Adrienne Gallagher

In 1989, I was hired by an architectural firm to manage the interior space planning and design of Levi Strauss & Co.’s (LS&Co.’s) world headquarters in San Francisco. Under normal circumstances, this would have been a major project, but its impact increased into a potentially transformative initiative when LS&Co.’s management team said they wanted to lead the nation in workstation design. They planned to provide every employee with a computer—heretofore unheard of—and they wanted to be sure that working on them didn’t cause workplace injuries.

At a time when not much was known about computers in workstations, and before the architectural firm had staffed up, I worked alone on LS&Co.’s bold charge, conducting exhaustive research and reaching several conclusions. One was that, while computers were bulky and boxy, I just assumed that their size and shape would change, and that they would get smaller. I felt strongly that we should provide flexible spaces for them rather than a single dedicated space, which at the time was typically in the corner of the workstation. Also, to avoid the potential for injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome or eyestrain, employees should not remain seated in one position for too long. These conclusions led to the development of the first sit-stand user-adjustable table desk. 

Throughout the project, LS&Co. wanted their employees involved. I interviewed them, gave them prototypes to test, and checked in to see what they thought. To make my life a little easier, management issued me an employee ID. With it, I could eat lunch at LS&Co.’s chef-driven, subsidized lunchroom and go to their employee shop, which sold sample garments.

I only saw their employee shop open once, so obviously, I checked it out. Inside, I spotted a tiny version of LS&Co.’s iconic stonewashed denim jacket. At just $7.00, I didn’t think twice about buying it for my toddler.

At home, the denim jacket was a hit, but my son quickly outgrew it. After that, I packed it away with some other kids’ clothes I couldn’t bear to part with—mostly dresses from when my daughter was growing up.

Meanwhile, the LS&Co. corporate headquarters project that had dominated my life for a couple of years ended, and I moved on.

Which brings me to the Covid-19 pandemic, when there was plenty of time to go through things at home. The dresses I had saved were inspected, neatly refolded, and put back in a vintage Hartmann tweed leather-strapped suitcase that I keep in our loft. But the little denim jacket felt too special to have hidden away. Instead, I moved it to a child’s chair, also in our loft. There it reminds me of the groundbreaking work I did for Levi Strauss & Co.