Levi’s New Made-in-Japan Line Is 11 Pieces of Denim Perfection (and Going Fast)

In the menswear world, Japanese denim—artful, high quality, often woven on vintage machinery—is as universally beloved as french fries and Pedro Pascal. Levi’s, born and headquartered in San Francisco, is the undisputed heavyweight champ of jeans, and has been for 150 years. Today we get the best of both in a Pacific-Ocean-spanning collaboration known as the Blue Tab collection. It upgrades the Levi’s silhouettes you know and love (and a few you might not know yet, but will love) with some of the finest denim Japan has to offer.

The 11-piece limited collection has jackets, shirts and, of course, jeans made with fabrics you’d usually find hanging on the racks of menswear boutiques. Levi’s even developed a proprietary denim with famed Japanese mill Kaihara for pieces in the unisex capsule.

What it lacks in breadth, Levi’s Blue Tab collection makes up for in beauty. For instance, the Marker Loose Fit Jeans were made with a lightweight selvedge denim woven on old-school shuttle looms, turning an already bonkers (in the best way) full-legged pair of jeans into something you can keep for decades.

On the other end of the showoff spectrum, the collection’s 1980s 501 Original Fit Jeans are a near stitch-for-stitch reproduction of what Levi’s sold your dad — though this time around, the jeans are available in a kaleidoscope of washed-out blues, plus an inky iteration if you feel like earning those fades on your own. As denim freaks know, dark Japanese denim in one of the greatest cuts of all time for less than $300 is close to petty theft.

Since this is Levi’s, there are a few iterations on the brand’s denim jackets in the Blue Tab mix. Our favorite might be the Type III Jacket; structurally it’s the same as ever, but the shade of blue is so deep and complex that it deserves to be in the Criterion Closet. Meanwhile, the collection’s Relaxed Button Down could very well become the MVP of your shirt supply.

If, like us, you miss Levi’s now-shuttered premium lines (RIP Levi’s Vintage Clothing and Made & Crafted), its Blue Tab collection is the closest you’ll get to recapturing the heady days of relatively affordable top-tier denim gear in eminently wearable shapes and a broad run of sizes. This time around, though, the clock’s ticking: Blue Tab is only being released in limited numbers. Check it all out at Levi’s.