2023 marks the 150° anniversary of one of fashion’s iconic garments, the Levi’s 501 jeans. Since the first model in 1873, the American brand has followed a path that has led its most famous denim model to become first a reliable workwear, then a symbol of countercultures born over the decades of the second half of the 20th century.
For a century the Levi’s 501 has retained many of its features, which have also made it a fetish for vintage and archival fashion enthusiasts, but small details have also changed that might help you date the last pair you bought at the yard sale you went to last month. From the RED TAB to the patch, are you sure you’re familiar with Levi’s 501s? What about your particular pair?

1.
One of the rarest pieces in existence are Levi’s Calico jeans, an original 501 believed to be the oldest in the world and dating back to 1900. They were discovered in a former mine in Calico, a ghost town in California’s Mojave Desert, where a teenager had gone for a hike. found a room full of jeans she took the best-preserved ones, patched them up and wore them a few times, before noticing on the label a familiar inscription: LS&Co.

2.
Marilyn Monroe was one of the first women to wear 501 jeans in a movie, the film was River of No Return (1954) directed by Otto Preminger.
According to Bob Calacello (former editor of Interview magazine), Andy Warhol is credited with the popularity of the jeans+blazer pairing, which the pop art artist used to sport while wearing Levi’s 501s himself. Before him, no one had paired a suit jacket in that way.

3.
If your 501s on the inner label have indicated a possible shrinkage of “about 8%” it means that they are pre-1981. From that date in fact the indication changes to “about 10%.”

THE RED TAB

4.
The famous label on the back of the 501 was added in the 1930s to distinguish Levi’s jeans from the competition. It is one of the jeans’ signatures along with the button closure, copper rivets, and leather label.

5.
If your Levi’s has the RED TAB on only one side, it means that the 501 was manufactured before 1951. In fact, in the early 1950s the word “LEVI’S” began to appear on both sides of the red tab.

6.
If the label on your pair is written with a capital “E” it means they are made before 1971. Pre-1971 RED TAB is commonly referred to as Big E. Another common feature of vintage Levi’s, however, is the small “V” seam that runs along the edge of the button closure. This stitch runs from the top of the waistband to about a quarter of an inch below the waistband itself, and then back up at an acute angle to the waist button, creating a sort of “V.” This was a standard feature of 501s until 1969.

THE PATCH

7.
If the Two Horse brand patch on your jeans is attached to the belt loop, it means they are pre-1970. Around 1969-71 (and until recently) Levi’s introduced a thinner cardboard patch that had a tear-off section on the right side, which allowed more space between the patch and the first belt loop.

8.
If you read the number 501 XX on the patch then you have a very good model of denim on your hands. When the Two Horse brand patch was first introduced (1886), Levi’s used the XX symbol to indicate that the denim was eXXtra strong, referring to the use of denim from Amoskeag Denim Mills in Manchester, New Hampshire. The “XX” inscription last appeared on the transitional 1966-68 501xx 501 model and was not reintroduced until 1987. 

9.
The inscription “Every Garment Guaranteed” indicates a model produced until about 1963. The 501XX Jeans used to have this inscription on the Two Horse patch above the lot and size numbers, but it appears that this indication was dropped during 1963. 

10.
What material is “The Two Horse” patch made of? If the one on your 501’s is leather they were manufactured before 1954, when the leather patch was phased out in place of a thicker Jacron (faux leather) one.

2023 is an important year for Hip Hop, especially for its aesthetic definition, which ties in with a landmark collection for the entire movement: the adidas Chile20. Born with the 1962 football World Cup, for which the first Chile20 collection was designed, now the German brand celebrates the 50th anniversary of the collection with a campaign that will feature Foot Locker stores in Via del Corso in Rome and Corso Vittorio Emanuele in Milan.

adidas and Foot Locker thus celebrate what has been and still is a cultural phenomenon, but also a milestone in the birth of an artistic expression for the entire streetwear movement. The Chile20 collection over the years has paved the way for Hip Hop artists, letting them feel part of a subcultural movement that has expanded over the years, influencing culture on many levels.

The new campaign thus celebrates the past but looks to the future of the style, choosing a unisex approach in the colors of the two tracksuits, presented in the “Alumina” and “Chalk Brown” colorways. The importance of adidas’ legacy is highlighted by the oversized three stripes and trefoil placed prominently on the garments.

