Victoria Beckham and I are basically the same person—at least when it comes to our rabid love of vintage Levi's denim. The former rotates through whiskered selvage, high-rise indigos, and perfectly tailored straight-legs, while I scour eBay for selvage, saving 'orange tab' in my history and hunting for Big 'E' labels like it's my life's calling.

But despite my near thirty-pair collection of blue jean babies, I still had a lot to learn about the history of Levi's' iconic 501 jeans. In honor of 501 Day, we visited New York-based vintage shop What Goes Around Comes Around to find out exactly why a pair can cost upwards of $4,000. Worth it? We'll see.