In 2022, a frayed, faded, paint-stained, and holey (but still wearable) pair of Levi’s sold for $87,400 at auction. The jeans, dubbed the “holy grail” of vintage denim, have been dated back to the late 1880s. A tag inside them bearing the message “The only kind made by white labor” serves as a reminder of the Anti-Chinese rhetoric prevalent during that era: in 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act restricted Chinese laborers from immigrating to America for a decade and many businesses—Levi Strauss Co., included—sought to increase sales by publicly aligning with the white supremacist values common among American consumers.
This is SO interesting, thank you for all of your research. 🩷
This was so incredibly interesting, I had absolutely no idea how much history that involved enslavement was interwoven with jeans and denim.