Levi’s Collaborates with L.A. Streetwear Brand Born x Raised
The family and hometown of Born x Raised founder Chris ‘Spanto’ Printup are the creative drivers behind the streetwear brand’s latest capsule collection with Levi’s.
Available now, the lineup brings together influences from Spanto’s half-Apache, half-Seneca heritage and Los Angeles’ street culture.
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Many of the designs are a tribute his late father, Butch, who passed away unexpectedly earlier this year. Spanto went to recover his belongings in Memphis, and in those he found pieces of iconography from his father’s indigenous heritage.
That iconography led Spanto to create a collection that brings together parts of his past from his life in L.A. and indigenous heritage to his youth visiting his father and his White Mountain Apache relatives in White River, Arizona.
“Specifically, he created a set of designs that offer a graphic representation of his father watching over him, something that he realizes now he had been doing his whole life, even though Spanto didn’t know it at the time,” Levi’s stated.
The collection includes two versions of Levi’s 501s, a Type I Trucker and a graphic tee that all feature versions of what Spanto is calling his Relative graphic. On the light wash indigo 501, four large versions of the image—two in navy, two in black—are screen printed across the front and back leg. On the selvedge 501, the Relative graphics are interpreted as leather patchwork that run down the outer seam of both legs.
The Trucker jacket features versions of the Relative graphic as well, positioned just above the two front pockets. The jacket also includes “Born x Raised In Loving Memory” embroidered on the back in the brand’s signature Old English font.
The collection is brought to life in a campaign shot in L.A. and White River and features an array of people from Spanto’s life, including mentors like Sleepy Joe from his Venice neighborhood, his mom, sister, and brother, his Apache relatives, performers like actor Richard Cabral, and other friends.
The collection retails for $190-$395. A T-shirt ($40) is also available, sold exclusively through Born x Raised.
Born x Raised previously collaborated with Carhartt WIP, the Los Angeles Lakers and Nike.
