2008 Levi’s 501 x Damien Hirst x Andy Warhol 1/51 Swarovski Crystal Jeans

Warhol Factory has been collaborating with Levi’s since the Spring of 2006 under direction of Adrian Nyman. Creating explorative, wearable garments through the posthumous work of Andy Warhol, the paired effort would catch the eyes of esteemed artist Damien Hirst a season after debut. Inside a Barney’s department store, Hirst became enchanted with the Fall 2006 shooting-theme as a Warhol collector himself, prompting the creative to purchase Barney’s remaining stock in full. Shortly after, he’d contact Levi’s in an attempt to acquire the entire catalog, before sparking the idea of a collaborative effort. Nyman recalled Hirst’s response to be along the lines of “fucking awesome”, and thus Warhol Factory x Levi’s x Damien Hirst was born. Igniting a dialogue about the strongest intersections between the designer and artist’s work, the pair would eventually land on the themes of life, death and morality. Through Warhol’s famous ‘Death and Disaster’ series in the early ‘60s and Hirst’s famed tiger shark exhibition titled ‘The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living’, together they’d land on a skull as the collection’s centrepiece. Paying homage to Warhol’s 1970s skull paintings and Hirst’s $100 million Diamond encrusted ‘For the Love of God’ skull, they’d begin constructing some of the luxury world’s most prestigious, and widely sought after garments of the contemporary age.

 

Debuting in 2008, the final product of Hirst’s and Warhol’s work would come in an extremely limited quantity, documented through a hardcover book and exhibition. These jeans being not only the most expensive, but exclusive release from the collection, we get a glimpse at the most lustrous Levi’s 501 ever created, restricted to only 51 pairs made. Cut from Japanese milled denim and adorned with Swarovski Crystal skulls, the bottoms feature silver hardware and a Levi’s back jacron label, in pair with custom button detailing and the iconic red logo tab. Tagged as a size 28x32, this pair of denim has been expertly tailored to fit a 32 waist, and has a series of tearing on the button fly, back pockets, and waistband. While wearable to some degree, they require intensive reparations, and have been significantly altered to reposition the interior lining tag, which once possessed the numbered production count. Measuring a size 32x34, these are a highly unique pair of not only denim, but respected art history.