Levi's Vintage.. The collectibles legacy goes on..

Having a collector's hobby in heart since a child, i used to collect stamps, coins, marbles, bottle caps to name a few, but since I grew out of it and sold most of my collections away due to lost of interest, I have found a new hobby which really excites me due to it's vintage value and collectivity asset..

Figure 1: Modern Levi's 554 versus a Levi's Big E 503BXX

The newfound collection which interests me are workwears, which are used for more than a decade ago for hard labour which now has already found its way to the modern fashion industry. This interest has made me an avid collector searching every possible for a pair of these fabled jeans which are Levi's Big E jeans..

Figure 2: Levi's 503BXX Redline jeans with "NOTICE" care tag.

Since I started to have this line of collection hobby last few months ago, I have only managed to collect three pairs of Levi's Big E jeans which are repros made in Japan, still however, being a die hard fan of Levi's Vintage Collection, I am proud to own these pair of narrow loom specially made selvedge jeans..

These jeans are made from tough XX denim which are used for the old original pair during the olden times, the original riveted pair of jeans was patented by Levi's on the 20th May 1853, that is the one of the reasons I chose Levi's Vintage Collection as a part of my collection..

 

Figure 3: The V-stitch and doughnut shaped buttons on the Levi's Big E 702 XX.

The selvedge running along the outer seams of the jeans are also known as redlines or akaimimis which is "red ears" in Japanese. The selvedge in a pair of Levi's jeans are an indication if the pair of jeans is vintage or a vintage reproduction (Levi's Vintage Collection). There are other ways to know if a certain pair of jeans is vintage or not.

The selvedge is not only made out of redlines but also have bluelines which are trademarks of vintage Levi's jeans. However the first generation of Levi's vintage jeans are made up of duck cloth which has white lines or "white ears" in Japanese.

Figure 4: My pair of raw Levi's 702 XX Big E which has a vintage cinch.

I have a few modern levi's jeans which carries the small e on the red tab. Really love the quality of the material and also the unique design of the jeans. The small e on the red tab means that the jeans were made on the 1971 est. above. If the levi's jeans have a red tab with the big "E", those jeans were vintage and were made before 1971. 

An authentic and original vintage pair of Levi's jeans will always have a single number or letter stamped onto the top button. Never version of Levi's Vintage Collection jeans have tripple digits stamped onto the top button, for example 555 for United States of  America reproduction or J22, J09  for Japanese reproduction.

Figure 5: Levi's 503B XX has button stamps J22 on all fly button.