Act naturally

I was overjoyed to travel to Tennessee last autumn, for a story on natural indigo which runs in this month's Wallpaper*.
I wouldn't have been quite so overjoyed had I know that the new fabric would be the last developed and loomed at the historic White Oak plant in Greensboro. Words fail me on that subject right now, so instead here's photo gallery from my trip to the indigo fields, plus a Q&A with Allen Little, who designed that wonderful fabric, used for last season's LVC 1880s repro of a pair of jeans in the Levi's archives named Stumpy.

Tell me about how you developed the new natural indigo fabric.

It was a group development like a lot of our LVC. They typically have a theme, we meet with Paul [O'Neill] and his team to get the flavour. This particular one, was a little different. The 1880s jeans predate the 501, so it is earlier than the 501 fabric. Paul and Stacia [Fink] hand-carried the jeans to me in Greensboro and we had a meet. It’s an unusuall pair of jeans that they call it Stumpy! We laid it out...and looked at the fabric. When they show us something like we can’t [destroy part of] it. We have to look closely, and also go though out own collection of old fabrics so we understand it. From a construciton standpoint we try and go back in time and understand what level of technology existed or did not exist, from the construction, there’s all sort of character caused by problems with lack of technology So we created some yarns to mimic the fabric. This one has a lot of different qualities, there’s the lack of process control, character details, nepping As far as the natural indigo part, we had a source [Linda Bellos] who we met a long time ago … we were happy with the results and it made sense to do it in natural indigo, produced in the USA so here we are again a lot of years later with .

How long did it take to work out?
It took about two months for this fabric.

Does using natural indigo change the dyeing process?
We apply it the same way, the concentration of natural tends to be lower so we have to compenstate for that. But from years to year we evaluate the propertyies, the plants grow some years better than others.. so for us it’s a matter of binding the crop and keeping it [consistent].

How does the natural indigo vary?

We want to make sure we have the whole crop represented. The very first vegetables are typcially young and tender, then less and less so as the season goes . To make sure we don’t have a problem with the dyeing size [there is] proper blending and mixing of the early to the mid to the last harverst. And we have procedures where we are checking the storage and we have procedures for seeing it gets mixed early and doesn’t settle. All thing we don’t have to do with the synthetic.

The natural indigo jeans I’ve worn often look different... but in general the dye seems to sink further into the yarn, is there a reason for that?

I think your basic assumption is correct. Any producer can create an effect, let’s say they don’t like it to penetrate, so you have it chip off easily [like with] some of the Japanese jeans, where it’s on the very surface of the yarn. We have a dyeing methodology [that’s different from] that. But if you do something different along the way, in dyeing or preparation, there are all sorts of things that affect it; how tight the yearns are, temperatures, the acidity of the dye. For natural indigo I think, at least for us, we want to dye it just like it was when natural indigo was used. There was no tweaking of any of the chemistry involved in the dyeing. But [even without tweaking, natural] indigo does wash down different.

I’m full of admiration for this project, which goes right back down to the very beginnings of Levi’s and Cone.
It’s been very exciting. It’s plant-based so it’s much more sustainable and that’s very important for us. It’s part of our heritage... the first ]Cone] fabric was a shuttle fabric. It has its own look for sure, it is a little redder than some but it truly doesn’t look like anything we’ve dyed before. For me.. as a development person, this is the best project you could ever give me, it’s so iconic.

I'll be your mirror: LVC's lefty 1976 jeans

I'll update this post later, but I told friends I'd post photos of the pair of LVC 1976 mirror jeans that I was privileged to open in the mail recently.

The inspiration came when Cone Mills decided to put back into service an old G Series loom that was on display in their reception (I photographed the loom during my visit and will try and locate the photo soon). The loom still had a bolt of fabric, which it was weaving just before the venerable machine's retirement. Levi's staff were overjoyed and talked of making some jeans from the deadstock fabric - before realising it was a left-hand twill. Levi's 501 is famously right-hand twill. How could they turn from left to right? Easy! Make these mirror image jeans.

There are, I've been told, around a dozen pairs using the original fabric. I was lucky enough to be in the office around the time they came up with the idea. The kind, crazy people offered me a pair... and unlike so many people in the planet followed up on their promise. So these are one of a dozen or so pairs using the deadstock fabric.

