It's said to be the 150th anniversary of 501 jeans this year and I've been asking myself again if it's better for TCB as a brand to make a Levis repro like other jeans brands do.
While thinking about what to do, I happened to watch again the video with Mr. Viktor Fredback from the last collab and in the video he said, ” I have another super rare vintage item discovered in an old mine by myself. Levis had the patent of the riveted pants during 1873 ~ 1890 so non-Levis jeans from the time didn't have the rivets on but they had some unique reinforcement stitches called dart stitch. And its tag says Good Luck."
Actually it's not the anniversary year of 501 this year but is the anniversary year of the rivet patent. If I do say so myself, TCB has produced something a bit unusual in the Japanese denim repro scene so far because we basically make what we really want to make. So, maybe it's more TCB to make non-riveted jeans in the anniversary year of riveted jeans and that was the drive! The pair is the only one found under the Good Luck brand and even Google or Chat GPT don't tell anything about it so we started the project with the help of Viktor and a pair of super old jeans in our hands.
Some time passed and when I saw the light at the end of the tunnel, I started to become a bit greedy. I mean I've worn top-to-toe denim for all my life and I would definitely need the matching jacket as well. But as explained, this pair is the only Good Luck product ever found and when it seemed that the project would come to a standstill, we asked for Viktor's help again. Even in his collection, there was no matching jacket but his friend, Mr Brit Eaton, who is a famous jean hunter, even can be called a workwear archaeologist, had the oldest Boss of The Road denim blouse from the early 1880s and he also kindly lent us a hand.
This might sound impolite to Good Luck or Boss of The Road but the seamstress back then didn't really care about each stitch work but when it comes to TCB reproducing them, we should do as much as possible to make a perfect reproduction on each pair we produce. I'd say it's far more laborious work to reproduce these dart stitches than just attaching rivets. In modern times, there are numerous riveted pants in various different colors and cuts available. For 140 years, these old jeans have been forgotten. We'd be happy and this Good Luck pair must feel happy too for the first time in 140 years if you get to know from TCB that this kind of non-riveted jeans existed!
Viktor's pure good luck attracted this pair and our good luck brought the opportunity to become friends with Viktor. And we hope our Good Luck jeans will bring you some luck too!
