The Levi Progression

The progression of the Levi jean has had quite a traveling road. The oldest pair of 501 Levi jeans originated in 1879 and were designed to be tough work pants that could withstand hard rough work.

 I have become a collector of the vintage Levi jean looking for that Levi vintage treasure. Unfortunately there are counterfeit of the vintage jean and I have had to learn how to tell the difference. I will share with you in this post what I have learned about the fake and the real thing. You start by turning the bottom cuffs of the jeans inside out and look carefully at the fabric edge (the selvage edge) along the inside seams of the jeans.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                If  you  see a two-toned seam allowance with white  fabric on the  outside edge of the fabric, your jeans may be vintage Levi's. You may also find a white line of stitching running over this white edge (oldest jeans era), a blue line of stitching (early 1900s era) or a red line of stitching (found on jeans until the middle of the 1980s).  Examine the red tag on the back pocket of your jeans. Look closely at the "E" in the word "Levi's." If the "E" is a capital letter, your jeans originated prior to 1971. If the "E" is a lowercase letter, your jeans are newer than 1971.  Look at the rivets on your Levi's jeans. If the rivets are made of thin metal and have raised lettering (with or without an outer ring around the rivets), they may date back to the 1980s or earlier. Examine the watch pocket of the Levi's jeans. Levi's jeans from the 1930s and 1940s range in width between 3.5 and 4 inches. Levi Strauss stopped using rivets on the watch pockets during this time due to World War II. Current watch pockets are smaller and they have rivets again.If your jeans have a buckle and strap on the back of the waistband, like the pair pictured here,                                       then you're really cooking: this pair is from the 1930s or earlier. They have been known to sell on Ebay for thousands of dollars.What about jackets? Older jackets have only one pocket on the chest. And, if the jacket doesn’t have the red Tab, that means it’s from before the mid-1930s and really desirable Jeans before the 1970s did not have care tags at all, but instead Levi Strauss stamped the care instructions onto the inside pockets of the jeans. 

There has also been a lot of questions regarding  stamping on the back of the top buttons.
As a rule, jeans with a single stamped digit (2, 5, 6, W) for example are older than jeans with a 3 digit stamping on the top of the button.  Common 3 digit stampings are 524, 558, 555,554.

                                                                                                                                                                    - Jeans with single digit or no digit stamping are made from mid 70's back, and are possibly big E
- Authentic Big E non-reproduction jeans will have either no or a single stamped digit.
- Reproductions will normally be stamped '555'
- Newer Levis and fakes will be stamped '501'
- Japanese Made Levis will have a 'J' followed by a couple of digits '21'.

REAL

FAKE

 Pictured are all the different button closures for the jeans for the different eras.

Era 1870-1873

.

Era 1873-1890

Era 1902-1928

Era 1930-1945

Era 1942-1944

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

   

Era 1987 to Present

I hope you learned about vintage jeans and how to tell real from fake. Thank You for stopping by and reading.

 

Shared this project here...

What is it or what is it not?

I have learned so much in the past few months about vintage and antique treasures. There are marks on the bottoms of different items that can tell you the history of the item. Where it is from, what era it is made from, and most important the worth. There is so much information on the information highway (as it was called in the beginning), if you are willing to read and take the time to find these sites that help you discover what your treasure is worth or not worth. A few of the sights I have found to be helpful are : http://www.antique-china-porcelain-collectibles.com/porcelain_mark.htm and

http://www.antique-marks.com/buying-antiques.html

The Internet has so many of these you can find just about everything you might need to know on the subject. Because of the mark on the bottom of this figurine they where able to tell where it was from and what it was worth.

After learning about marks the next thing I learned was how to tell fake from real. I had no idea people make fake everything that is worth anything. I'd bought a Prada Purse at a garage sale. I was so excited with my treasure.  I thought was worth quite a bit from what I'd heard about Prada. Not only was it fake but I could never sell it; it is illegal to sell a fake Prada or fake anything for that matter.

Would you believe they even make fake Levis Jeans, Fake Gucci Watches(ask me how I know) Fake coach purses and like I said just about anything that is worth anything they will make what is called a knockoff of that item. There is so much more vintage and antique things to talk about. I will tell you all of what I learned about Vintage Levis Jeans in my next post.There is so much to learn about the different eras they were made in and what they are worth from those eras. Will see you then. Thanks for reading.

Serenity

My husband and I bought a 24' travel trailer about 1 yr. ago , we only used it one time when we first bought it and it has been sitting in our driveway since. My husband found a great place to camp only about 20 minutes from home and we left the trailer there for a summer special of one month. We spent last weekend there in the middle of the woods, him, me and our dog Annie. We are located right were the bears decided to push the fence to make there own entrance to the park.

Serenity is the word I use to describe what I feel when we are there. I love the solitude of the quietness. The only sounds you hear are all the animals and critters that live there. It is located on the Wekiva River Falls which our dog Annie loves to swim in with her "human daddy". Annie goes everywhere with us. She is 1 1/2 yrs old now and is what is called a Whoodle. Her canine daddy is a soft coated wheaten terrier and her canine mommy is a standard poodle. Our kids told us we paid high dollar for what the dog world calls a hybrid dog, my kids call a mutt. 

I realize the beauty of nature and Gods creation when we are there and can shut my mind down and think of Him and everything He has done for my family and myself. I have 3 grandchildren I adore.We raised 3 sons and our hearts desire was to someday have a little girl we can buy dresses for, instead of overalls. My first 2 grandchildren were boys and then finally my youngest and his wife had a girl. We were in our glory. We also have a unofficial adopted girl from my niece. 

I have realized in my later life there is nothing more important than family except God of course. He comes first and then everything falls into place under Him. This has nothing to do with my treasure hunting except we have found a treasure spending time together in this special place. As far as antiques well my husband and I are considered antique, anything over 50 years is antique. I promise the next post will be what I have learned about the treasures I have collected and what they mean. Please have a Happy and safe 4th of July . Lets all work on becoming a more free America like it was back in the" Vintage Times"....