It was strange for me to open up a pack with these jeans, as they are so strongly evocative of so many new pairs I've owned. They're a very authentic cut, as the pattern was taken from a deadstock pair of originals  - when taking a pattern from worn, washed jeans, more guestimates are obviously involved. There will be a limited edition of 501 mirror jeans, using fabric which replicates the original run. And the other good news is there will be a regular reissue of the right hand twill version, at a lower price. These are a very distinctive shape, high waisted, carrot shape - a cut which I reckon is very popular right now. Makes a great change from the usual 50s and 60s shapes, and it will be fascinating to see how all versions, using the deadstock and the repro fabric, look as they wear in.

The G series loom was used for training. Hence the deadstock fabric has loom errors, presumably from when it was set up to demonstrate how to configure a left hand twill. So actually, these are MOSTLY left hand twill!

Gripping Yarns part 2: a hairy experience

It took a photographer, Farhad Samari, to express it best: the yarns are the foundation on which denim is built.

This second part of my interview with Allen Little, who designed many of Cone's finest yarns, covers some fairly esoteric subjects; in particular the hairiness of denim, and where that comes from, and the folk tales about "unbleached" fill yarns. Odd bits didn't make the edit; we did speak about Zimbabwe cotton, about which he was complimentary - although we didn't have time to discuss whether it's really long staple (it isn't, in the strict sense). My apologies that I have no more photos of the spinning process; you'll have to look at the previous Q&A for those. Instead, here are my photos of the loom floor, from January 2009.

There's a tendency from many companies, who produce selvage denim, to over-do the slubbiness, isn't there?
I think so, I think there is a lot of mechanically programmed denim that people call vintage that is very far away. You have to remember, people tried to make the best quality they could at the time. When they over-exaggerate the unevenness of the yarn, it becomes something else.

What're your thoughts on hairiness?  A lot of people prefer almost an early '80s style denim, which is very hairy, and that's become associated with a vintage look. Hence there's this belief that the only good denim is hairy. What's your take on that?
The old yarns were ring spun and therefore [somewhat] hairy,  but hairiness a lot of time comes from speed, and the newer machinery tends to run a lot faster. For some of our vintage fabric we have different levels of how much hair we leave on in its finished state. I don't agree it's all gotta be hairy, it all wasn't hairy. I think it's a mixture.

How much did the original cotton vary? For instance, today in terms of staple lengths, you average your cotton stock,for consistency. But we'd be talking about massive variability in the early days, what effect did that have?
It had a major impact. In the old days the goal was to make the yarns the same, as best they could. But they couldn't. Our family were farmers as well as spinners... you have to think about many conditions…seed, soil type, climate conditions,  there was no (or little) irrigation and various farming techniques.  all these things came into effect from year to year, crop to crop. They had little control. Think about various machinery though the years, and the different geographic regions, the effect of insects, the poorer quality of fertilisers, exposure to sunlight and rainfall and all this affected the cotton. The mills were trying their best to create the same product but mother nature and climate affected everything, and I think the denim changed because of that.

Mills would in general use longer cultivars of short staple cotton. Did that stay the same or vary?
The staple length of the cotton has a lot do to with climate and the length of the year they grew in. Cottons today are designed for the region that they grow in, for instance to cope with lower rainfall. Back then, the length of the fibre and the thickness of the fibre had a lot to do with mother nature. Even today, with all the techniques, irrigations, the same farmer can plant one field one year, and the next year [the staple length] can be significantly longer. Back then, cotton properties were evaluated by a cotton classer which was a person measuring by hand.  In today's world, we have automated testing equipment so we know more about the cotton that we purchase. Transportation is also easier and more accessible; in the old days you would take cotton that was geographically closer.

Some people like Texas cotton, because it's hairier, shorter staple, associated with that '70s look. Did Cone move to Texas at any point, did the source change?
Cone started with cotton that was close in proximity to the mills.  As transportation was became more accessible, I think there was a move into the Texas cotton... and I think the Texas cotton can be typically shorter [staple length] because of lack of rainfall, in the state as a whole and other factors. It's very good cotton for denim. Then of course North Carolina used to [provide] a lot of cotton, South Carolina and the  states across the Mississippi valley, we call that Delta cotton , that Delta cotton is good cotton.[But] Texas cotton per se... the cotton is not hairy it's the properties of the cotton,  the yarn's hairier because the cotton is a tad shorter with more short fibre content. [But] it's a generalisation that Texas cotton is more hairy, it is due to the properties of the spinning that makes the yarns more hairy.

