150-year-old Levi's jeans found in mine sell for $87

A pair of Levi's jeans from the 1880s sold at an auction in a small town in New Mexico for more than $87. They are arguably the oldest Levi's ever sold at a live auction. The edition told in more detail CNN.

Photo: IStock

Jeans found in an abandoned mine by a "denim archaeologist" were bought by 23-year-old Kyle Hautner and Zip Stevenson, experts in the vintage denim market.

"We didn't have any plans to buy jeans together until the auction started," Stevenson said.

The jeans sold for $87, one of the highest prices ever paid for a pair of jeans. Houtner paid 400% and Stevenson contributed the remaining 90%.

Stevenson ran a denim repair shop in Los Angeles, California for nearly three decades, but never found a pair like it.

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“These jeans are extremely rare, especially in such fantastic condition and size,” he said.

Stevenson first heard of jeans "about five years ago when they were first discovered" in the American West by Michael Harris, who "searched no less than 50 abandoned mines in five years and found no pair of the same quality."

There are only a few similar jeans, but they are kept in museums and are too fragile to wear.

This pair, however, is "surprisingly durable, so it's definitely wearable," Stevenson explained. “There are a few spots on the jeans that need a bit of reinforcement, but other than that they are super duper durable jeans.”

“I can easily imagine Johnny Depp or Jason Momoa wearing them,” he said.

The auction took place in the Durango Vintage Festivus shopping center on the outskirts of the small town of Aztec. The four-day festival is hosted by vintage denim expert Brit Eaton, who has called the search for such things "his addiction."

“I needed a 'headliner' that could compete with the musical artists I booked. “I knew these jeans would be the main draw,” Eaton admitted. “I’ve been in this business for a quarter of a century, and on average, vintage jeans cost about $100. So finding such a valuable pair is only possible once in a lifetime.”

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Eaton said he didn't originally intend to sell the jeans, which is why he listed them at such a "huge" price. But, given their rarity, the expert noted, it is not surprising that they bought.

“It was a lot of fun to see them being sold live to bidders,” he admitted.

As a symbol of the American West, jeans are witnessing a dark episode in the history of the country. The phrase "The Only View Made by White Labor" is printed on the inside pocket. The Wall Street Journal quoted a Levi's spokesperson as explaining that the company used the slogan after the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, which prohibited Chinese workers from entering the US. The WSJ reported that Levi's abandoned this policy and slogan in the 1890s. The law was repealed in 1943.

What does Stevenson plan to do with jeans now? “We would like to offer them for sale to an extremely interested private buyer,” he said, but added that the owners would prefer they be bought and displayed in a museum “such as the Smithsonian or the Metropolitan Museum.”

They are currently stored in a safe outside Stevenson's Denim Doctors in Los Angeles and are available for viewing by appointment.

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