One label is responsible for the first pair of coveralls in 1913, the first pair of zippered blue jeans in 1927, and for setting the template that would come to define an American cool for generations in the 1950s. From their early days as a general mercantile store in Salina, Kansas, Lee™ has been here–iterating and innovating since 1889. Few brands can claim as much influence over the modern wardrobe as Lee. Yet it's often overlooked that it was during the wartime rationing of the 1940s that the name would leave some of its most indelible marks on our culture—most notably, with a few subtle revisions to that pair of jeans with the zipper, the 101. 

In the early forties, restrictions placed on domestic supply chains moved Lee to refine the 101, which was still being manufactured with a zipper fly and its original buckle-back cinch. By the late 1940s, gone was the buckle-back, and because zippers were needed to serve the greater good, buttons returned to adorn the fly as they had prior to 1927. Along with a paring back of hardware and subtle changes to construction, it was here that we saw one of the earliest representations of the modern day blue jean. And it was just a few years later that a young, handsome rebel would hit the silver screen in a very similar Lee 101, where he taught a nation of impressionable teenagers how to wear denim with style.

Shot in Los Angeles on Mark Wystrach.