Levi’s & Undercover Make Franken-Jackets & Jeans With A Cheeky Message

If you’re after clothing featuring Halsey-esque screen-printed smoky eyes or a message written across your crotch, you’re in luck: Undercover has joined forces with Levi’s yet again for a collaboration balancing light and dark — and a lesson in wearing trucker jackets and vests on the beach.

Undercover is the brain child of Jun Takahashi, and since 1990, he’s been Japan’s steadfast streetwear designer with a cinematic edge. Think: Cindy Sherman’s character studies printed onto sweatshirts, Twin Peaks collaborative and mystical hoodies, and runway shows replete with the drama and camp of a bygone era. (Also see: Amelia Gray’s butterfly-terrarium Met Gala dress.) For their second collaboration with Levi’s in celebration of 35 years of keeping it weird, the brand’s Autumn/Winter 1998 show was a starting point. Undercover’s “Exchange Program” from that runway featured jackets with zippers at every seam so customers could make mishmashed coats at their leisure.

For the Levi’s collaboration, that results selvedge-denim truckers with detachable sleeves, collar, and side seams, the better for wearing year-round when long jean sleeves are all but oppressive. The actual jeans offerings are two more gray pieces of denim, the darker of which features the words “LIGHT DARKNESS” stamped on the upper waistband. How’s that for some yin-yang? More archival call-outs for Undercover include the squiggly motif on some jackets and the eye print, which recalls much of their screen-printed goodness seen throughout their collections.

To show off the goods, the two brands called on music’s weirdest and brightest star, Flea, all-around style icon and father to one of fashion’s favorite photographers, Clara Balzary, who snapped pictures of her dad barefoot on the beach. If the handstand picture and his blue almost-bald head isn’t enough to convince you on the wares, see a sneak peek of the pieces below. The collection drops on Jan. 18 on levi.com and undercoverism.com, plus in Levi’s stores and on the Levi’s app.