On Tuesday, Levi’s Vintage Clothing, the denim giant’s specialized sub-label that focuses on archival designs, launched the LVC 646 Jeans, a limited-edition reproduction of the bell-bottom the brand says, “defined a generation and cemented its place as one of the most iconic silhouettes in Levi’s history.”
The 646 Jeans were a part of the Orange Tab line Levi’s launched in 1969. While Red Tab represented the classics, Levi’s said Orange Tab was “something different” and was a “deliberate step into fashion-forward denim.” At the time, youth culture was gravitating toward super slims, flares and bell-bottoms.
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The 646 bell-bottoms arrived at the height of that movement, marketed as “the jeans with the famous fit,” cut long, lean and unapologetically wide at the hem. The style “felt at home everywhere from Woodstock to the streets of San Francisco,” Levi’s said.
Pre-shrunk and styled for a consumer demographic that wasn’t interested in waiting for their jeans to shrink, Levi’s said the 646 embodied ease and effortless cool. Today, the silhouette reads as a time capsule of early 1970s youth culture, and the nostalgia it carries is entirely earned.
“With the Orange Tab line, we were proudly chasing youth culture and fashion. The 646, a genuinely iconic fit, was right at the center of that effort,” said Paul O’Neill, Levi’s Vintage Clothing design director.
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