Levi’s held their 140th anniversary celebration at Macy’s Union Square in San Francisco on May 20, 2013 at 6pm. This exciting event attracted a large crowd filled with Levi’s fans, shoppers, bloggers, media and tourists. There was a live presentation with priceless artifacts from Levi’s museum. The oldest pair of jeans in Levi’s archives, which are pictured in the sixth photo from the top as well as on the right of the above photo, are circa 1879. The pair on the left in the above photo, were found in the Calico Mines and are dated from the 1890’s.

Levi’s Historian Lynn Downey took guests through the Levi Strauss story with amazing pieces of history including the changing use of the rivet over time. In addition to several historical pairs of 501 jeans, Lynn Downey shared marketing material which included a Jefferson Airplane radio commercial. The commercial was a song titled “White Jeans” and sounded quite similar to their smash hit “White Rabbit.” How fitting to have a San Francisco band singing for a San Francisco company! Love that!

Levi’s is taking their iconic 501 jeans into new territory this year as they are planning to roll out a new twill version of the popular pant style. Can’t wait!

Here’s to 140 more years of the fabulous 501 jean!

To learn more about Levi’s and the iconic 501 jean, born in San Francisco during the Gold Rush, please visit Levis.com.

To see a video with historical shots of 501 jeans, please click here.

Photos: Cathy/Bay Area Fashionista 2013©