The XX, the oldest pair of Levi’s 501 jeans known, dates back to the 19th century an still lives in a fireproof vault in the Levi Strauss and co archives in San Francisco. Levi Strauss and his partner Jacob Davis created the first blue jean in 1873. The XX was a pair of ”waist overalls”- the clothing you wore over your street clothes while you worked in the mines, the lumber mills or the railroad, or spent your day on a horse. It’s copper-riveted durability was so new and so unique that newspapers and customers couldn’t stop talking about it. “Made and cut in the style of the best custom made pants”, was a typical comment.
It would be another 10 years before this granddaddy would get it’s famous 501 lot number, but it has everything you’d expect to find in this earliest version of your favourite jeans: natural 9 ounce denim, the equally soft leather patch (but without the Two Horse logo which didn’t come along until 1886), bright copper rivets, a cinch-back, four pockets and LS&Co. branded shank buttons.
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