FASHION COMPANY
SEPTEMBER 8, 2021
Evolution Of Levi’s Jeans
Levi Strauss & Co. was founded on May 1st, 1853 in California, United States. The evolution of Levi’s jeans started when German immigrant Levi Strauss moved from Buttenheim, Bavaria to San Francisco, California, he was intended to open a branch of his brother’s New York dry goods business at first in the west coast area.
Levi was born in 1829, as Loeb Strauss, one of seven children of Hirsch Strauss. In 1847 he immigrated to the United States to join his stepbrothers’ business, Jonas and Louis. By 1850 he changed his first name to Levi like other immigrants did at the time.
He started his trading business at the 90 Sacramento Street address in San Francisco then moved to 62 Sacramento Street. In 1858, the company was listed as Strauss, Levi importers clothing, etc. 63 & 65 Sacramento St.
At the time, the California gold rush was in its full height. 24 year old Levi arrived in California bringing dry goods like canvas to use for tents and wagon covers from his brother business. He soon found out that the workers from gold mines needed strong pants that strong enough to last.
So Levi started to make the canvas into waist overalls which miners liked it. He then used a cotton cloth from France called “serge de Nimes.” The sturdy fabric was initially made in Nimes, France, hence the term “de Nimes” became known today as Denim and the pants were nicknamed “Blue Jeans“. The term “Jeans” are named after the city of Genoa in Italy where cotton corduroy was manufactured.
The denim blue color is coming from the indigo dye, an organic dye with a distinctive blue color. It was manufactured and used in India since the ancient times, from where it got its name. With the development of trading system, the indigo dye spread to Egypt, Greece and Rome as well as other civilizations across Europe, Asia and Africa in later period.
On May 20, 1873, Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis, a tailor from Nevada and his long time customer, received U.S. Patent No. 139.121 of putting rivets in pants. This date is now considered as the birth of “Blue Jeans” in the world.
Davis had made a pair of sturdy pants that could stand the hard work. He used the denim from Levi and made the pants stronger by placing copper rivets at pockets and flies. The patented rivet was later used widely for the Levi’s jeans. The company created its first pair of legendary Levi’s 501 jeans in the 1890’s.
Modern jeans appeared in 1920’s and 1930’s across United States, starting from west coast and spreading to the east side. In the 1950’s to 1980’s Levi’s jeans became popular among young generations and pop culture scene. The 1960’s saw significant growth in business as the trend in the 1960’s and 1970’s moved to the more casual look for daily fashion style.
This style drove the “blue jeans craze” worldwide and favors Levi’s jeans in turn, a leader in jeans industry market. The dominance of Levi’s jeans transformed Levi Strauss & Co. into one of the world’s largest clothing brands with $4.1 billion in total sales in 2002.
Today the company’s headquarter is located in San Francisco, California with 2.800 company operated stores worldwide. In 2018, their total revenue was $5.575 billion with net income around $283.14 million. Their number of employees are currently 15.100 workers and total assets $3.542 billion in 2018.
Source : wikipedia, fashion history love to know, history of jeans, thought co.
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