Photo: Net-A-Porter
Haters gonna hate, but nobody—not even the biggest skinny-pant loyalist—can deny the resurgence of the mom jean. Long gone are the days where the ’80s style was reserved for the cast of 90210, daring It girls like Chloë Sevigny, and, well, moms. Over the past few seasons, these roomy, high-waisted bottoms have morphed into a full-fledged street-style phenomenon, with the Levi’s 501s leading the way. Now the already-cool staple is getting a decidedly chic update, courtesy of Levi’s new capsule collection with Net-a-Porter.
The Levi’s 501 CT (which stands for customized and tapered) denim line features three different washes and improves upon everything we already love about the original cut. Sticking with the pant’s tried-and-true silhouette, the revamped version is cut slightly straighter at the waist, smaller in the seat, and offers a more tapered fit. Which, as Levi’s head of design Jonathan Cheung said, was a tweak that he noticed customers (himself included) were already making.
A first look at the Levi’s 501 CT collection Photo: Net-a-Porter
“Design is really just about observing and inspiring people,” he told Style.com. “Karyn Hillman [Levi’s chief product officer] and I had a conversation about how we taper our own 501s, then we learned that tapering is the second most popular customer request [after hemming].” It wasn’t long before Levi’s teamed up with Net-a-Porter, and Cheung said the conversation soon evolved into “something much bigger.”
Trust us, these are anything but your basic blues. Handmade in the Levi’s Eureka Lab in San Francisco, each pair of 501 CTs is handcrafted from North Carolina selvedge denim. They’re peppered with careful details, such as handwritten serial numbers and a Eureka “E” on the inside pocket and on the bottoms. As Net-a-Porter denim buyer Octavia Bradford put it, these modernized classics are the “chance to own a piece of denim history.” But most important, like all Levi’s, they’ll go with literally anything in your closet.
Make room now—the limited-edition Levi’s 501 CT collection will launch exclusively on Net-a-Porter on March 2.
—Liza Darwin, Style.com