What about shades of cotton – does that vary a lot?
It does.just another challenge of cotton milling. Cotton comes in various shades of yellow up to cream, you see denim in different shades just due to the colour of the cotton and climate which make it difficult [to reproduce]. But we try to address that in our vintage denim, we try to address those issues also..  we take other techniques to try and generate the variability in the cotton colour, we try to address that more on a yarn construction and can control some of that in dyeing.

I've heard talk of 'unbleached' cotton - was fill yarn ever bleached?
Bleach and cotton don't like each other, that's just a function of.. a particular year crop.. a particular geographic region. We mention the 1915 fabric. Some cotton tends to be much more yellow. If you've seen that piece of denim we have addressed that in the fill yarn to make it look like one of the more yellowish cottons. We do that using different techniques... I have to be careful. There's a variety of ways, you can pick a certain colour cotton, there are ways to colour the cotton to create a certain look and you can definitely buy different cotton varieties that have different colour, different regions and different varieties have different colours.

Is there a yarn you're particularly proud of?
Proud? I really like the XX15, that's a special one, what you call the 1915 fabric. I like them all but that's a favourite, I like the 1960…   and then we have another vintage, similar to the 1915 it's a little different, rougher - the 1950s one which has our special yarn almost like the 1915. I'm a textural person, I like more character and uneven-ness.

Sometimes I'm staggered by the depth of knowledge, and love, of fabric from people who've been in the industry for a long time, like you or Ralph Tharpe.
That's called, being born in a doff box as I was once told when I was a boy. A doff box is a box where, on the old spinning machines, you put the bobbins of yarn in. As far as the people I meet that have that... the knowledge they bring to the table is pure magic.

Gripping yarns: a Q&A with Cone's Allen Little

 Denim nerds love talking about selvage edges, and looms. But really when we're do so, we're overlooking something more vital: the yarns. Different looms do have a different effect - but really, it's the yarns that contribute more to the character of denim and how it wears in. 

That's why I was excited to spend hours on the phone with Allen Little, who's undoubtedly one of the world's leading yarn experts. Allen works for Cone, a company that is currently celebrating its 125th anniversary. Cone produce an incredible variety of vintage-style denims, all made on their old Draper looms. But each of those individual denims, will have a specific yarn. Cone are unusual in this respect; although we often think of Japanese mills as boutique operations, they usually buy in their yarns from outside suppliers. Cone, in contrast, design their own. 

Most of us know that many denim manufacturers turned to Open End spinning in the 1980s, and this lost us a lot of character, because the denim was simply too smooth and even.  Hence, from the late 1980s onwards, there was a return to Ring Spun yarn. But beyond the use of Ring Spun yarn, there is almost an infinite variety in the look of what's available. Here Allen gives us an overview of how he reproduces specific yarns of specific eras.

As there's so much information to absorb, I'm running this Q&A in two sections. I will run the second part - which cover hairiness, cotton staple length, and the fiction of 'unbleached cotton' next week. 

The main photos here are from Farhad Samari , from the Inventory story we did together. 

Tell me about your background - I know your roots in the fabrics industry go deep.

I grew up in Wadesboro, North Carolina, and my family had spinning plants, spinning mills, way before I was born, a mill called Little Cotton Manufacturing . So I grew up in that environment – as a boy they allowed me to sweep the floors, I was surrounded by Whitin Spinning Frames. I went on to a textile career and decided to go more into the machinery and design side. So I joined Amsler Tech in Switzerland, a machinery company which make fancy yarn attachments and devices which are primarily aimed at denim; I spent around 10 years travelling round the world, teaching people how to use the machines and how to design the look they were aiming for. Then I came to Cone, which was a very big customer of this company - so finally I came back home, around [11] years ago.

Amsler software and controls are a very modern way of making yarns that look old-fashioned. How has the potential of their systems changed over the years?

It all developed over time. It started as a very crude technology and slub spinning was not really highly regarded. Denim and upholstery were the first things that went into it. Then as denim went from workwear into fashion there was an explosion of the demand. Everything became more complicated, the computer controlling other machines became more complex, the programming became more complex.

