Levi’s reopens The Vault museum in San Francisco, showcasing denim legacy
By Loureen Ayyoub
Levi Strauss & Co. has reopened its San Francisco museum, The Vault, offering a look at how Levi’s jeans have shaped music, fashion and culture for more than a century.
The newly reimagined space invites visitors to explore the stories behind some of music’s most memorable looks, from Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake’s all-denim red carpet moment to Freddie Mercury’s rehearsal jeans and Beyoncé’s Swarovski-studded 501s.
“This is a Beyoncé set. This is a Swarovski-studded pair of 501 jeans and a jacket,” said Levi’s historian Tracey Panek, who guides guests through the collection.
But Beyoncé’s fashion relationship with Levi’s wasn’t always about sparkles. Panek said the singer and her Destiny’s Child bandmates “struggled to get support from fashion brands, seeing themselves as ‘Black, country, curvy girls.'”
That changed in the early 2000s when, Panek says, “Levi’s brand actually partnered with her to help launch our Super Low product.”
The exhibit also reaches back to the 1980s, displaying the jeans worn by rock legend Freddie Mercury during rehearsal. “He’s wearing a pair of Levi’s 501 jeans,” Panek said. “And if you look very closely, you can still make out the button fly, which is the signature design element of a 501.”
And no Levi’s display would be complete without the denim-on-denim look famously worn by Spears and Timberlake.
“The designer who created this took seven to nine pairs of Levi’s,” Panek said. “You can see the pants there.”
From Kurt Cobain’s grunge to Elton John’s glam, each design on display highlights Levi’s cultural impact across genres and generations.
“We started in the San Francisco Gold Rush, the California Gold Rush, in the 1850s, when our founder arrived here, and we’ve been, relatively, in the same place, close to the waterfront, ever since,” Panek said.
The first Levi’s jeans sold for about $3 a pair in the 1870s. More than 150 years later, Levi Strauss & Co. remains headquartered near its origins.
Located at the headquarters at 1155 Battery Street, The Vault reopened on Nov. 5 after being closed for five years. Admission is free, and the exhibit runs through Dec. 18.
