Mismatched belt loops!
A pair of late-60s Lee 200 on the left and late-70s Lee 200-0141 on the right, both with belt loops made of different denim from the rest of the jeans.

The 60s jeans (pic 2) are made of regular rope-dyed left-hand twill denim, but the belt loops are made of vat-dyed denim! Very hard to distinguish when raw, but becoming quite clear with fading.

The 70s jeans (pic 3) are made of left-hand twill denim, but the belt loops are made of right-hand twill denim!

These mismatches are not uncommon for Lee, especially during periods of transition, e.g. from left-hand twill to right-hand twill.
My guess is that the type of denim was simply not an issue for the sewing operators, just like they used yellow and orange thread interchangeably.

In extreme cases, the front panels and back panels were made of opposite twill!
I don't think this was by design; I believe it just happened to be what was on the sewing table.
It's things like this that I love about Lee.

The last pic shows the two pairs with the original flashers they came with when I first got them deadstock many years ago.

#mismatchedbeltloops #lefthandtwill #righthandtwill #denim #lee200

1970s Lee 200Z and Copper King 99Z, with their original flashers and labels.
Both of these were raw deadstock when I bought them nearly 30 years ago, and I've worn both of them quite a bit.
Other than both flashers depicting a cowboy on a horse, not much similarity here.

#vintagejeans #vintagedenim #realvintage #lee #lee200 #lee200z #copperking #copperking99 #copperking99z #cantbustem

Two seemingly very different jeans that, on closer inspection, are nearly identical down to the smallest detail in the way they are constructed -- Lee 200Z and Copper King 99Z, both from the early 1970s.
Over the next several posts, I'll do a detailed comparison of these two pairs and show how amazingly similar they are.

#vintagejeans #vintagedenim #realvintage #lee #lee200 #lee200z #copperking #copperking99 #copperking99z #cantbustem