It used to be slub spinning was very simple; you just put a thick place in the yarn, and there was not much designing behind it. Then in the '80s the designing became more important. At the beginning, there weren't many people who knew how to design the yarn to give a certain aesthetic for a fabric. So that's what I was fascinated with.. and wondered if I could figure out how to design something that looked really nice and vintage-like, as I was training people how to use the machine. You had to learn how they operated, you also had to learn about also what old denim looked like, and I guess from there the software, and the controls of the slub devices kept advancing until now we've reached the point where it's highly computerised, and some of the designs for software packages that go with the machines are really quite amazing.

Tell me how you'd go about mimicking the yarn on a vintage-style denim. For instance, on LVC most of the denim is loomed in essentially the same way, so it's the yarn and the dyeing that defines the different fabrics. One of my favourite denims you've produced is the LVC 1915; a fabric that's authentic, vintage-looking but subtle. I assume that's one of your yarns - how did you go about developing it?

Yes, I designed that yarn. We were looking at [old] garments… we couldn't cut them apart 'cos they were quite valuable, but we know where the fabric comes from. You had to go back and think about the lack of control we had in the old day. So you're trying to take a computerised system to replicate a lack of control. The uneven-ness that came with the old type of spinning, this unevenness was random. You had many types of problems with the old spinning. Sometimes you had very long uneven sections of the yarn, sometimes you had very short uneven sections. Sometimes you have yarns that are more hairy than other ones. So we had to design yarn to replicate all of that. This particular yarn, we focused on three or four elements we had to reproduce, for each part of the aesthetic value we were looking for.

Looking specifically at LVC which has a wide variety of denim. We have 1915, then for instance, the early '30s, then we're on to wartime denim... was there a different yarn for every one?

We have some that are just different in proportion. They have different arrangements, there are one or two yarns common to some constructions, you learn in the old spinning what your main unevenness factor is, [and] that becomes a staple for some. Depending on where the yarns were made, it really depends on the time era and quality of cotton for a particular build at that time. So each one is unique in its design, but there is some overlapping.

Was recreating a duck fabric hard?

The denim is much more complex. The duck fabric, we did a few tricks to design that but no, from our perspective it was a simpler fabric. We took the same approach, as with anything else you try and mimic, thinking about how it was made originally. Trying to get the colour correct and some natural character to the duck fabric took some work, but it wasn't as difficult as the denim. We've been doing vintage for so long we have the arsenal of tools to do that, and that was more about coming up with a construction, using our existing tools.

In the pre-war Levi's, how radically was the spinning technology changing? If we take, say, the 1915 and the 1937, is there much difference?

There's not so much between them. The bigger advances in spinning were made later.. but back in the very early days things were produced very slowly. As you move from one era to another the yarns are getting a little bit better - but when I say better I don't mean good. The oldest denim is going to be the most uneven, with the most character but they're the hardest denim to reproduce, due to a variety of things. You've got to think about how a mill was powered, for instance if you're running water power, speed and things like that can change. So the denim got better as the years went along – but it wasn't good, technically

In 1940 vs 1915 there are differences in the denim, the ones from 1940 will be better, for instance the dyeing – they learned more about dyeing techniques as time moved on. It presents a challenge, but I think we've done a good job. You just have to try to put yourself back in time, read books about how things used to be done, plus there are old records from Cone, in our archives, and you have make interpretations of all of that.

Obviously the spinning technology was constantly improving. But in the late '50s and '60s you would have introduced Magnadraft spinning, and on that the magnets would have deteriorated over time. How did that affect the look of the denim?

When Magnadraft was working well, with magnets having all the power, it was much better The older denim, the cotton was not prepared as well, it has issues with neps and and parts of cotton left into the yearn, and that all changed during the Magnadraft era as the carding machines did a better job. We created a special yarn to simulate the issues with the Magnadraft, as the magnets lose their power - they don't have as much grip and it creates some unevenness. And that was a random effect. You've got to think a warp of denim is made from many different yarns, obviously we can't reproduce a 1000 different yarns to reproduce the different strengths of the magnets, but we can program it where it looks like it has. And that's a very special unevenness. Because of course this Magnadraft look is a nice look if you're into vintage.

The Cone Factory

I was delighted to see my story for Inventory on Cone finally in print (admittedly, this was a few weeks ago, but I've been busy, putting some heavy wear on my jeans... by sitting typing). The wonderful photos are by Farhad Samari. 

