If you could sum up the history of denim jeans, you’d probably only need three numbers: 501. Ask anyone, jean lover or not, and they’ll probably tell you that the first pair of jeans they either owned or had embedded into their consciousness was the Levi’s 501. It’s iconic. It’s classic. Nobody doubts that. After all, after 135 years, what else would it be? In fact, reiterates Ramon Martelino, Levi’s Philippines’ country manager, there would be no denim jeans without the 501 jeans. The original button-fly pair. The ones that got cuffed, scuffed, blasted and ripped first. In 135 years, the 501 jeans has gone from being a male laborer’s requisite to being a favorite among greasers, rockers and skinheads in the ’50 and ’60s to being the ultimate comfort pair in the ’90s. In the 21st century, however, the 501 jeans has picked up a style more befitting the hip jeans lover who considers his or her denims an extension of their social attraction. “The new 501 jeans are more contemporary, more updated, less loose and with a straighter leg. This new fit contours more to the curves of the body,” explains Levi’s Philippines marketing manager Jen Jimenez.
For the first time in 13 years, Levi’s is having a global launch for the new 501 jeans. The last major launches for 501 were “Boombastic,” where the lovable and unforgettable James Dean-ish Clayman figure unbuttons his double-stitched jeans and slings it over a rope to save a hot chick from a burning building, and “Spacegirl,” which featured that ethereal soundtrack and a hot, luminous chick in nothing but a bejeweled bra and rear-hugging 501s (a novelty in a futuristic time and locale where metallic nylon pants were the norm). Both these ads became instant fodder for nostalgic head trips and made Shaggy’s reggae-funk Boombastic track and Babylon Zoo’s Spaceman instant hits (although upon hearing the entirety of the Babylon Zoo’s song, you’ll wish the song just looped over and over with the two lines heard in the Levi’s ad).
And it seems Levi’s has packed enough ammunition over the 13-year hiatus. The newest global launch puts into the spotlight the 13th reinvention of the 501 jeans since it was created 135 years ago — Levi’s doesn’t put much emphasis on superstition, it seems — and promotes it the usual 501 way: brash, bold and big. Especially in the Philippines, where the globally-marketed image of a finely-chiseled male model straddling a pair of unbuttoned, low-slung, faded 501s, work boots and nothing else, is wrapped around an entire building, particularly the Pet Plans building along EDSA. You can’t miss it. Seriously, you can’t. Even from your high-rise condo in Serendra or your mid-level office in Ortigas. Guinness (as in the company that tallies all world records) is supposed to come sometime next week and appraise it to see if it really is the biggest billboard in the world. And probably the sexiest, too. Which you’d expect from Levi’s anyway.
If you go through the Levi’s ads throughout the years on YouTube, almost all of them feature a common denominator: bared skin. Either someone is stripping off a pair or donning one. All in cheeky, tasteful fashion, of course. The newest Levi’s 501 commercial follows suit. Expertly cast, it shows two adolescents, with barely their full set of permanent teeth intact, exchanging phrases such as “It’s my first time.” and “Don’t you trust me?” The scene cuts to the expected unbuttoning of jeans and then the eventual reveal of a very popular coming-of-age ritual: a high leap from a dock into deep waters below. Brilliant, right?
The catwalk presentation of the new 501 jeans is no less brazen. The recent Levi’s 501 fashion show was a fun eye candy of bared pecs, bared midriffs, peeking cleavages and, of course, unbuttoned jeans. A 20-minute live montage that shows how one supposedly lives life freely, the show started off with dancers “stripping” behind silhouette screens (Vegas couldn’t have done it any better) and moved on to unabashed dancing, flirting and even some subtle girl-on-girl action. And that was just the start of it. Female models clad in faded men’s 501s (a promotion of the boyfriend pants that are all the rage now) stripped their male counterparts onstage. A ruffian rips off his shirt and slides down the stage on his knees, cupping his crotch. A cocky dude gets dissed by a hot chick and lives to tell the story. A lover of life rips off his shirt and raises his arms to the sky. This is freedom. This is living life unbuttoned. And 501s see us through it each day.
In 135 years, the characters may change and the script may be altered but the story always remains the same.