When a piece of denim sells for HK$2.71 million (US$346,000), it’s more than a clothing sale – it’s a fashion headline. That staggering price, recently paid by a Japanese CEO for a vintage Levi’s jacket, secured a Guinness World Record for the “most expensive second-hand denim jacket.”
The jacket in question is a pristine, 80-year-old Levi’s Type-1 S506XXE, a rare “simplified version” created during the material-restricted World War II era. Read on for the extraordinary history and features that transformed a workwear garment originally costing just US$22.75 into a seven-figure collector’s item.
The meaning of the model number
The record-breaking jacket is Levi’s Type-1, model number S506XXE. This code holds one of the reasons behind its immense value. Levi’s classic denim jackets are mainly divided into three types: 506 (Type-1), 507 (Type-2), and 557 (Type-3). The “S” prefix stands for “simplified version,” closely tied to the World War II era.
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“This model is generally believed to have been produced starting in 1941 or 1942,” explained Joseph Leong, co-founder of Macao vintage store Col Bleu.Union Vintage. Due to wartime material restrictions, denim jackets were simplified: “Buttons were reduced from five to four, changed to donut-shaped; chest pockets lost their flaps.”
“XX” shows the fabric is strong, and “E” means it’s a large size — only large sizes had the special “split back” stitching. Having all these features together is very rare.
Item no. 17 in the vintage bible
This jacket is catalogued in the authoritative book Levi’s Vintage Denim Jackets, supervised by Yutaka Fujiwara of Japan’s famed vintage store BerBerJin, and listed as item No. 17.
“This model was only produced between 1941 and 1946, just four or five years,” Joseph added, flipping through the book. At the time, it wasn’t even called a “jacket” but a “blouse.”
Assessing a Type-1 jacket’s condition involves checking if the hardware is complete (front buttons, reinforcing rivets, and the iconic cinch back). Fading is assessed. The leather patch is also inspected: washing causes shrinkage, fading, or cracking of the patch, so it is the hardeest part of the garment to preseve.
Experts say the world-record jacket is in excellent condition despite its age. The color is deep, almost never washed, showing no signs of wear, with only minor stitching damage, and the leather tag is still readable.
The status of the Type-1 jacket
Joseph believes a vintage garment’s high price often comes from its historical significance or groundbreaking design.
Early denim jackets were workwear, cut long to protect the body. The Type-1’s cropped design, ending at the waist, broke tradition. “Levi’s introduced the Type-1 as early as 1890, making it the first brand to design a short box-cut denim jacket, pioneering a century of fashion culture,” Joseph noted.
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Still, previous Levi’s Type-1 sales never came close to the HK$2.71 million fetched by the current garment, surprising even Joseph. He sees this as proof that vintage value is rising: “Trends and vintage are now inseparable.”
