Denim Tears x Levi’s — The Full Collaboration Story
Of all the collaborations Tremaine Emory has built since founding Denim Tears, none has carried more cultural weight than his ongoing partnership with Levi’s. What started as a single capsule collection has grown into a multi-year relationship exploring American history through denim.
How the Partnership Began
The first Denim Tears x Levi’s collection released in early 2020, built around reworked pieces from Levi’s Authorized Vintage program. Emory’s starting point was cotton itself — specifically, how deeply the material is tied to the history of slavery in America. The collection centered on a Trucker Jacket, 501 Jeans, and a Plantation Hat, each carrying an all-over print of the cotton wreath motif that Emory had first introduced the summer before, discovered while looking through artist Kara Walker’s Instagram before adopting it as his own symbol.
Using vintage denim rather than new material was a deliberate choice — Emory wanted the collection to transform something old into something new, and made sure no new cotton went into the making of the jeans or jackets themselves. The prints were rendered in a specific shade of white Levi’s described as having a ghostly quality, an effect that reportedly came about after a printer malfunctioned during production at Levi’s Eureka Lab in San Francisco.
A Story Told Through Family
What set the collaboration apart from typical designer partnerships was how personal it was. Emory accompanied the release with a short film shot by his own father in Harlem, Georgia — his father’s hometown — featuring his grandmothers discussing their experiences growing up Black in the American South after slavery, including firsthand accounts of cotton picking. For Emory, the project wasn’t really about clothing at all; it was about representing what it means to be Black and from the South, using fashion as the vehicle to tell that story.
The Partnership Expands
Rather than remaining a one-off capsule, Levi’s and Denim Tears extended their relationship into a long-term deal, continuing bi-weekly limited releases. A second collaboration shifted focus to the history of indigo and the transatlantic slave trade, referencing the era when indigo dye functioned as a currency more valuable than sugar or cotton. That collection drew inspiration from the film Daughters of the Dust and the Gullah Geechee people, descendants of enslaved Africans who worked the rice, cotton, and indigo plantations along the American Southeast coast.
A later release, nicknamed the “Plain Jane,” reworked the classic 1954-cut 501 jean with subtler detailing — a cotton plant graphic worked into the leather patch, and the word “Tears” placed on the reverse of Levi’s iconic red tab, continuing the reclamation of cotton’s history in a quieter, more understated way than earlier drops.
A Collaboration That Reached the Museum
The Denim Tears x Levi’s partnership has since grown to include leather cotton wreath pieces paying tribute to Black biker culture, alongside numerous denim capsules that continue to explore different chapters of African American history. The cultural significance of the work has been recognized well beyond retail — pieces from the collaboration are now part of the permanent collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, a distinction few streetwear collaborations ever reach.
Why It Matters
The Levi’s partnership captures exactly what makes Denim Tears different from a typical designer collaboration. Emory has spoken about wanting to find new ways to carry difficult historical conversations forward — pointing out that dense written histories rarely reach younger audiences the way a piece of clothing worn every day can. Each release under the partnership functions less like a product drop and more like a chapter in an ongoing story about cotton, memory, and resilience.
Explore Denim Tears
While the original Levi’s collaboration pieces are collector items, you can explore the full spirit of that storytelling across our own Denim Tears Jeans and Denim Tears Hoodie collections, or read more about the meaning behind the cotton wreath that started it all.
