#TBT: How the West Was Worn

The patent for denim pants with copper rivets to reinforce seams was secured in 1873. Thus was born the most perfectly comfortable, indestructibly durable, supremely ass-hugging pair of pants ever made. If you held on to them and wore them for a few years, they became sensuously soft and molded to your body. The worn patches defined your shape. They had to be the first piece of clothing that became more perfect as they dissolved.

Early Levi's ads were historic and fairly xenophobic. But the ads reached a peak of manly appeal in the 1950s, when the visuals focused on the man's butt with the signature red tab and portrayed an all-male world of bunkhouses, group showers, and horseplay. Small wonder that in the late '50s and '60s, both the underground biker culture and the underground gay culture (and yes, there was overlap) adopted Levi's jeans as the de rigueur uniform.

Since then, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, and hundreds of others have jumped on the jeans bandwagon. But it was Levi Strauss and Co. that made the market what it is with its charming, frisky, and perhaps unintentionally sexy ads.

"I dreamed I was forced to act the part of a gal in my Levi's red tab jeans."

Rodeo studs getting all gussied up so they can be "forced to act the part of a gal" for their buddies.

Lift from the legs Gus! Lift from the legs! Oh, God, yes, that's right.

Concealed rivets and concealed passions.

Who knows what those slim-hipped, shirtless cowboys will get up to next? High jinks in high heels.

"What're you lookin' at? Git over here and help me with my boots, darling."

You know, Bob, those aren't the only flames you're fanning.

The suggestion here is that you can defend the land you stole from its rightful owners in some skintight pants and boots with super high stacked heels.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. First turn them Catholic, then make them wear Levi's. It's all part of the master plan.

That's it, buddy. I just want to get a picture of you looking into the canyon. OK, clench a little?

I am very, very aware of the seams on Levi's.

Bunkhouse shenanigans.

I'm sorry. boys, but if you want to be in my cult, I will need to inspect your pants for a red tab.

Oh, I have Mr. Piazza for Geography. He's just dreamy. Don't you think he's dreamy?

High school had been troublesome for Billy. A few of his fashion faux pas had dogged him for four years. Like that time he wore his tap shoes to class. He was hoping to rehab his image in college with some nifty new Levi's and some penny loafers -- no taps this time!

Here come the polygamists!

Woo-hoo! Here come the '60s!

Male bonding. In corduroy.

In "non-glitter" Dacron. Because we know you've been concerned about glittering too much.

As advertised, these "transport perspiration." But I want to know, where? Why will a whole bottle of Febreze not kill the "transported perspiration" in these damn things when I buy them in thrift stores?