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Jeans: By Maxine Carter-Lome, publisher

The Iconic American Style

rom 19th century miners and railroad and jean aficionados, it is pre-1970s jeans
workers to the cowboys of the Old and denim clothing items from brands
FWest, hippies, rock stars, fashion such as Levi’s, Lee, and Wrangler that
models, and adults and children of all ages, define vintage style. These heritage
blue jeans are part of the well-worn clothing brands, still in business, see this moment
that has defined American style for almost in time as an opportunity to regain their
175 years. relevance and re-assert their dominance
Today, new jeans can cost upwards of in a marketplace that for the last 60 years
hundreds of dollars depending on the has chased the latest designers and design
designer and brand; however, 19th century iterations of denim chic. These older
denim workpants now command jeans have a look and feel that has
upwards of six figures at auction. Just proven timeless, and a story behind their
recently, a pair of five-button workpants, brand that is purely Made in America.
possibly worn by a miner and recovered
from an 1857 shipwreck after spending LEVI STRAUSS
more than a century in a passenger’s
trunk at the bottom of the sea, sold When it comes to American jeans –
A pair of Levi’s jeans from the for $114,000 at a Holabird Western and auction values – all roads lead
1880s found down an abandoned Americana auction. Also this past year, a back to San Francisco businessman
New Mexico mine was sold at pair of 1880s Levi’s found in a mine
auction for a total of $87,400 at shaft sold for more than $87,000 at an Levi Strauss.
an Aztec, New Mexico auction. Aztec, New Mexico auction. One It is said that Strauss, a Bavarian
They are flecked with wax over the hundred and twenty-five years after The oldest known pair of jeans were immigrant, brought denim to America
legs from where the original owner Solomon Warner, a storekeeper in the among 270 Gold Rush-era artifacts in 1853, establishing a wholesale dry
labored under candlelight. discovered on board the 1857 goods business in San Francisco selling
Arizona Territory, purchased his blue shipwreck of the S.S. Central
jeans, they sold for nearly $100,000 in America or “Ship of Gold” off the imported clothing, fabric, and other
dry goods to the small stores opening
2018 through Daniel Buck Auctions. coast of North Carolina in 2014. all over California and other Western
The denim was produced at a mill in The pants alone sold for a states during the Gold Rush years.
New Hampshire, and the jeans were whopping $114,000 at Eighteen years later in Reno,
manufactured by Levi’s in San Francisco. Holabird Western Americana Nevada, a tailor named Jacob Davis
While “antique” denim workpants Collections in Reno, Nevada.
are becoming rising-value items at recognized a problem in the making of
auction, it is pre-worn “vintage” jeans that are the hot
new fashion finds in the consumer and resale market-
place. Here, vintage is defined as pre-21st century;
however, for a piece of apparel to qualify as vintage it
must also comprise stylistic elements relevant to the
brand and trends of those times.
In today’s vintage marketplace, fit, style, designer,
and condition (when it comes to jeans, well-worn can
be a good thing) drive consumer demand so the market
is made up of everything from authentic pre-worn
1893 Levis made in San Francisco goods to re-issues of iconic styles, deadstock, runway
from cotton denim produced at the
Amoskeag mill in Manchester, N.H. relics of designer denim, and new upcycled pieces made
from reworked old jeans. However, for true collectors
photo: Daniel Buck Auctions
Levi Strauss (left) sitting with his family
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