Levis Vintage; a Testament to the Timeless
For a man so categorically uninterested in questions of style, Einstein sure made one hell of a fashion statement.
In 2016, Albert Einstein’s iconic leather jacket – a 1930s Levis Menlo Cossack unlined leather jacket, to be precise – sold for a staggering £110,500 at a Christie’s auction in London. Einstein purchased the jacket during his application for permanent US residency, and is said to have worn it pretty much constantly since. The jacket, along with its wearer, can even be seen on the front cover of the April 1938 edition of Time magazine.
As luck would have it, the winning bid was placed by none other than Levi Strauss & Co’s historian, Tracey Panek. Levis have since released a limited run of 500 painstakingly precise reproductions of the jacket. Made entirely of sheep leather, the reissued design features distinct details such as a rounded collar and cuffs, angled welt pockets, cinch straps, and corozo button details. The Levi’s Menlo Cossack replica jacket is available at select retailers now and comes with a custom fragrance developed by Brooklyn-based perfume house, D.S. & Durga and a replica, as well as a replica of the bid-winning padel.
On the subject of leather jackets and the wearers thereof, there are, of course, more likely candidates that spring to mind. Marlon Brando, for instance, is a veritable posterboy of calm, collected – and above all leather-clad – cool in László Benedek’s 1953 biker epic, The Wild One. Likewise, Johnny Ramone unleased the punk-rock potential of Schott NYC’s famous Perfecto biker jacket (insisting that his fellow bandmates wore cheaper alternatives). But it’s the sheer unassuming and utilitarian nature of Einstein’s Cossack, its unwavering practicality, that best encapsulates the timeless appeal of the leather jacket. Leopold Infeld, a colleague of Einstein’s from Princeton University, sums up the theoretical physicist’s pragmatic approach to fashion rather succinctly: ‘Long hair minimised the need for the barber. Socks can be done without. One leather jacket solves the coat problems for many years.’
In this practicality, I’m reminded of Wes Anderson’s J.G. Jopling; a most cruel and efficient enforcer of the Desgoffe-und-Taxis estate in The Grand Budapest Hotel. Now, does the stone-faced assassin care about how the jacket looks compared to how it performs? Probably not. Is he all the cooler for this indifference? Most certainly. And that’s the odd, indifferent beauty of a classic leather jacket in a nutshell. It’s a statement piece that couldn’t really give a damn if you’re listening. It’s utilitarian, coldly pragmatic but undeniably timeless.
Which brings me right back to Einstein’s shawl-collar Cossack. It’s a garment that has transcended its status as mere object of fashion to become a tangible link to an otherwise intangible past. The original jacket is almost a century old now, and is said to still carry the lingering scent of Einstein’s favourite tobacco. Is there anything more timeless than that?
The Levis Menlo Cossack jacket is on sale at selected retailers now. Limited numbers only. Photo credits go to the fine gentleman over at Cultizm.com.
Words By Will Halbert
