FASHION
SEPTEMBER 15, 2023
The Origin Of Jeans : How It Revolutionized Fashion World
Today, jeans have become part of fashion and are worn by all levels of society regardless of status all over the world.
Jeans were first made in Genoa, Italy in the 1560s. The word “jean” first became known in the 1800s, referring to the cotton twill fabric used for trousers. Blue jeans, now called “denim,” were originally made from this fabric and manufactured in the French city of Nîmes.
The weavers of Nimes tried to reproduce the famous corduroy fabric made in the Italian city of Genoa, but were unsuccessful. After many trials and failures, they finally developed another fabric known as denim. The reason why denim is blue is because Indigo is a distinctive color, used to dye denim. The characteristic of this dye is its distinctive and organic blue color.
Trousers which the French usually call “bleu de Génes”, which means Genoa blue, although they were first produced and worn in Europe, but as a fashion, jeans were popularized in the US by Levi Strauss.
Basically denim is a type of material, while jeans are products such as trousers, jackets, skirts, etc. that are made from denim. So it can easily be concluded that denim is the material, and jeans are a product made from denim because the history of denim itself is much longer.
The making of these jeans itself started with a man named Levi Strauss. At that time, 20 year old Levi went to San Francisco in 1847 with several pieces of textiles that he wanted to sell.
At that time, being a gold miner was a mainstream job in the United States. Levi tried his luck by selling textiles he brought from Germany to gold mine workers. Levi managed to sell all of his textiles, except for one material made from canvas.
Quoted from Levistrauss website, the origin of jeans was when the wife of a local worker asked Jacob Davis to make trousers for her husband that would not come off easily.
Jacob also thought about how to strengthen the man’s work trousers. He came up with the idea of installing metal rivets at points of tension on trousers, such as at the corners of pockets and the base of buttons.
At that time, Davis did not have enough money to prepare the necessary patent documents. Then, he asked Strauss to provide funds and jointly hold the patent. Levi saw the potential of this new product and agreed to Jacob’s proposal.
Finally, on May 20, 1873, the two obtained a patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office with serial number #139,121.
Their first jeans design product was named Levi’s 501. This product was designed specifically for gold mining workers.
The trousers apparently received a positive response from the miners. The miners liked these trousers because the canvas material had good durability and was not easily damaged or torn. Together with Davis, Levi began producing jeans in large quantities.
After the world war 2, around 1950s, jeans became one of the types of trousers that young people in the United States had to own.
This was triggered because American artist James Dean was caught wearing jeans which looked cool and created a new trend at that time. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the hippy lifestyle created new creations, namely wearing jeans decorated with embroidery or paint.
Now, jeans have become part of fashion and are worn by all levels of society regardless of status. The use of similar materials has given rise to many innovative products that can be adapted to situations and conditions. Not only in the form of trousers, jeans are also made into jackets, hats and wallets.
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