a true fashion icon turns 150
Happy 150th Birthday to the 501 Jean.
We may need to call the fire brigade with the amount of candles on the Levi’s 501 birthday cake. These iconic jeans turned 150 in May this year, and we reckon that’s cause for a little bit of a celebration.
When you think ‘jeans’, you’re definitely thinking of the Levi’s 501 Original – they’re basically the blueprint for denim. So much so, Time magazine named them as the ‘fashion item of the 20th century’ in 1999. Not bad for a pair of duds that began their life as workwear trousers.
They became a fast fave of cowboys and rodeo riders in the 1930s and Vogue even suggested women holidaying at ‘dude ranches’ (aka guest ranches) wear the jeans. Giddy up!
In addition to being the jeans cowboys and cowgirls reach for, gods of the music industry have been reaching for Levi’s 501s for decades. They were immortalised in history when Bob Dylan wore them on the cover of his album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan; rock goddesses Kate Bush and Kim Gordon wore theirs ripped and torn while they killed it on stage; and hip hop royalty such as Run D.M.C. and N.W.A wore their dark wash pairs crisp and neat.
Honestly, it’s kind of wild to think we’ve been wearing variations of the same style of jeans for 150 years, but it goes to show when you’re onto a good thing, you’re onto a good thing!
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