogue Paris, inspired by that iconic photo from the late 1940s.

  • In the 1950s, Marilyn Monroe was the first actress to wear a 501 in a film: River of No Return. The model also accompanied her in her last film, The Misfits.

  • In the 1970s, Levi’s 501 became a symbol of rebellion, adopted by the younger generation all over the world: in a photo taken at Woodstock in 1969, everyone was wearing the legendary denim.

  • Let’s go back to the 1970s, when girls customized their old 501s to create long, hippie-style skirts: patched, embroidered and with added fabric, Levi’s became a way to express their creativity and style.

  • According to Bob Calacello, former editor of Interview magazine, Andy Warhol popularized wearing 501s in combination with classic blazers, as evidenced by a photo taken at the Coe Kerr Gallery in New York on 3 June 1976.

 

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