I did several interviews with some intriguing people for this story; I planned to add one with Allen Little, the yarns expert, to this blog, but I've been too busy to edit it properly - it's so chock-full with valuable information that there's a lot to check and I want to follow up a couple of questions with Allen.

So, for those of you who want to find out more about Cone, here's a repost of my interview with Raloh Tharpe, who oversaw many of Cone's finest denims, from my personal website. Ralph has now moved on from Cone, but there's still a lot of valuable information here, which complements the Inventory story.  I'll follow up with Allen when I can...

1: You recently uncovered a cache of stereo photos of life and work at Cone circa 1907. Did they reveal anything new in terms of how the production process was organised in those days? 

 Yes! These photos gave a close up tour of the plant processes in 3D! Moses Cone appears in the background of the dye house photo. Since he died in 1908, we know the pictures were taken between then and the White Oak start up in 1905. The dye house picture shows the old vats used before continuous long chain dyeing was invented. The ropes of yarn (it took four ropes to make a 28"selvage denim) were passed through the vats several times to build the shade, then they were washed and dried. In 2005, we discovered the lost patent granted to White Oak employees in 1921 for the invention of the continuous rope range. This is the same technology used today in every corner of the denim world. This patent is a treasured possession in the White Oak archive. The process of applying starch (slashing) protects the blue lengthwise yarns during weaving. The photo shows the selvage yarns being added to each side of the warp. In the photo we can clearly see 12 spools of white yarn being added. This confirms that the colored selvage came later, and that 12 was the “official” number of ends typically used in the selvage design. In the weaving stereographs we can see the details of the Whitin looms. They were driven by belts coming up through the floor from a line shaft below. Each motor was driving multiple looms. From the Amoskeag book we learned that this type of loom was referred to as a “hand loom”. The term showed up in more than one place in the book. One person explained that the weavers could only work 4 to 6 looms with any efficiency. They were called “hand looms” because the weaver had to stop the loom and replace the empty shuttle with one containing a full bobbin of yarn by hand. The automatic loom was available in 1905 but for reasons that are unclear today, Cone elected not to buy the automatic features. It was interesting to see that the photos included no wet process finishing. The small loom rolls were unrolled across a table for inspection then sent to a folder. The folded cuts of fabric were then doubled over and the outer layers stitched together so that the cut would stay folded properly. Several of these were stacked together, covered with a wrap, and strapped for shipping. We showed you a copy of the “head ticket” that was affixed to top of the “bale” on one end. On the other end a “foot ticket” was placed. The head ticket showed the mill, at that time either Proximity or White Oak, and the foot ticket noted the fabric. The Shipping Manager who retired in the late 1970’s told me the orders would come in for “White Oak head, 2.20 foot” and everyone would know what to do from there. He also told me the story of the customer in Latin America somewhere who wanted to return a shipment because the head ticket was different than what he had been getting. It was just fascinating to see documentation that all the fabric of that very early time was shipped straight off the loom (loom state).

 2: The now-celebrated photo of women standing by their looms features an earlier design, the Whitin loom. How did that differ in operation from the Draper? And when did Cone acquire Draper looms (please say which model if you know)? Did Cone use the same model Draper looms from, say, the 40s to the 70s? Which model ? 

 The technology was essentially the same for the Whitin as for the Draper. We located the documentation that says the Whitin loom was purchased for Proximity and we are fairly sure White Oak started with them as well. Pictures from circa 1907 show no automation for the bobbin change in the shuttle and no warp stop motion. Pictures from 1925 show a battery for automated bobbin changing on the side of the loom. Those looms were probably the Draper E Model (Hopedale) in the narrow configuration for 28" selvage denim. White Oak still had some of these looms in 1985 when the shuttle looms were stopped, but most of the 400 plus shuttle looms at the time were Draper X-2 Model. While the narrow shuttle looms and the White Oak plant design were modern for their time, the American technology fell behind the shuttle loom technology of the 1960s and 1970s. For example, in 1975 Picanol 60+ inch shuttle looms made in Belgium were installed in the new American Cotton Growers denim plant in Littlefield, Texas. German and Japanese loom technology was also better. The American Draper technology just produced a lot of variation that gave character to the product. The lack of precision in the cast iron cams andin the harness motion (springs) contribute to the beautiful character of the denim. these looms on a second level wooden floor alsoproduced subtle variations in the evenness of the fabric. is why we refurbished old Draper X-3 looms and put them back on the same wooden weave room floor where the oldE Models were before. With the same location and the same loom technology we are gently weaving our way into the hearts of many a denim aficionados.

