Levi’s 501 denims worn by Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain, together with within the music video for the track “Coronary heart-Formed Field.” They had been bought at public sale in November 2023 to a personal collector.
Loaned by Tom Coyne/David Fenton for Levi’s/Levi Strauss & Co.
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Loaned by Tom Coyne/David Fenton for Levi’s/Levi Strauss & Co.
Pop music is stuffed with references to denim — from the opening lyrics of Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” — “Blue jean child” — to Flo Rida’s ode to an Apple Bottoms pair in “Low.”
However musicians do not simply sing about denims. Additionally they stay in them. And people clothes generally reveal intriguing particulars in regards to the individuals who put on them, as the brand new Amped: Music Icons in Levi’s Denim exhibition at Levi’s headquarters in San Francisco reveals.
One of many exhibition’s marquee objects is a pair of Levi’s 501s as soon as owned by Kurt Cobain. The late Nirvana frontman’s denims set a Guinness World Document in 2023 once they bought for greater than $412,750 at a Nashville public sale.
Tracey Panek was there. “I used to be bidding on it,” Levi’s in-house historian and archivist advised NPR. “However sadly one in every of my rivals acquired it.”
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The successful bidder, non-public collector Tom Coyne, agreed to mortgage the denims to Levi’s for the exhibition. Cobain wore them on many events through the Nineteen Nineties, together with on the video for “Coronary heart-Formed Field.” They present a variety of put on. There are heavy stains, rips and patches, together with a colourful psychedelic print lining the hem.
“They’re only a signature grunge-looking pair of denims,” Panek stated.
The pants additionally inform extra delicate tales.
Panek factors to pale, upside-down lettering on the best leg — a four-letter phrase starting with F — scribbled on a patch. Whereas the artist was famously a left-handed guitarist, Panek stated the scrawl suggests Cobain was really ambidextrous. “You may inform he was writing together with his proper hand whereas he was seated,” she stated.
Different items within the exhibition provide very completely different portraits of their well-known house owners.
Freddie Mercury’s Eighties 501 Authentic denims trace on the Queen frontman’s tidiness.
Levi Strauss & Co.
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Levi Strauss & Co.
The sharp creases in a pair of slim-fitting, mild blue denims as soon as owned by Freddie Mercury say one thing in regards to the Queen vocalist’s fastidiousness. “I feel he ironed these,” Panek stated.
In the meantime a rhinestone-festooned, western-style denim pants and matching jacket worn by Beyoncé in a current Levi’s promoting marketing campaign spotlight Queen Bey’s penchant as a performer for upending conventional white, male tropes. “She challenges a pool shark to a shootout,” stated Panek, describing one of many adverts set to Beyoncé’s 2024 track “Levii’s Denims.” “In fact, she wins palms down, and calls for that her rival hand over his Levi’s.”
Mary Davis, a trend historian and musicologist at Yale College, stated musicians use denim in many alternative methods to assemble identification and share messages.
Beyoncé’s Levi’s 501 Curve Denims & Levi’s Trucker Jacket from 2025. The artist wore this ensemble as a part of an advert marketing campaign for Levi’s, having carried out the track “Levii’s Denims” on her album Cowboy Carter.
Levi Strauss & Co.
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Levi Strauss & Co.
“There is a approach in which you’ll see denim being virtually a clean canvas for something that anyone desires to make it,” Davis stated.
Davis factors to Bruce Springsteen’s 1984 album Born in the united statesA., with its songs in regards to the struggles of the working class – and its memorable album cowl. It reveals Springsteen from behind in worn blue Levi’s, a white T-shirt and a crimson baseball cap stuffed right into a again pocket.
Davis stated the {photograph} attracts a potent line between denim’s nineteenth century workwear roots and the troubadour of late twentieth century labor. “He is making a press release there,” Davis stated.
Songs About Denims
A brand new exhibit in San Francisco about pop star denim impressed us to make a playlist that includes our favourite songs about bell bottoms, hip huggers and jean jackets.
