Levi's Plus Filson: A Case of Double Happiness

We love Levi's (founded in 1873, the same year the company patented and made its first blue jeans) and we love Filson, too (1897), so it naturally follows we're crazy about some of the products in the collaborative collection known as Levi's Workwear by Filson. We own a handsome, no-nonsense denim-and-canvas tote with leather handles (from a previous collection) and we're often stopped by discerning guys-around-town who want to know: Where can I find that bag? We suspect lots of men will respond similarly to this Hunter Trucker jacket in sturdy, oiled Shelter Cloth, complete with interior zipper (overlapped by a buttoned front), a moleskin collar, and Levi's distinctive front pockets. So this time, we're alerting readers (and all style-conscious men) in advance: Buy this jacket now, or regret not doing so later...

Levi's Curve ID for Women: It's a Booty Call

No item of clothing is more basic than blue jeans, but finding a flattering pair is difficult for many women. Levi's hopes to change that with Curve ID, which FA2L recently previewed at the company's New York store on lower Broadway. Our shapely intern (let's call her E.V.) stood patiently while she was measured for her differential–the slope of her curves–and questioned about past experiences: Did waistbands tend to gap? Were jeans that fit her hips too tight elsewhere? Then she was handed two pairs and asked to give them a try.

It's nice when a woman comes out of a dressing room wearing a big smile–and E.V. positively glowed with the combination of sun-kissed skin, good hair (new cut and color) and a pair of bum-flattering, medium-dark jeans that hugged her curves and made her legs look impossibly long. She'd tried on the salesperson's first suggestion, and was so happy she didn't bother with a second opinion. Of course, new jeans require new shoes (and words like Christian Louboutin definitely entered that conversation). Men of New York, beware! E.V. is stepping out, and you guys won't know what's hit you.

Photograph courtesy of Levi's

Denim, a Love Story: Where the East Meets West

Before jeans were fashion, they were work clothes, made of tough cotton selvage denim woven on shuttle looms and dyed with natural indigo. Such pants were extraordinarily durable, and molded to the contours of each wearer's body while gradually softening, creasing and fading. Today, of course, designer denim products run the gamut from crisp stovepipes to torn, "whiskered," even paint-splattered versions (which can cost many hundreds of dollars per pair).

Denim came from Europe, where French and Italian communities made work pants from the stuff centuries ago; but the quintessential blue jean–the Levi's 501–is an American product through and through. That said, Japanese culture, with its keen appreciation of authenticity, has greatly influenced what can only be called denim connoisseurship. Case in point: in the late '80s, a gentleman named Hidehiko Yamane worried so much about vintage denim's scarcity he decided to make his own. He found a 1950s shuttle loom, supervised the weaving of selvage denim and hand-painted Levi's-style arcs on the back pockets of finished pairs. The process was painstaking, but his product resonated with denim aficionados around the world. This was the beginning of EVISU. By the late '90s, though, Yamane's original vision had gained such momentum it was no longer a small company turning out handmade jeans–it was a worldwide brand selling everything from t-shirts to outerwear. Along the way, it lost some of its insider charm and became one more name in a sea of products.

Recently, EVISU went back to its roots: it cleaned up distribution, narrowed its focus and relaunched a tight collection for Spring '10 (some of which is available at Barneys New York now, and at Barneys.com December 14). FA2L isn't overly fond of denim "effects," but a few pairs in the lineup speak fashion loud and clear: a slim, dark jean; a bleached-out, beachy-looking pair; and the SHINGU (above), which takes distressing to an artful level. Any would make worthy additions to denim collections everywhere, so get them while you can.