 3: Where did Cone's cotton come from in the early days.? And where does it come from now, for your premium denim?
 Proximity was so named for its proximity to the cotton fields. White Oak used the same cotton. Much of the cotton we used in the 1970's came from West Texas. Today we are back on Carolina cotton for the most part. A small amount of Californian American Pima extra long staple cotton is used for our Black Seed Denim(tm) collection.

4 : In your museum there's a lovely bolt of fabric produced in, I believe, 1905. How would you describe it, technically? 
 Well, it is really beautiful. It was also located in 2005 when we searched through our archives. Technically, it has no finish, that is to say it is loom state. The weave is 2 over 1, right hand twill. This weave is common for lighter weight denim used for farmers' overalls. We would guess it is a "6 dip" indigo shade.

 5: Cone started supplying Levi's around 1915, and was the exclusive supplier from circa 1922. Who else might Cone have been supplying with denim in the 1920s? Do you have a feel for roughly what share of the denim market Cone might have had in the 30s and thereafter? 
 We need to do some research on the customer list of the 1920s. We suspect just about everyone using denim bought from Cone at one time or the other. One figure we saw on market share in the 1930s was 33%. Old brands like Stronghold are documented. We supplied Lee with "Jelt" denim, our style 818. However, the mill in Erwin, North Carolina may have sold the Jelt before Cone. It is another question we need to research.

 6: From the '50s on, Levi's production of the 501 increased hugely, as must Cone's production of denim. What were some of the key changes in the next 20 years, in terms of spinning, dyeing and weaving the denim? From the late '60s, Levi's don't seem to retain their indigo so well, is there a reason for this? 
 The answer to this one could fill a book. The quest for lower cost pushed up the speeds of everything including dyeing. The cost of indigo increased dramatically, and so logically one would expect the mill to conserve all the dye they could. Then in 1975 everything changed forever as Cone introduced sulfur dye to replace part of the indigo. From that point, the colour loss accelerated. Around that same time, stone washing began and the accelerated colour loss became a serendipitous advantage to the jean manufacturer. In the late 1960's and early 1970's open end spinning was introduced. The process was a lot cheaper than the traditional ring spinning, but it changed the look and strength of the denim. Because of the high yarn twist needed and the lack of fiber alignment, the denim produced has a lot more tension to release when it is washed. The denim sort of crinkles during the wash process which results in differential abrasion or color loss. This is referred to by those in the trade as "marbled" or "orange peel" effect. We believe the change to wider shuttle looms started in the 1930's. By the 1950's, much of the styling was done on 42" or wider looms. The selvage all but disappears in the vintage garment trail. Sometimes we find a piece with two of the main four panels with a selvage, but these are pretty rare. The one constant was the 501(r) which remained exclusively XX(r) selvage denim until the early 1980s. The transition to wide shuttle looms was quickly followed by the transition to the high speed shuttle less looms made by Draper and Sulzer. In 1978 Cone began skewing the narrow XX(r) fabric for the purpose of eliminating the leg seam twist that occurs naturally due to the twill weave. If you examine the celebrity pictures in your book closely you can see this problem. It is easy to understand why LS&CO wanted Cone to fix the issue. That was the birth of the "shrink to fit" finish.

 7: Levi's 501 production famously changed from narrow to wide looms around 1983. What were the new looms? Projectile looms? 
 The wide 501® fabric was called XXX. The denim was made on Sulzer projectile looms.

 8: Evisu, and others, famously claim to have bought "Levi's old looms", despite the fact that most of their early jeans were made on Toyoda looms at the Kurabo mill. You investigated what happened to the old looms, what's your description? 
 We are close with our agents in Japan who well know the denim market there. To their knowledge, none of our looms, or any American Drapers ended up in Japan for the purpose of making denim. We have visited a couple of mills and seen photos of others without noticing any American Draper looms. The executive in charge of disposing of the looms in 1985 told me they ended up in a field and as far as he knew they were scrapped for the metal.

