levi's

Original Levi’s ‘Big E’ Jacket

One of my latest vintage treasures for my private denim collection is this original vintage Levi’s ‘Big E’ denim jacket from the early 1960’s. This denim jacket, the 557XX is also known as the Type 3 amongst most people. It is one of most famous denim jackets ever designed. It is also the most copied denim jacket design by many other brands.

levis 557

levis 557

levis 557

levis 557

The Key Features Of The Jacket

This particular Levi’s jacket has some great details which refer that it’s produced in the early 1960’s when this model was introduced. Originally, Levi’s launched this denim jacket style in 1962. The key details of this denim jacket are: ‘Big E’ Red Tab, single stitched closure, two tone stitching on the shoulders, sign in the neck from the big label (more common by ‘Big E’ Type 3 jackets are the smaller labels which are produced later in the 1960’s), orange stitching under the flap closesure of the pocket (later models shows black stitching), and the button stamp is 0 (Levi’s used the single digit stamps first, later they changed it into three digits like 524, 525, 526, etc.).

levis 557

levis 557

levis 557

Customized By The Previous Owner

Many people were using denim jackets to customize, this to express themselves or as a creative way to make the jacket more special. The previous owner stitched a nice palm tree on the back of the jacket which gives you the perfect hippy feeling. The cuffs from the sleeves are covered with new denim fabric as they are totally worn-out. Can you imagine how many days this jacket was worn during all those years. It’s a perfect example of a customized heavily worn original Levi’s ‘Big E’ jacket from the 1960’s. Aloha!

levis 557

levis 557

levis 557

levis 557

levis 557

www.levis.com

Written by Wouter Munnichs
I'm the founder of Long John. Next to running this daily magazine, I'm working as a freelance denim specialist for the industry. Titled as 'Denim Influencer 2020' by Rivet 50. Celebrated my 10th anniversary with Long John in 2021.