Now me being such a fan of Levi's, as well as Shepard Fairy, I am blown away as to how I didn't hear about this until now. There is not much literature on this, but you can believe me when I say 'I dug,' and this is what I found:
Levi's did a collaboration with Shepard Fairy (Internationally known street artist, painter, and owner of the clothing company Obey Propaganda). They worked together on a limited edition, only 50 were made, denim classic trucker jacket. Upon being asked why a trucker jacket was chosen, Shepard said this; “(It) is a significant piece in that it’s one of the few fashion icons that has managed to mean something important to almost every demographic and ideology of youth culture movement since it was first introduced.”
I couldn't agree with you more Shepard. The trucker jacket has always been there, and will always be and I'm completely okay with that. What I love the most about this garment is how Shepard added an american flag, but made it wearable. He cooled down the reds and and added a cream mask over the whole image. I feel that this color scheme works well with the wash of the jacket. In a lot of his art/ clothing, he tends to go with these colors, especially the cream. The off set and diagonal placement of the design gives the feeling of an actual print on the jacket rather than a patch. I've seen american patches on a denim jacket before and they are cool, but not very dynamic. I feel like I would have a hard time finding things to go with the loud patch on my trucker jacket. I havent found a close enough picture to determine the medium used to print the design, but I am curious to know. Any input on this is welcome!
Unfourtunatly for me, and those of you also just finding out about this, these jackets were released in July of 2011. I have seen a few off and on, on ebay though going for $400-$500. I can only imagine how quick they got picked up in july, the denim craze was in full force last summer. Next time, I guess I just need to be more alert towards cool collabs. All in all, I give this collaberation a 9/10; drip drip. What do you think?
-Andrew