Sometimes luck simply shines your way. I recently had the opportunity to buy a vintage Levi’s 507XX from late 1950’s. For me this has long been a grail piece. As I’m very interested in the denim reproduction scene and loads of my favorite jeans are based on the Cone denim Levi’s used during the 1950’s I’ve always craved the real deal. Having visited BerberJin, Marvin’s and all the other amazing vintage stores in Tokyo I knew it was good. But it sure is something else being able to scrutinize and compare the fabrics of Warehouse, TCB, Roy, Denime, Evisu etc. with the original.
No surprise, but the vintage Levi’s 507XX needs some loving repairs on one sleeve to be worn again and will probably get some sashiko repairs by my good friend Johan that runs Dye for Indigo.
One of the ways to date the jacket is the yellow bartacks on the chestpockets. On the earlier versions of the 507XX the bartack is black. I’ve also had a discussion over on Denimbro with Dr Heech over the pock marks on the rivets. From 1953 Levi’s started stamping rivets and you often find “17” stamped on the 507XX. Going by the word of Doc we don’t know much about the pock marks except it has mostly been seen on pieces around the late 50’s and early 60’s.
