We’re known for creating the world’s first riveted blue jean, patented in 1873, for working men. But in the 1930s, Levi’s® launched another trailblazer: jeans for women. Unconventional? Highly. Popular? Wildly. We’ve since acquired this extraordinary piece from our rare Lot 401®—now officially the oldest pair of women’s blue jeans in our archives.
THE VIOLA IS A PRICELESS FIND
– Tracey Panek, Levi’s® Historian
In the ’30s, a college student named Viola Longacre invested in a pair of the earliest Levi’s® jeans for women: the herstoric Lot 401®. Fresno State’s Sierra Summer School, where she was studying to be a teacher, overlooked Huntington Lake in the Sierra National Forest, and classes were often held outdoors—the perfect setting for rugged, durable clothing. Around campus, you’d often catch Viola wearing these, her only pair of denim, lovingly inscribed with her name on the inside pocket.
“I’m quite sure she bought them herself,” her daughter, Bette, told us at the time of our acquiring the pair. “It was the Depression and she didn’t go straight to college from high school. She worked for a couple of years and she paid her own way.” The school was also where she met her future husband. “Maybe that’s one reason she kept them—because it reminded her. All I know is I was never allowed to try them on.”
I’M QUITE SURE SHE BOUGHT THEM HERSELF
– Bette Duncan, Viola Longacre’s daughter
“The Viola is a priceless find,” says Tracey Panek, Levi’s® Historian, who suggests that the Lot 401® women’s jeans were a limited-run prototype created to test the market before Lady Levi’s® Lot 701™ was officially launched in 1934. “It’s a remarkable addition to the Levi Strauss & Co. Archives, and helps us better understand the women who first wore our blue jeans—young, independent and fashion-forward.”
A lifelong adventurer, independent thinker and passionate teacher (she wrote the children’s book, “It’s Okay to Paint a Purple Turtle”), Viola embodied the ideals of the first women to wear Levi’s®. “She traveled the world,” said Bette.
Voila Viola! Our Stitch-for-Stitch reproduction is made from soft-rinsed 11 oz.Organic Cotton Plain Selvedge Denim and features a high rise and a straight leg, a center-back cinch, donut buttons, riveted back pockets, a cloth back patch, and Viola’s original inscription on the inside pocket. Limited edition of 800. Wear a piece of herstory.
