In My Funky Jeans: My Foray Into Vintage Levi’s

How It Started

It all began at Buffalo Exchange. I had recently been hired as a buyer and was in the process of leaning about the mind boggling variety of Levi’s produces over the years. And then it hit me, some of the pieces of clothing I had my hands on were older than me. This realization sparked an interest in everything denim and pushed me to find out more about the different ways you can date your jeans.

How It’s Going

I’ve since started a small collection of vintage Levi’s of my own. Through looking at different eras of denim i’ve come across a few ways to idntify if your pair is vintage or not. *For the sake of this convo vintage is defined as 20+ yrs old*

1. Check the back patch. If the little leather patch cantina the words “Made in the U.S.A” you’ve probably got an older pair of denim on your hands.

2. Check the inside tag. If its a small paper tag with the word “Made in the U.S.A” printed on it, congrats, you’ve got a vintage pair of Levi’s

3. Check the date on the tag. On most older pairs of Levi’s the style code (501, 505, 511, etc.) will be printed on the back of the inside care tag. To the right of this style code is the date code. Most date codes read in two-digit month and year format. If the date on the tag is over 20 years old, you’ve got vintage jeans!!