Stevenson Overall Co.

Zip Stevenson has had a lifelong passion for jeans, forming his first memories in a pair of OshKosh overalls. During the 90s when denimheads began collecting heavy fades and vintage jeans for their historical construction and iconic details, Mr. Stevenson opened his first store, selling early red-line and 501's to LA’s culturally cool. His collecting took him across America and to Japanese auctions. Picking through all the blue gold, Zip Stevenson happened across an invoice from an obscure denim manufacturing company from Portland, Indiana with his name and passion on it - Stevenson Overalls Co. The original company had produced workwear denim during the 1920s, but had been forced to shut their doors, like so many others, during the Great Depression. It was time for a new start. Along with his friend and fellow vintage enthusiast Atsusuke Tagaya, they took the name and production methods common to the small regional manufacturers of the bygone era. Not a scrap of denim remained to draw inspiration from, but with lifetimes of study and collection behind Tagaya and Stevenson, the reborn Stevenson Overalls Co. successfully make jeans that American pioneers would recognize, but they do it even better. Without a back catalog to work from, they pulled their favorite details from vintage examples spanning from the 1880s through the 1960s - branded brass, leather backed rivets, selvedge denim, and single-stitching. To this they add thoughtful style like scalloped pockets and belt loops to divine future wear as well as a signature indigo dye with a slightly greener cast.

Though the story is renewed, a chance encounter had them holding an original pair of Stevenson overalls like a lodestar validation - the only pair from the original Indiana factory known to exist. The archival sepia photographs have been given living color. “Made with pride and worn for life.”

Read more about Stevenson Overalls Co. in our Back-Story, What's In a Name?