Jeans

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History

Jeans fabric was first created in Chieri, a town near Turin (Italy), already in 1400s. It was sold through the harbour of Genoa, that was the capital of an independent republic,and a naval power. The first were made for the Genoese Navy because itrequired all-purpose pants for its sailors that could be worn wet ordry, and whose legs could easily be rolled up to wear while swabbingthe deck. These jeans would be laundered by dragging them in large meshnets behind the ship, and the sea water would bleach them white.According to many people the jeans name comes from blue de Genes, i.e. blue of Genoa. The raw material was coming from the city of Nimes de Nimes i.e. denim.

Riveted jeans

In the 1850s Levi Strauss, a German dry goods merchant living in San Francisco, was selling blue jeans under the "Levi's" name to the mining communities of California. One of Strauss's customers was Jacob Davis, a tailor who frequently purchased bolts of cloth from the Levi Strauss & Co wholesale house. After one of Davis's customers kept purchasing cloth to reinforce torn pants, he had an idea to use copper rivetsto reinforce the points of strain, such as on the pocket corners and atthe base of the button fly. Davis did not have the required money topurchase a patent, so he wrote to Strauss suggesting that they both go into business together. After Strauss accepted Davis's offer, on May 20, 1873, the two men received patent #139,921, a patent for an "Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings," from the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Initially, blue jeans were simply sturdy trousers worn by workers, especially in the factories during World War II.During this period, men's jeans had the zipper down the front, whereaswomen's jeans had the zipper down the right side. By the 1960s, bothmen's and women's jeans had the zipper down the front. In the United States during the 1950s, wearing of blue jeans by teenagers and young adultsbecame symbolic of mild protest against conformity. This was consideredby some older adults as disruptive; for example, some movie theatersand restaurants refused to admit patrons who wore blue jeans. Duringthe 1960s the wearing of blue jeans became more acceptable and by the 1970s had become general fashion in the United States, at least for informal wear. Notably, in the mid-1950s the denim and textiles industry was revolutionized by the introduction of the stone-washing technique by GWG (Great Western Garment Co.). Entrepreneur, importer and noted eccentric, Donald Freeland of Edmonton, Alberta, pioneered the method which helped to bring denim to a larger and more versatile market. Denimsuddenly became an attractive product for all age groups and Freelandbecame one of the most important innovators in the history of denim anddenim products. It should be noted, also, that Freeland contributed toa variety of other denim textile developments throughout his career with Great Western Garments (GWG)Acceptance of jeans continued through the 1980s and 1990s to the point where jeans are now a wardrobe
staple, with the average North American owning seven pairs.

Being imported American products, especially in the case of the Soviet Union which restricted hard currency imports, jeans were somewhat expensive. In Spain they are known as vaqueros or "cowboys" and in Chinese, jeans are known as niuzaiku (SC: 牛仔裤), literally, "cowboy pants" (trousers), indicating their association with the American West, cowboy culture, and outdoors work.

Jeans can be worn very loose in a manner that completely concealsthe shape of the wearer's lower body, or they can be snugly fitting andaccentuate the body. Historic photographs indicate that in the decadesbefore they became a staple of fashion, jeans generally fit quiteloosely, much like a pair of bib overalls without the bib. Indeed,until 1960, Levi Strauss denominated its flagship product "waistoveralls" rather than "jeans".