Emily Adams Bode Aujla has long leaned into her heritage to inform her designs. She grew up in a family of antique collectors and embraced her love of vintage textiles by creating a collection rooted in both American and personal history.
Now the designer turned to her childhood memories of a spotted pony named Checkers for her latest project. Checkers, a retired barrel-racer that was a cross between a Shetland pony and an Appaloosa, was the inspiration for Bode’s new collaboration with Levi’s — appropriately enough, a barrel jean.
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The jean is offered in a straight-leg silhouette in two washes: a lighter finish embellished with silver studs and red gemstones from the early 1950s, and a darker finish with copper studding down the side seam.
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Both models are offered in 14-ounce pre-shrunk selvedge denim and in 30 or 32-inch inseams.
The Barrel Racer jeans also feature a shadow patch on the waistband that is an homage to the traditional Levi’s leather Jacron label with “Bode” in chain-stitch embroidery. The custom woven label reads: “Mr. Checkers’s Favorite Pair,” and the jeans sport a purple tab. On the interior pocket bag, a half-toned photo of the designer and the pony is printed alongside Bode Aujla’s childhood signature. The hang tag has a blue ribbon motif and a “Blue Jeans & Chaps” woven label, a nod to the local equestrian show where the designer and the horse competed in 1996.
“This project has been incredibly special to me: both to work with one of America’s most-historic labels and to celebrate a story so personal to me — that of my childhood pony Checkers and the American rodeo,” Bode Aujla said.
The Barrel Racer jean will launch exclusively at Bode’s new Tokyo store on April 3, followed by the company’s stores in New York, Paris and Los Angeles as well as online on April 10. The jeans will retail for $388.