Wanting to go the full mile for discerning Japanese customers, Tanaka requested to have Cone Mills restart production of selvedge denim, but headquarters balked at the request. He eventually discovered that the French jeans’ denim came from Kurabō, and asked the mill for an exclusive supply. In 1987, Levi’s Japan debuted its first replica model, the 701XX—a reproduction of the 1936 501XX with a back-buckle—a year before Europe and two years before America made their own vintage remakes.
