Vintage Levi's Deadstock 701
Maker - Levi's
Era - Early 50s
Fabric - Cotton, 3x1 denim
Acquired - 2 sept 2017 by Second Sunrise
Levi's started making jeans 1873 but it wasn't until 1939 that they made their first womens fit. It was named 701 and the first version was made as a female style of the already well known 501, with details that were typical for the time such as a red tab at the backpocket and the chinchback for adjusting the width of the waist. The ones we have is a later version of the 701's, and were made to meet the standards of the American lifestyle after the second world war. This was a time when America's economy was good and appreciating ones leisure time became more popular, and Levi's started to produce casual clothes for everyday life.
During this time a new kind of amusement park started to become popular for families dreaming of the cowboy life. The "Dude ranches" were farms where the families living in the cities could go to experience how life on a ranch could be. These people needed proper clothes to suit the lifestyle, and thats one of the reasons that these jeans were growing in popularity.
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These jeans are cut high in the waist and as you can see waistband label features Hip measurements along with the standard Waist and Length. The patches on the 701's were printed on a piece of cloth, instead of stamped in leather as on the 501 from the same period.
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The signature red tab was introduced in 1936. This version is called a single sided red tab, meaning that there is text only on the front of the tab which dates the pants to pre 1955. This red tab is known as Big E or capital E, and can be seen on garments made by Levi's from 1936-1971. After -71 it's told that someone at Levis wanted to change the text in order to spell it with just a capital L, to pay respect to the founder of the brand. Only the E that was effected by this change, and went from from "E" to "e".
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Zipper fly and hidden back pocket rivets.
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Conemar zipper. It is said that the zipper was introduced to make the pants more appealing to the people living on americas east coast, but Im not sure if it's true or not. It was however used on the 501 model from 1954 aswell.
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Regarding the fabric, Levis used a special denim with a signature pink line selvage on the 701. It's slightly lighter than the fabric used in the 501 and it's also sanforized to prevent shrinkage from start.
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Our good friend Miriam was kind enough to try the jeans on, to give us an opportunity to show them worn. Luckily, they were just perfect in size! We also just started carrying the reproduction, and you can find it right here!
Read last weeks blog post about our Levi's Deluxe shirt here!
Thanks Ramzan ali!
//Douglas
Beautiful