 9: Cone reintroduced narrow selvage denim for, I guess, Levi's Capital E reissues in 1992, and later for LVC in 1996. Was it difficult getting the old looms up and running, and what had happened to them in the meantime? 
The looms are modified American Draper X-3 Model. While they are newer than the X-2 or the E Model looms, the technology is nearly the same. They sit on the old wooden floor and beat the heart and soul of White Oak into the denim. It is not for lack of attention that we have almost twice the amount of defects as do Japanese selvage denim. These looms are exceedingly difficult to run efficiently. While you or I may love the defects and wear them as a badge of honour, many of our colleagues who work in the quality area don't feel the same way.

 10: I saw some lovely specialist denims at White Oak, including a selvage broken twill, and the Black Seed denim. What premium selvage denims have Cone produced in the last few years? 
 We are producing both wide denim on shuttle less looms and narrow selvage denim for the premium market. Since 2005 we have been making significant quantities of selvage product in limited runs. We were adding many new things to the selvage line every year and quickly taking them away creating rare and unique product. Lately, we are searching for more volume products for selvage, having found the small runs to be too expensive to support. We were pleased to find our selvage fabrics in jeans sold in Japan and that some mills had even copied our indigo selvage which we used in place of the more common red line. Black Seed Denim(tm) styles are available in both wide and selvage. These are extra soft and extra strong due to the properties of the American Pima cotton used to make them. We are currently working on a brown duck. Our stretch selvage uses a new stretch technology invented at Cone Denim called SGene™. It improves the shape retention properties as well as the strength of the denim. We hope to add another patent to that box in the archive.

Ducks, miners and secret agents: LVC preview, Spring/Summer 2013

A few years ago, the LVC range was suffering from a simple lack of TLC; there was inconsistent supply, and the clothing itself was often repetitive and occasionall uninspired. In the last few years, though, I think they've got their groove back. 

LVC's relatively new policy of supplying a much wider range of clothing has annoyed some diehards, principally because of the "reissue" of fictitious items such as, say, last season's Navy Smock - an item never produced by Levi's. In contrast, though, we've recently seen some of the most accurate, intriguing reissues of LVC's history, like last year's beautiful Triple-Pleat Blouse. I think this year's Spring Summer collection is every bit as intriguing, and I particularly love the emphasis on non-denim items. So, here's a quick run-through of what I reckon are some of the highlights. 

While I'm personally not a devotee of washed items, this range includes some shirts which I think take washed finishes to a new level. In particular, I loved this 1910s Pullover Sunset Gingham Shirt. 

Gingham was a hugely popular fabric in late 1800s USA -  it was also, incidentally, very popular in Japan. I don't know if this is a reissue of a specific shirt from the archives, somehow I doubt it, but it's a beautiful shirt which resonates with many vintage items I've looked at. The wash is one of the nicest I've seen on a repro shirt, and gives a great impression of being bleached by an unrelenting sun. 

Several items are straightforward reintroductions of items we've seen in previous LVC ranges, like this pair of Lot 66 1920s Bib Overalls. I'm not sure of the source of 2 by 1 denim; Cone have supplied similar fabrics to LVC in the past. These are quirky items with beautiful detailing, in particular the bib straps. It's good too see these back in a raw version. Click for a bigger version of the picture. 

One major new step for LVC is the reintroduction of the women's range. For a brief period around 2003, LVC produced some beautiful customised, womens' items - what we have here is in a similar vein, such as this pair of Koveralls, in a customised cut and finish, called Gravel Bank. 

Along the same lines is the women's cropped Type 1 jacket, with three quarter sleeves and a customised A line shape. 

This is a new wash, named Bodie, of the original XX or Nevada jean - once thought to be an alternate version of what became the 501, it's now believed to be the precursor, with more workwear-style detailing, such as the pliers pocket on the left hip, and more widely-spaced stitching on the back pocket. It's a good wash, although to my mind now quite up to the level of some of the landmark LVC by the (mysteriously disappeared) Bart Sights. 

The 1874 Closed-Top Cotton Duck Jumper was one of the most historically-significant recent LVC repros; this is a similar one-pocket version, which IIRC was at one point repro'd by Levi's Japan. This version uses a Cone 2x1 9oz denim in a distinctive wash (if you can call a process that makes fabric dirtier a wash). Like the duck version, this will be a baggy fit, good for layering over other shirts. 

