Denim Deep Dive
How to determine if a pair of jeans is true blue vintage
Alexandra Stevens
Instagram
Hi there! My name is Alex, and I’m the owner and operator of St. Evens, an online vintage shop. This is the second installment of the Vintage Detective, in which I take you through the process of dating and identifying vintage garments. Every single element of a piece can give clues as to when it might have been made, and those clues give us a deeper understanding of fashion and textile history. “Vintage” is widely accepted as referring to a garment that was made at least 20 years ago.
If you’re anything like me, a great pair of vintage jeans is a staple of your wardrobe. They’re comfortable, don’t need to be laundered frequently, hold up to decades of use, and go with just about everything! Finding a pair of vintage jeans is a really exciting moment, but how can you tell if the jeans you just pulled off the rack are actually vintage?
Here’s how I verify whether a pair of vintage-looking jeans are the real deal.
1. Where were they made?
“Made in the USA” is a good indicator that the piece you’re looking at was most likely made over 20 years ago, although when it comes to denim, it can be easier to find specifics when it comes to certain brands. The most popular vintage denim you’ll come across is from a handful of companies: Levi’s, Wrangler, and Lee, followed by less plentiful but still common labels like Guess, Gap, Jordache, and Calvin Klein. The great thing about bigger brands is that their history is usually documented and major changes within the brand were newsworthy to the general public. For many of these brands, their shift away from American-made products made headlines because that choice meant the closure of stateside factories, and, along with that, the loss of manufacturing jobs.
Levi’s halved their domestic manufacturing by 1995, and closed their last US factory in 2003 . A few “premium” styles of newer denim are being made in America again in recent years, but these jeans will be visibly new (look at the inner tags, and the condition/fading of the leather logo tab).
Wrangler operated in the US until 1994. The “Wrangler Rooted” collection of made-in-America denim was introduced in 2019 to bring some manufacturing back stateside and can be differentiated from vintage Wranglers by its branded tag.
I had a hard time finding any additional sources on the manufacturing of Lee jeans, but, according to Wikipedia (which cites an article published in The Hindu Business Line), this brand has been made in India since 2005.
Contemporary Levi’s: Multiple fabric tags, made in China. Information is translated into many different languages, and “care for our planet” has been added to the care tag to promote Earth-friendly brand ethics.
Vintage Levi’s: Made in the USA. Super simple papery-textured tag with no translations or extra information.
2. Who were they made for?
Levi’s has long been at the forefront of denim. Levi Strauss and his partner, tailor Jacob W. Davis, invented jeans in 1873. The brand wouldn’t introduce their first line of jeans specifically for women, Lady Levi’s, until 1934. Lee introduced their first women’s line more than a decade later, in 1947, with their Lady Lee Riders (which were recently reissued). These styles immediately caught on with women who lived more rural, outdoor lifestyles on ranches and farms, most of whom had already been wearing men’s jeans for years. Despite their niche popularity, ladies denim wasn’t widely available for several decades. Most American women simply didn’t wear pants until the post-World War II era.
Any vintage jeans you come across that are specifically marketed to women are very likely from the 1960s or later. Significantly less women’s denim was being made prior to this time, and it was mostly worn for work, making it less likely to have survived in good condition. Some things to look for when differentiating between “men’s” and “women’s” jeans: women’s sizing, traditionally feminine cuts to accommodate curves, decorative embellishments, and labels that include words like “ladies,” “women,” or “miss.”
3. What’s the fabric content?
As ubiquitous as they may seem now, stretch jeans didn’t exist for the first 100+ years of denim history. The very first stretch jeans were created by British designer Peter Golding in 1978. The first wave of stretch denim incorporated a very small amount of elastane, also known as Spandex, usually only about 1-3%. Any jeans with a much higher amount of stretchy fibers are most likely contemporary and a result of trends like the super skinny jean and the jegging, both of which didn’t emerge until the 2000s.
Generally, jeans with less than 95% cotton are probably not vintage. The exception to this is denim made of a cotton/poly blend, such as the “Avondale” denim introduced by Wrangler in the 60s. This blended fiber was advertised as able to stay smooth without ironing, but it is not a very stretchy fabric.
