Black Levi’s 1982

In 1982 Levi’s launched the black jean, desperate to revive the status of the jean. The black jean was marketed as smart, cool and slightly against the grain. Bartle, Bogle and Hegarty designed two posters to market the concept of the black jean.

“Levi’s backed the Roxy Music tour, photographed them and got them in a framed pair of 501’s. What they do is…. that they would – you know a lot of these would be just in store; they have a jean they call the champ so they do something around it, they had various labels, they had the 501 label and they had the silver tab label, it was all very confusing.” (Hegarty Interview).

In the Jeans by Roxy Music poster set in 1982, the British group Roxy Music is photographed next to the black jean with the title ‘Roxy Music 1982’. Intriguingly they are not wearing the product. Instead they are posing on a white-sheeted background which has been framed. Another frame contains a pair of black Levi’s titled ‘Black Levi’s 1982’. Both the band and the jean are being presented as significant pieces of art, classically British. The author Huygen explains the relationship between education and music, art and fashion:

“In Britain the street (pop music and fashion) and the fine arts are inextricably linked, the musicians David Bowie and Brian Ferry were educated at Newcastle University where they studied under the artist Richard Hamilton. Music which has been the expressive outlet of Britain’s youth brought the street and art school together.” (Huygen, 1989: 141)

Art and design colleges also brought the advertising and music worlds together. The renowned graphic designer Peter Saville also studied at Newcastle. He was a friend of Brian Ferry’s, an association which helped to launch Saville’s career in graphic design. Saville also designed album covers for Roxy Music.

Black Levi’s reinvented the jean in the 1980s, giving the product fresh consumer appeal. The black dye gave the jean a casual yet smart appearance, making it seem more like a trouser than a jean. Roxy Music had established themselves during the 1970s and had a prestigious reputation in Britain at the time this campaign was launched, appealing to the mass market, and to an older generation that had grown up with and bought Levi’s in the 1970s. The black Levi advertising featuring Roxy Music relates denim to a high culture, placing the product with high fashion, art and music. The advert also advertises a mature wearer of denim, teenagers that have grown up with the brand and eventually choose to wear the sophisticated black jean.