I'm not certain of this, but I believe there is a revision to the details of the raw 1966 501. On the left is the rinsed version, on the right is the raw. The raw had a new arcuate shape, not as shallow of the old one, which to my mind exaggerated the flatness of the original. 1960s arcuates did vary widely in shape, as the tooling used to make them was worn, hence we can't say there's on definitive shape, but I find this one more convincing than the previous version. It's this 1966 jean, of course, which features Cone's evocation of the original slubbier 60s denim, caused by the Magnadraft process. 

New Rinses

In addition, I'm told there's a new, simpler wash to replace the old Rough Rinse. Rough Rinse 501 used Cone fabric but were sewn in Turkey, and given a tinted wash. The new version, Rough Rinse, applies to the 1947 and 1954, and loses the tinted wash - which is a big improvement. 

Other nice items; a White Tag pants and 507 jacket (note the absence of rivets), in a paler Sky Blue denim, a late '60s (or early 70s) Laundry Bag (with oversized pocket) and, going rather further back in time, a Shield Front Henley.







I'm told that 2012 was a high watermark year for LVC, partly due to the James Bond effect; Daniel Craig wore a Menlo jacket in Skyfall, which caused a massive spike in sales (as did Bond's wearing a beautiful pair of Crocket and Jones Islay). It appears that only recently did a Levi's employee notice that one Menlo jacket in their archives is actually fully reversible. Hence this new version.

Now for more of my personal favourites, followed by a quick peek at the fall look.

Anyone who follows this blog will know that I'm intrigued by Levi's early cotton duck items. The very first riveted pants ever made by Jacob Davis were sewn from white duck; and recent research has brought new insights into the fabric used on early Levi's duck items - the wide selvage line suggests the fabric was probably made for ship sails.

Now it appears that Levi's and Cone have developed a new shade of the tan cotton duck, to try and provide a better match to some early samples (it is of course impossible to be completely definitive about fabric colours, due to the ageing process). There is a Youth's Waist Overall in the Levi's archive in a more brick-coloured tan; a second variant of this fabric, it appears, was in a more mustard shade. This is used in a new version of the Single Pocket Duck Waist overalls. Note that this pair feature a double stitched yoke (some early examples had only single stitching or, in some examples, no yoke whatsoever). Note the wide selvage, visible either side of the busted seam. These are very nicely-made items, sewn in LA I believe.







Secondly, we have two beautiful variants of the Triple Pleat Jacket I featured last year. This is one of the simplest, most attractive and indeed earliest Levi's jackets; I was hoping they'd introduce a duck version, and here we have it, in the new Cone fabric. The unadorned, low, riveted pockets give it a very different look from most other blouses; plainer, more utilitarian and to my mind, drop-dead gorgeous.

It's not as abounding in selvage lines as the Duck Jumper, but they're still a beautiful part of the detailing:

This second version was comparatively unexpected; a Triple Pleat in a lighter, indigo gingham. It's like  cross between a jacket and a shirt and would probably work best over a simple T. I'm wondering if this might be a Nihon Menpu gingham - I know they're worked on similar fabrics and supply some shirting fabrics to LVC - but whoever made it, it's unusual and, like the closed top shirt earlier, the wash complements the indigo-and-ecru fabric.

We know from Mike Harris's discoveries that workwear makers often used fabrics they had to hand, such as ticking, so there's historical precedents for this, and I'm told that there are indications Levi's produced early items in ginghams. So this is an interpretation of what might have been available. It's an extremely quirky item - and hence, like a couple of items here, it's possible it will only be stocked at Levi's own XX stores, like Cinch.


 



FInally, a sneak peek at the Fall range. The big news here will be the re-appearance of Orange Tab, all made in the USA.

Orange Tab items were priced slightly lower than the 501, and often came in more fashion-oriented cuts. They also tended to use Open End yarns - this gave a very different look. From the 90s onwards, Rin Ring yarns have become so popular that the Open End versions, once cheaper and hence more mass-market, are consequently becoming more esoteric. Open End yarns can give great fades - not necessarily worse than the classic 50s look, just different. The "new" fabric comes from Cone, and  I believe the new range will include, for men, the 606 Super Slim (Ramones jeans), 605 regular fit, and 607 bootleg. The women's jeans comprise a customised skinny 606, and a bell bottom 648.

The samples I saw are a brilliant evocation of the little e Levi's era, and they come at a time when the originals are prohibitively rare and pricey.