4. Who made it?
Many brands have embedded themselves into the American fashion lexicon in a surprisingly short amount of time. Companies like True Religion, J Brand, Rock & Republic, and Seven for All Mankind weren’t created until the 2000’s, meaning jeans made by these brands aren’t vintage — yet! A quick online search of most brands can give you a window of how long they have been around, narrowing down the possible era for your jeans.
For most major denim brands, there are detailed timelines for when certain styles and labels were released or discontinued. Doing a web search for the specific brand you’re looking at can help guide you in identifying features used by that specific company.
5. What trends does the style reflect?
As with all fashion trends, many of the popular denim styles from past eras have come back around, blurring the line between true vintage and “vintage inspired.” If you’ve already used other clues to identify a piece as vintage, certain style cues can help narrow down the possible decade based on what denim trends were popular at what time.
Pre-1960s: Jeans were considered work clothes; they were practical with little to no decorative elements, straight leg, medium or high rise, and generally looser and boxier fit. Jeans were associated with cowboys, ranchers, and farmers and were often Western in style.
60s: The beginning of fashion denim meant more fitted styles and the introduction of a variety of lengths and washes. Flares and boot cut jeans were both very popular. Fashionable celebrity tastemakers like Brigitte Bardot and Cher helped drive the trends of the time.
70s: Fashion generally became more creative during this era. Popular styles included flares and bell bottoms, a crisp front pleat down each leg, flap pockets, overalls and jumpsuits, patchwork, o-ring zippers, raw hems, jeans without pockets, and lower rises. The arts and crafts movement of the time lent itself to lots of DIY embroidery, alterations, and embellishments. The late 70s saw a rise in punk-inspired styles, which were skinnier, tighter, and in darker washes.
80s: Women’s jeans started to be marketed in much sexier ways than years past, with styles becoming even tighter and more form-fitting. Hip-hop culture also hugely influenced fashion at the time, increasing the popularity of looser, baggy styles. Major 80’s trends include acid wash, tapered legs, cropped and cuffed jeans, super light washes, embroidered back pockets, pleat-front and paper bag styles (all features that we attribute to “mom jeans”). The 80s marked the beginning of pre-distressed styles, which are usually easy to spot because they’re more uniform and intentional than naturally-occurring wear.
90s: Pre-distressed fading and holes made through methods such as sandblasting and stonewashing continued to rise in popularity. Popular 90s trends included button fly closures, straight leg and boot cuts, ultra-baggy and wide-leg jeans (JNCO!), overalls, and the beginning of low-rise. For the most part, jeans were relatively simple during this time with a lot of styles in straight cuts and medium to dark washes.
2000s: While the very earliest styles from this era are technically vintage now, at this point most of the trends from the aughts just look “dated” in the eyes of a secondhand shopper. Popular styles include high contrast stitching, super low rises, blinged-out rhinestone mania, super skinny jeans, lacing (most often in brown suede or faux suede), jeans without pockets, colorful and patterned jeans, and capris. Jeggings entered the scene around 2009, widely changing what the general public considered to be jeans.
Naturally occurring distress occurs in spots that are stretched and rubbed most frequently. Natural wear can most often be found at the knees, hems, crotch, and around the belt loops.
Pre-distressed denim can be very convincingly done, but generally has a much more uniform and “perfect” look than genuine wear. Holes are usually artfully placed around knees and thighs, and often include spots (as shown here) where only one direction of the weave has been removed, leaving behind an large, unbroken section of white thread.
Does reading all this have you dreaming of your own pair of perfectly distressed vintage jeans? Check out wearStEvens.com for a fresh new collection of ALL denim pieces! Vintage jeans, cutoffs, and jackets were just released to the website today. Through the month of March, 20% of all sales are being donated to the Chicago Period Project, a nonprofit that provides menstrual products to people in need in the Chicago area.
Want to know more about vintage history, or have your own personal vintage item that you’d like to have help dating? Find me on Instagram at @wear_st.evens. I’m happy to help you best identify any pieces you might already own, and if it’s a good candidate, we could feature your garment here on Slow Notion.
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