Key Pages
- |Changes [Feb 26, 2009]
The camera
(The first pair of Levi's Jeans)
To This:
(Blue Jeans from the 80s)
Onto This:
(Faded Jeans from Express)
And Now A Reminiscent This:
(Vintage "Destroyed" Jeans from Abercrombie and Fitch)
Chronology of Blue Jeans (specifically Levi's):
Milestones:
1847 Strauss family moves to New York City where Levi joined his brothers dry-goods business
1853 Levi moves to San Francisco, California to establishing a dry-goods business Levi Strauss&Co.
1854 Jacob moves to New York, then to San Francisco, California then to Canada for nine years
1868 Jacob settled in Reno, Nevada tailoring clothing and manufacturing tents and horse blankets
1871 Jacob who was using rivets on horse blankets, decides to try them on pant pockets for strength
1872 Jacob wrote a letter to Levi suggests that they hold the riveted pants patent rights together
1872 On August 8, filed patent application for Improvements in Fastening Pocket-Openings
1873 Patent 139,121 awarded to Jacob Davis and one half assigned to Levi Strauss & Co.
1873 Levi hires Jacob to oversee production of the riveted pants at the San Francisco plant
1875 Levi and two associates purchased the Mission and Pacific Woolen Mills
1890 The year that the lot number "501®" was first used to designate the denim waist overalls
1935 Levi's® jeans for women were first featured in Vogue magazine
1936 The red Tab Device was created to help identify Levi's® 501® jeans from a distance
1960 The word jeans became popular when the baby-boom generation used the term for the pants
jeans, blue jeans, levi's, denim waist overalls, 501, dungaree, Levi Strauss, Jacob Davis . . .
(Taken from http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/story013.htm)
The earliest pre-cursor to modern jeans were those created in Genoa, Italy. The first jeans were trousers that the Navy needed for its sailors to wear. It was necessary that they be worn dry or wet, and there had to be enough space for the legs to be easily rolled up to swab the deck. These jeans would be bleached white from the seawater as they were dragged from large nets behind ships.
Denim is said to have originated from the area of Nimes, France. Thus, the name denim is derived from “de Nimes,” of Nimes. The French called these trousers, “blue de Gênes” from the Italian “blu di genova.” Named after the color of the dyed fabric, “blue of Genoa” became the basis for the words “blue jeans.” The jean cloth became quite popular and accessible due to the increase in slave labor, trade, and the development of cotton plantations during the 18th century.
Denim is a fabric that is consistently associated with one color—blue. The fibers in denim were traditionally dyed with the blue tint acquired from indigo. Before the end of the 19th century when synthetic dyes were widely used, indigo was the most popular pigment. Indigo’s permanence of color and dark tone made it perfect for industrial working clothes, especially when frequent washing was not a common practice. In 1870 the German Baden Aniline and Soda Factory (BASF), the world’s largest chemical company and the original supplier of natural indigo, began the exploration for synthetic substitutes to indigo. In 1894, this was finally achieved.
"Jeans." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. 27 Feb. 2006 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article? tocId=9043470>.
In 1848, James Wilson Marshall discovered nuggets of gold as he was inspecting the site of a sawmill he was building near Coloma, CA. Not before long, the entire United States caught “gold fever” and the Gold Rush began as thousands migrated to California. In 1853, Levi Strauss establishes his company due to the demand from miners for durable work clothes, particularly pants that will not be likely to rip and tear at the pockets.
The solution to this problem would be found in rivets. Jacob Davis had been using metal rivets to make clothing for miners in the Reno area. And in an effort to patent his idea, he approached Strauss with the idea to fasten the pockets and the jeans together using rivets if he paid for the patent. Strauss accepted.
At the same time, the first label of jeans appeared. Strauss sewed a leather patch onto the jeans portraying two horses pulling at a pair of jeans, thus symbolizing its strength. In 1886, this “Two Horse Brand” was first used. By 1890, 501 was assigned to copper-riveted jeans and in 1902, back pockets were included in the design.
