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Ralph Tharpe on Black seed

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Category: Denimbro
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URL: http://www.denimbro.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=4352
Printed Date: 26 Mar 2026 at 4:25pm
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Topic: Ralph Tharpe on Black seed
Posted By: Sansome
Subject: Ralph Tharpe on Black seed
Date Posted: 21 May 2020 at 1:38pm
It's been awhile since talking with Ralph, I asked for a little blurb- on The Black seed.



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Replies:
Posted By: Broark
Date Posted: 21 May 2020 at 2:00pm
Really interesting stuff, thanks for sharing.


Posted By: Sansome
Date Posted: 21 May 2020 at 2:30pm
Another story that might be of interest, maybe a year or so, after the Roy X Cone contest, Ralph and Supima got together-
A long standing rumor had been in the denim weaving community. The rumor was, Levi Strauss used long staple cotton back in the day- meaning 1800’s. Supima thought it might be a way for them to possibly collaborate with Levi (LVC) If they could prove Levi did indeed use Long staple cotton. I cut samples from 5 pieces of 1870’s Levi pant pieces, I warned Ralph back then, I basically said ( good luck getting anyone at Levi excited about anything) The $$ was put up by Supima
And all 5 1870’s pieces were DNA tested.

One sample came back positive for long staple cotton, proving that rumor was true, Unfortunately - I was right about no one, other than the fellow denim nerds caring about any of this....So there was no collaboration between the 2 companies.

Still cool to have the answer to that long standing rumor.


Posted By: CSL
Date Posted: 21 May 2020 at 5:22pm
What would it have taken to make something like that happen? Could a smaller manufacturer have pulled it off?


Posted By: Sansome
Date Posted: 21 May 2020 at 6:10pm
Originally posted by CSL CSL wrote:

What would it have taken to make something like that happen? Could a smaller manufacturer have pulled it off?

Well- it looks like Supima cotton was used at cone, and the black seed denim Roy used was the long staple Supima cotton...Thing is, when Levi gets involved, a whole bunch of Supima long staple cotton is used.


Posted By: CSL
Date Posted: 21 May 2020 at 9:08pm
Right. Thanks for clarifying.



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