Aside from Hollywood, LA is a town that runs on denim. The number of factories littered across Southeast and South Central LA dedicated to its development, production, cutting, sewing, washing and finishing is mind boggling as are the brands that use the fabric (Everlane, Madewell, AG, Hudson and about a billion other ones).
That said, you need inspiration for denim, to respect the past, while still making something that projects as the future. So, it goes hand in hand that LA is also a town that loves its vintage Levi’s.
As someone who grew up here, I remember the late-80s to mid-90s boom in the vintage denim market, driven by Japanese collectors. Though I was too young - and didn’t have the scratch at the time - to buy those 501 Big Es, the Type I 506xx, the Type II 507xx and the luscious Type III 557 and 70505s. Rose Bowl swap meet was where - and still is - on occasion where it’s at for vintage Levi’s.
Me, in part due to ‘tuning out the news and the horrors of daily life’, I’ve turned my ADHD-driven love of research into a deep dive on collecting Levi’s, like I did in my youth, where my focus is now on pre-1975 Levi’s 517 boot cuts and the perfect Type III truckers. My Insta-feed is all denim, all the time, and my wife is pissed I took up the whole closet. I can’t stop. I love the hunt, I love the search, I love finding the perfect pair, at way below market value.
Which is how I discovered Stephan Brovko at Shop Denim Revival. He popped up on my feed and I started going into the store to hang out and talk about jeans. Brovko, which is what everyone calls him online, and Steph in person, a hirsute late-millennial with a phone that is constantly going, a background in international trade and economics where he earned his Bachelor's degree at the Xiamen University, in China, will, if you let him, long ruminate on what makes the perfect pair of jeans.
Me, I love this stuff. I can’t get enough of this, and from him, I learned to lean less into sizing and more into measurements and wash, trying on about a dozen pairs and buying none.
“You are not one of my customers,” he told me the third time I went over to hangout and tried on five pairs, all of which were amazing, “You are a cross between a buyer and a collector. My shop for someone like you, really, is the last resort. It’s for when you don’t want to deal with finding that pair on your own.” Brovko paused and threw in a ding at me, “517s are awesome but you need a pair of 501 Big Es.”
Brovko, who speaks English, Russian and Chinese fluently, got his start selling vintage clothes he’d found across Southern California, where he grew up, to a vintage shop in his college town of Xiamen, China.
“Man, if I only knew what I had back then, I wouldn’t have let it go, or go for so cheap.” he says to me, in a familiar lament of the collector.
Now, follow along with the history of Denim Revival. Denim Revival, since 2000, has been doing everything from seamless repairs and tailoring on denim (from $30 and up) to made to measure jeans designed from your favorite pair (from $450 and up). Owner Anahit Adamyan has been there since the start and in 2006, she was named Denim Revival’s “original tailor” and then in 2010, she bought the business.
“Anna is the OG. A legend and one of the best in LA for alterations and repairs, she's an amazing tailor.” says Brovko.
Brovko rents the retail space in the front, where he will sell you, I promise, the perfect-fitting pair of Levi’s. But how did this all come about? When he couldn’t find a job in the International Relations field, he threw caution to the wind.
“I walked in to repair a pair of redlines. I asked Anna if she wanted to buy some jeans - I had around 300 pairs stashed away. She said I don't do vintage. Anna was never really focused on the retail side, she was mainly focused on the alterations and repairs business. I asked if I could sell them here and she said yes.”
I asked Brovko how long it took to get this deal going, “I dropped off my jeans on December 15, 2022, came back 10 business days later to pick up my jeans, I asked her again, she asked me if I was serious, I said yes. So, from New Year’s Day until January 4, I started putting stuff in and our first day open was January 4, 2023. It was a great fit and sometimes you just gotta do it.”
His first sale on the 4th? “Everything was legit just scattered on the floor when a customer picked it out. I sold her a crazy patched-out 1950s Girl Scouts jacket,with some of the most insane patches I've ever seen on a jacket, a gorgeous pair of Levi’s 505s with perfect wear, and a pair of WWII-era women's denim pants. She was a designer for Target.”
It’s been going like gangbusters ever since with lots and lots of pairs sold since then (Brovko told me the number, it’s a lot of jeans, but I told him I’d keep the number close to my chest).
Over the few years of running his own shop - and what makes Denim Revival so special - is that Brovko has the fitting process down to a science. His recipe: Pick out a few pairs to find the perfect fit, then three to five more pairs to find the perfect wash, and boom, the customer has their perfect pair. Brovko says this usually works, “Sometimes they try on two pairs and they are done, sometimes it’s the whole wall.”
The whole wall is A LOT of jeans, hundreds and hundreds of pairs, neatly arranged, alongside tees, flannels, denim and leather jackets and assorted vintage ephemera. There is also his special stash, where you can get everything from a pair of 1970s deadstock 501s redlines (from $2,000) to a pair of WWII-era Levi’s with painted-on pocket Arcuates (from if you have to ask). If there is something you want, he has it, or can find it, and while it won’t be inexpensive, it will be perfect.
“I stumbled upon Denim Revival when I moved to LA about 20 years ago and they’ve been my go-to since then.” says celebrity stylist Caroline DeJean, who works with Chace Crawford, Taylor Kitsch and Dave Annable and visits Steph with her clients every few weeks, “I love Anna and Steph; they’re both so knowledgeable and they also put up with my crazy requests!”
But for her, it’s more than just seeing her boldface named clients in the perfect pair of jeans. When asked about her personal experience working with Steph on finding the right pair of jeans, DeJean tells me, “I typically love a baggier jean but last summer, I decided I was ready for something tighter. I walked in and as he always does, Steph greeted me with “what are you looking for?” and I told him. He pulled out one pair and told me they were the ones and he was absolutely right. We call them “hot girl jeans” now and they’re the best jeans I’ve owned and I get asked about them every time I wear them!”
Hearing DeJean talk about the way her jeans - a pair of early 80s Levi’s 517 Orange Tabs - fit makes me think of how lucky we are in LA to have a denim therapist on call and how for her - just like it was for me, and for so many people - the perfect pair really does make you feel like a new person.
“Steph really has an eye for the body; he takes one look at someone and nails it every time. I’ve learned so much about denim from him.”
Shop Denim Revival and Denim Revival
7934 W 3rd St. Los Angeles, CA 90048
Phone: (323) 852-0171
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shop.denimrevival
Website: https://denimrevival.us/
