Levi’s and Beams are together again, and the fifth installment of this ongoing collaboration loops in another renowned Japanese brand: Loopwheeler.
Both a textile mill and clothing brand, Loopwheeler makes one of Japan’s most celebrated cotton fabrics, and now this collaboration turns it into the Levi’s Type I Jacket and a pair of matching pants modeled after 501 jeans.
Known for its mastery and preservation of old-fashioned loop wheel knitting machines, Loopwheeler produces some of the world’s finest sweatshirts. The genuine loop wheel cloth breathes like modern jersey fabric, but is much tougher and holds its shape better over time.
Levi’s and Beams utilize this rare fabric, which is only produced by a handful of mills globally, to build the Super Wide Trucker and Super Wide Pant introduced in a previous collaboration.
The Super Wide Trucker exaggerates Levi’s Type I jacket design with a wide, boxy fit and broad details like a wide chest pocket. Original details like the double-pleated chest panels and back cinch are included.
Finishing details include metal rivets, rivet buttons, custom red tabs on the pocket (where Levi’s puts it) and cuffs (where Loopwheeler puts it).
The old-fashioned way
Loopwheeler was founded in 1999 with a mission to create the world’s most authentic sweatshirts, driven by a commitment to preserving old loop wheel knitting traditions, skills and machinery. Along with milling the cotton fabric, it produces a small line of vintage-inspired sweatshirts.
Loop wheel takes its name from the loop wheel machine, a circular knitting device whose slow rotation lets yarn stack under gravity rather than mechanical tension, which Loopwheeler says creates a porous layer against the skin that promotes air circulation.
Despite being a very dense cotton fabric, loop wheel is exceptionally breathable, which made it the dominant fabric for athletic apparel until the 1960s, when high-speed knitting machines began replacing it.
Another attribute that made loop wheel favorable for athletics and, more so in Japan, workwear, is the durability provided by the dense cotton knit. The textile is known to hold its shape extremely well, so much so that vintage examples from the 1950s and earlier are highly coveted.
Source: https://www.gearpatrol.com/