2020 Levi's Louisville Punk/Hardcore Campaign

A very... odd campaign from Levi's (yes, Levi's of denim fame) focusing on new designs 'celebrating' Louisville's 80s music and it's... influence on grunge.

From Levi's:

In the early 1980s, deep within the teenage bedrooms of Louisville, Kentucky, a new sound was taking shape. Teenagers were emerging from the local punk and hardcore scenes and forming bands. What they shared was an unorthodox songwriting approach and an uncompromising attitude. Their music became the driving influence of ’90s post-rock — paving the way for Seattle’s transformative grunge scene.

From Hypebeast:

Levi’s Vintage Clothing continues to reproduce fits, fabrics and details from bygone eras with its Fall/Winter 2020 collection, this time around drawing inspiration from the mid-80s punk bands of Louisville, Kentucky.

Louisville rarely appears on the musical map, but in the ’80s it had an underground revolution in the punk scene. Bands such as No Fun paved the way for other punk bands including Squirrel Bait and Slint to succeed, and together these bands helped fashion a grunge scene in the early ’90s.

In celebration of Louisville’s scene, Levi’s Vintage Clothing has created looks that you could mistake for coming straight out this peak punk period. Speaking on the FW20 collection, Paul O’Neill, head designer for Levi’s Vintage Clothing at Levi’s Strauss & Co. says, “The bands had a classic look incorporating Levi’s truckers and 501s and the music often had gothic elements which all influenced how I approached the collection. The scene at the time was very uncompromising in as far as they were making music that interested them and had no great desire for commercial success or fame. It was this authenticity that appealed to me.”

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