LEVI’S® & BORN X RAISED
Campaigns and Collaborations /
June 2023
Born x Raised Brings Its Unique Angeleno Style to a New Levi’s® Collection
Born X Raised is more than simply a clothing brand. It’s a way for founder Spanto to preserve both his heritage and the history of the city he was born and raised in. Based in Los Angeles, California, Born x Raised is an unapologetic embrace of L.A.’s culture, and a love letter to its unique and enduring style. But that’s only one half of Spanto’s story. For Spring 2023, he is bringing the other half to an exclusive new Levi’s® & Born X Raised capsule collection.
I feel this collection is a very personal reflection of me, my upbringing, my beliefs. It's also art. I hope each person takes something different from this. With Born X Raised, I always want to make you feel a strong emotion.
Featuring a lineup of Levi’s® 501s, a Levi’s® Trucker, and a graphic tee, Levi’s® & Born X Raised is inspired not only by his L.A. roots, but by his half-Apache, half-Seneca heritage. And, most importantly, it’s a tribute to his late father, Butch. When his father passed away unexpectedly earlier this year, Spanto went to recover his belongings in Memphis, and in those belongings he found pieces of iconography from his father’s indigenous heritage.
This iconography inspired Spanto to create a collection bringing together all of the pieces of his past—his life in L.A., his indigenous heritage, and 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.
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 feature as leather patchwork versions that run down the outer seam of both legs.
Levi's and a white tee shirt is what I grew up wearing, almost as a uniform. Something so simple, but yet so elegant.
The Trucker features versions of the Relative graphic as well, positioned just above the two front pockets, while on the graphic tee it is. The Trucker also includes “Born x Raised In Loving Memory” embroidered on the back in the brand’s classic Old English font.
The special capsule also includes a campaign shot in both L.A. and White River, Arizona, and features an array of people from Spanto’s life—mentor’s like Sleepy Joe from his Venice neighborhood, his mom, sister, and brother, his Apache relatives, performers like actor Richard Cabral, and friends—all wearing pieces from the collection.
When we cast, we use real figures and real people within our lives at the time. Some are family members, some are elders and people I look up to... people I share a certain bond with, people I respect. I featured my entire family - my mother, my sister, my brother, my children. Also in the campaign is a very dear friend of mine that just came home from serving 30 years in prison. I have two very culturally rich sides of my life that are usually very far apart. With this project, I chose to bridge the gap between the two.
Born x Raised has always been a brand that’s told a true L.A. story. And with the Levi’s® & Born X Raised collection, Spanto is telling his own personal story as well.
