YOU’VE GOT NAIL: The crotch-logo trend continues into 2025: A linchpin piece in a new collaboration between Levi’s and Undercover is a pair of jeans spelling out “Light, Darkness” just under the waistband.
It’s modeled with aplomb by Flea, bass player for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who posed for campaign photos — sometimes lounging in the ocean — near his Malibu home. They were snapped by his photographer daughter, Clara Balzary.
The nine-piece collection drops worldwide on Jan. 18 in select Levi’s and Undercover locations, and on the brand’s digital stores.
Flea models looks from the Levi’s x Undercover collection.
Clara Balzary
San Francisco-based Levi’s first collaborated with Japanese designer Jun Takahashi and his Undercover label for fall 1998, and reprised a hookup for fall 2022.
Their latest effort coincides with the 35th anniversary of Undercover, known for its blend of streetwear and high fashion, tinged with subversive elements. Takahashi has been showing his women’s collections in Paris since 2002.
Here embroidered or printed nail motifs, spiky zigzag stitching and peering-eye prints add intrigue to trucker jackets, jeans jackets, vests, five-pocket jeans and cotton T-shirts. Styles come in a variety of denim weights and corduroys.
Trucker and jeans jackets get sharper shoulders, and zip-off details, allowing for a customizable look. Some have a small red “Small Parts” label sewn into the neckline, winking to the 1998 collaboration.
Meanwhile, 501 and baggy jeans are detailed along the seams with spiky stitching, adding subtle punk energy.
Coincidentally, the Undercover collaboration drops the day after the Pitti Uomo trade fair winds up in Florence, Italy, where Takahashi has been the guest designer twice, most recently in 2018.
501 Jeans feature an embroidered box nail and a peering eyes patch.
Courtesy of Levi’s/Undercover