The 1930s: Cowboys
The 1930s was the epitome of the Western genre of movies. Cowboys became an iconic symbol of America. To be a cowboy was to be considered an authentic American. Everyone was obsessed with the ruggedness and experience possessed by these cowboys. As a result, people started heading west to ranch towns and bringing back jeans with them in an effort to acquire the “cowboy spirit.” In 1937, customer complaints led to another redesign of the jeans model. The Levi back pockets were restitched in a manner that the rivets were covered and no longer scratching furniture or saddles. Furthermore, suspender buttons were stripped off, but all customers were given an attachable set.
The 1940s: World War Two and Jeans
In the 1940s, the production of jeans changed due to World War Two. Restrictions on certain materials led to a decrease in production, and in an effort to conserve fabric and metal the back cinch and the crotch rivet were removed. As American soldiers began spreading across the globe, they became the ambassadors of the blue jeans to war devastated countries. Other countries associated jeans with as an intrinsic American style. Most soldiers wore them when off duty and as a result, the connotations associated with jeans became modified. Jeans were no longer worn for work, but rather for leisure. The 40s also saw the emergence of other brands competing with Levi’s. Wrangler introduced its first “body fit” style of jeans in 1947.
The 1950s: Rebellious Identity
The 1950s was perhaps one of the most crucial periods in the history of how jeans were portrayed. Television began airing shows of tough guys in motorcycle gangs and juvenile delinquents dressed in denim. Screen icons like James Dean wore jeans in films like “Rebel Without a Cause,” and teenagers became obsessed with this new fashion. Jeans were representative of a certain dangerous rebelliousness, and in fact certain schools in the United States began banning denim for its connotations. Although they gained a bad reputation, sales grew as jeans tapped into a new demographic of customers.
The 1960s & 1970s
Different “psychedelic” styles of jeans were created to fit the style of the 60s and 70s. Embroidered, painted, sequined, etc. jeans were flowing the streets of America as millions of individuals appeared at events like Woodstock and protests. Many non-Western countries viewed jeans as the embodiment of “American decadence.” There value grew especially during the Cold War when they were incredibly difficult to find in non-American countries.
The 1980s: High Fashion Jeans
At this point, famous clothes designers began adding a certain prestige to jeans by altering them to fit their brands. Sales of jeans increased as jeans were no longer simply for the common man, but they were for a “select” group of individuals with a certain palate for refined clothes. Noticeably more expensive, jeans entered into the world of “haute couture.”
(Brooke Shields in the first CK Jeans ads in 1980)
The 1990s: Jeans out of Fashion?
The 1990s saw a true reinvention in the design of jeans. Traditional Levi’s 501 jeans no longer had the same significance to the younger generation, mostly because their parents were still wearing them. Other companies like the GAP and Banana Republic started selling khakis, chinos, and carpenter-style pants. Sportswear companies focused on selling athletic sweatpants. These styles began attracting the younger demographic—the style of denim needed to be reinvented.
New Jeans for the New Millennium
People still wanted their jeans but in a new an innovated manner. New cuts, shapes, and jeans emerged on the market that had a "vintage" look to them, but created with a new generation of customers in mind. Advancement in technology has logically led to a restructuring of the design of jeans. In fall of 2001, Levi’s launched its line of “Engineered Jeans.” According to a Levi Strauss press release, “patented features are ergonomically designed and engineered for the body’s contours, with angled hem, twisted side seams for better movement and lower back pockets for easy access” (http://www.levistrauss.com/news/pressrelease). The design has also changed not simply because of technology but also for technology. Most recently, Levi’s announced that it would be creating a new line of jeans called RedWire DLX Jeans set to appear in fall of 2006. These new jeans will be specifically created to be used in conjunction with the iPod. Designed for both sexes, the jeans will feature a built-in docking station, a joystick, and retractable headphones. The joystick will be used to control the iPod so that the wearer is not forced to remove it from his pocket. Aesthetically, a special pocket will remove the bulge created by the iPod in normal jeans. The jeans will still be washable, and the design will be in keeping with Apple’s minimalist design.