For the launch, adidas and Foot Locker chose to cement the importance of the community of fans and the connection between Chile20 and music. Buying a piece of the collection in the Milan and Rome stores from March 18th to 26th, the clients will receive a poster zine. Inside poster zines there will be 1x “golden ticket” per store, that will give you access to the drawing of a special sound box, microphone, headphones and everything you need to record new music on the road.
The new Chile 20 collection starts from its roots and goes beyond its artistic history, able to embrace styles, trends, movements and figures that have defined part of pop culture for half a century.

I have to be honest, I’m a little biased in writing this article, camp collar shirts are my favorite fetish in recent years.

Perhaps best known as bowling shirts, cuban shirts, cabana shirts, alpha shirts or safari shirts, (yes, too many names you are right), shirts characterized by the camp collar have made a comeback as a must-have in men’s wear and beyond.

A casual item that, however, at the same time represents a very valid alternative on occasions when the outfit required is more elegant, a transversal piece if there is one.
As I said, the names this garment carries are many and this is the result of its multifaceted and debated history, but let’s try to shed some light and try to tell the story.

The origins of the camp collar shirt can be traced back to the late 19th century, with some saying it came from the Philippines, some from Mexico, and some saying it originated in Cuba via Spain. I lean toward the latter, partly because it was Cuban workers who popularized it in the United States with the mass exodus to Miami and later to New York after the Cuban exile in 1959.

Called “Guayabera”, the shirt had (and still has of course) an extremely comfortable fit, and that very wide, flat collar gave the wearer a little more “breathing room” while working in the sun and gripped by the scorching heat.

As early as the 1930s, the camp collar became a garment worn outside of work and as an informal alternative to a suit and tie, but it was not until after ’59 that it quickly and permanently conquered the United States as well.

Thanks to breakthrough figures such as Elvis, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Sean Connery’s James Bond, Marlon Brando, Al Pacino’s Tony Montana, Ernest Hemingway, and so many others who routinely wore it in their spare time, the Cuban shirt became the ultimate expression of high-profile casual.

Today the camp collar shirt has forcefully entered the collections of major fashion brands (see Prada with the “Bowling shirts” or Aimé Leon Dore with the “Rico“), empirically substantiating the aesthetic and historical value of an iconic item.

“Who is Rod Dixon?” This is the question that Milan’s citizens have seen in recent days around the city. The answer is to be found in the history of Saucony.The brand is celebrating its 125thanniversary by celebrating right in Milan – with a special takeover of the iconic newsstand in PiazzaXXIVMaggio – the figure of the New Zealand athlete defined as the “rockstar of running,” who in the 1980s linked his name and sporting successes to Saucony, giving birth to one of the brand’s most iconic running shoes: the DXN Trainer.

Visualizza questo post su Instagram

Un post condiviso da Collater.al Magazine (@collater.al)

Rod Dixon has been a true running legend. In 1972 he won an Olympic bronze medal in Munich in the 1500m flat but it was first in 1980, then with his astonishing success in the 1983 New York City Marathon that his talent became linked with that of the brand born on the banks of the Saucony River in Kutztown, Pennsylvania.
The nickname “running rock star” comes from Dixon’s unconventional style and multifaceted talent that has allowed him to collaborate with the “Original Running Brand” as a true designer, creator, tester and face of the DXN Trainer, which Saucony will produce for him for the rest of his career.
On the occasion of this historic anniversary, the model born together with the legend of Dixon makes its return in the Originals collection, the division of the brand that re-proposes classic models of running derivation, reinterpreting them in a lifestyle key.

From March 24 to 26, therefore, Milan is the city chosen to celebrate the return of the DXN Trainer, with a citywide guerrilla marketing activity that will end with an event and DJ set at the newsstand in Piazza XXIV Maggio.
The activity is dedicated to the brand’s entire community of fans and those who would like to discover the story of “The Flying Kiwi” – as Rod Dixon was also called – also told through a special tabloid. 

What were once some of the most innovative performance shoes in the industry, thanks to the collaboration between Saucony and Rod Dixon, are now also a piece of brand and sports history.With the Milan event, what precisely in sports is called “legacy” will be celebrated, a legacy that becomes a model for change, a bar to be measured against; a concept central to the sports narrative and to that of great figures who have innovated their field, icons like Rod Dixon and Saucony.