Barrel Jeans
The origins of a trend.
Greetings from my new studio. I’m still figuring out the light. I’m still unpacking – boxes and feelings about the flag’s prominence – but for the most part, this is the backdrop. To celebrate the change (and my being done with the bulk of it), I went back and bought the pricey Levi’s Big E 501s I found while reporting this story for Vogue. What. They were 15% off and, to quote my denim spirit sister Meg Younger, “They’re an heirloom.”
Gosh, they are gorgeous. Selvedge. Untouchable. I’m cuffing them rather than shortening the hems. The factory number stamped on the back of the top button is 6. The color – inkier and sort of “smooth”– has the richness of real indigo (v synthetic). According to my guru Eric Schrader, real indigo went out of production in 1966, making these jeans something around 60 years old.
