Levi’s “Nevada” Jean c.1880

Back view of  the “Nevada” Jean

Not too long ago, I had the pleasure of visiting the Levi Strauss archives in their San Francisco headquarters and was treated to an inspection of the oldest existing pair of jeans. Called the “Nevada” jean, due to it’s discovery at the bottom of a Nevada mine shaft in the 1990′s. The historians at Levi’s pegged the age of the Nevada to be around 1880. Amazingly, this pair survived for over 100 years down in the dry Western underground climate of the mine.

As the Levi’s historian told me, to find old pairs of jeans down in the mines is not uncommon. Levi Strauss began business with the purpose of supplying mining men with extra rugged clothing to withstand the abuse of their day-to-day work.  The miners would often change in and out of their Levi’s work clothing down in the mines, and so naturally some pairs would be left behind.  Luckily for us, someone left this particular pair for us to ogle over in the next millennium. Denim aficionados would give their right arm to have this piece of history in their collection. And thank goodness that the wise people at Levi’s are fanatical denim aficionados themselves – they paid just shy of $50,000 for the Nevada when it went up for auction after being found. Hence, the white gloves you see me sporting in the below picture.

The well-worn and repaired fly of the “Nevada” Jean

It’s interesting to note the imperfect stitching on the seams and decorative Levi’s signature “Arqueit” stitch on the back pocket (top picture). As this pair was made before the arrival of modern double-stitch high speed power sewing machines, all needle work was likely made by hand mechanized single-stitch machines. All double rows of stitching were made by two individually sewed rows (not a fast production line, to state the obvious).
In any case, the result of the seamstress’ labor is beautiful and has stood the test of time.

Holding the actual article alongside the official librarian to the Levi’s Archives

The “Nevada” shown in the Levi’s Vintage Clothing Book.

I have quite a few more pictures from my day at the archives that I’ll be sharing later on. Not just denim either- Levi’s has an amazing archive of Western cowboy and workwear shirts too.

Author: Andrew Payne