Amoskeag: The World's No. 1 Textile Mill
~The Textile Mill That Was Once #1 in the World~
1870s... Blue denim with riveted pockets
(Made by Levi's in 1873)
1890... Lot numbers were assigned to denim, and the 501 was born, etc.
(1890 501XX)
It's a huge presence for LEVI'S, and
for those who love VINTAGE LEVI'S,
I think this name is essential to understand the history of LEVI'S.
"Amoskeag Manufacturing Company"
The company that supplied denim fabric to LEVI'S from around 1870 to 1915.
In 1935, due to the Great Depression and other factors, its business deteriorated and it went bankrupt.
This time, I will talk about the period until 1915, which is related to LEVI'S.
Amoskeag Manufacturing Company was located in
Manchester, New Hampshire.
This area seemed to prosper greatly
with many factories using water power.
Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, as a hydropower textile mill,
supported the prosperity of this city.
By the late 19th century, LEVI'S became a customer,
and it became the number one textile mill in the world.
As I wrote above,
the birth of blue jeans reinforced with rivets in 1870
and the birth of the 501 in 1890
might not have happened
without Amoskeag Manufacturing Company.
Given that, I hope you understand
how important Amoskeag Manufacturing Company
is to the history of LEVI'S.
However, in the 20th century, its performance
began to decline sharply.
Many textile mills started to use new energy sources instead of water power.
As a result, in the city of Manchester, where the world's number one Amoskeag Manufacturing Company was located,
such scenes could be seen in the streets:
Aging buildings and equipment.
This indicates that the entire city, including Amoskeag Manufacturing Company,
was facing financial difficulties.
Demand for waist overalls was high,
and Amoskeag Manufacturing Company somehow
needed to deliver fabric to LEVI'S,
but LEVI'S made a decision
because Amoskeag Manufacturing Company could no longer reliably supply fabric
and the quality of the fabric had declined.
It was unavoidable, but the choice was to receive supplies from another factory.
That other factory is Cone Mills, which you all know.
(I'll talk about Cone Mills next time.)
Supplies from Cone Mills probably began around 1910,
so at least the period from then until 1915 would have been a transition period.
During this time, the waist overalls would have had different parts
from Amoskeag and Cone Mills, resulting in clear color variations.
(Historical documents likely showing people wearing 501XX at the time)
With this flow of history,
we'll finally move on to a new style using Cone Mills fabric, but I'll save that story for next time.
JELADO is a brand that produces items based on vintage designs,
and we also handle denim.
To analyze the XX fabric of the 50s,
we cut into deadstock denim from that era,
scientifically analyzed it, and created our original LAST RESORT denim fabric
from scratch, which is as close as possible to the XX fabric.
*For more details, please watch the YouTube videos:
Here are some products using this denim fabric.
JELADO Age of Longing 301XX【JP94301】
JELADO Universal Slim 312ZXX【JP94312】
JELADO 55Denim(55デニム) 313XX【JP94313】
And in early October, the denim...
In late October, we released the LAST RESORT
Black Tag series.
JELADO Age of Longing Black tag 301EXX【JP94301E】
JELADO Age of Longing Black Tag 407EXX Size34(XS)~38(M)【JP94407E】
JELADO Age of Longing Black Tag 407EXX Size40(L)~44(XXL)【JP94407ED】
JELADO Age of Longing Black Tag 407EXX Big Size(50)【JP94407EDD】
Please try them on at our store!!
One more thing...
JELADO's online store now features
a VINTAGE JEANS Glossary, as interpreted by JELADO.
Please take a look!!
You can go to the page from here,
so please check it out!!