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CNN Saturday Morning News
Vintage Clothes can be Worth Thousands
Aired May 19, 2001 - 08:38 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: One pair of well-worn jeans may bring at least $25,000 to an auction. The label is missing, the buttons are gone, and there's a 15-inch tear in one of the legs. No matter what, though, Levi Strauss Company says the jeans are the oldest Levis in existence.
Our guests in New York are vintage clothing expert Seth Weisser and Catherine Williamson, an auction specialist from Butterfields, which is auctioning the jeans.
Good morning to both of you.
CATHERINE WILLIAMSON, BUTTERFIELDS AUCTION SPECIALIST: Good morning.
SETH WEISSER, VINTAGE CLOTHING DEALER: Good morning.
PHILLIPS: Catherine, let's begin with you. Tell us about these jeans: How did you find them, and how did this all begin?
WILLIAMSON: Well, these jeans are being brought to market through a partnership between eBay, the History Channel and Butterfield's auctioneers, through the History Channel's television show, "History's Lost and Found," which features one historical item a week to be auctioned off, featured on the television show and then sold simultaneously on eBay.
These jeans came to us from a fan of that television show who thought he had a great item to sell through that particular venue.
PHILLIPS: OK, now how did you find the oldest jeans, and how do you know they're authentic? How do you know they're the oldest ones?
WILLIAMSON: Well, they were found just a few years ago in a Nevada mining town, and when they came to us at Butterfields the first thing we did was make an appointment with the archivist at the Levis museum in San Francisco.
And she was gracious enough to sit down with us and go over the different points of the jeans and date them back to the 1880s for us. And we -- it's very difficult to say that they are, in fact, the oldest pair of jeans, because the records -- 19th century records of Levi Strauss were destroyed in the fire following the 1906 earthquake. But we do think that they are definitely one of the oldest pair. And it's that -- in that instance, very significant, historically.
PHILLIPS: Wow. Now Seth -- OK, you're the vintage expert here, and these jeans are said to possibly go for up to $35,000. Why would someone pay so much for these, and why are vintage clothes -- you know, why are they so popular?
WEISSER: Well, I mean, considering the rarity of this particular pair of jeans and that, in the whole world there may be only four to six pair of the time period, the value of the jeans is definitely justifiable based on the uniquity (sic) of the piece.
Vintage clothing in general is quite valuable because of individuality that it allows you to express. Antique pieces of denim or militaria or vintage Hermes clothing from, you know, the '40s have a strong desire and collectability in today's marketplace.
PHILLIPS: Now -- and you have a bunch of examples there. How do I know -- I mean, I've got tons of pairs of jeans in my closet -- how do I know what's going to be worth a pretty penny or not? Can you, kind of, show me the difference?
WEISSER: Sure. I mean, antique Levis have individual characteristics that help us figure out how old they are.
PHILLIPS: OK, show us.
WEISSER: This particular pair of jeans here, if you can see them, have a buckle across the back of the jeans which is located right over here. This feature was only made until 1941 on Levis jeans. So if you have a pair of jeans with that particular detail, you can pretty much know they're a pre-1941 Levi jean.
As jeans, you know, change in era, there's different details that you can look for on the jeans to date them. This particular pair, if you look at them, on the pockets you don't see Levis stitching on the pocket, and that's because these were made during World War II; and during World War II, Levis didn't have the ability to put the paint on the pocket -- they had to put paint on the pocket because they had rations for the amount of stitching they could do on their jeans. So this particular pair have an individual characteristic to let us know these were made during that particular time.
Now, most Levis jeans that are true vintage jeans are going to have a red tab on the back pocket like today's jeans, but on that tab they're going to have a 19 -- they're going to have a capital "E" instead of a lowercase "E" on the red tab on the jeans. You won't be able to probably see this on there, but it's what we call a big "E," or a capital "E" jean. And that's something that is a very collectible, you know, feature to look for on vintage jeans.
PHILLIPS: So Catherine, people can go online on eBay and make a bid starting when?
WILLIAMSON: Actually, it's live now. If you go to eBay.com/history, you can watch the bidding today, if you like, and it will be featured on the television show Monday through Friday of this week, and then also online until Friday.
PHILLIPS: And there's some interesting history that goes behind Levi Strauss, right? How did this kind of all begin? Wasn't this during the gold mining?
WILLIAMSON: Well, a little bit later than gold mining. I mean, he patented his design in 1873, but definitely intricately associated with the development of the American West and with mining and with the kind of rugged Western lifestyle we needed a new pair of clothes -- a new kind of rugged apparel that would last through the hardships endured in California in the West in the 19th century.
PHILLIPS: Well, we all know that they've lasted; we've all had a pair of Levis or two in our time, isn't that true?
WILLIAMSON: That is.
PHILLIPS: All right; Seth Weisser, Catherine Williamson, thank you so much. I'm sure a lot of people will be logging on right now, making their bid. And there's a Web site, too; we're going to show it to you real quickly -- here it is. It has begun.
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