The earliest known pre-cursor for jeans is the Indian
export of a thick cotton cloth, in the 16th century, known as
dungaree. Dyed in indigo, it was sold in the vicinity of the
Dongarii Fort near Mumbai. Sailors cut it to suit them. [1]
Jeans were first created in Genoa, Italy
when the city was an independent Republic and a naval power.
The first were made for the Genoese Navy because it required all-purpose
trousers for its sailors that could be worn wet or dry, and whose legs
could easily be rolled up to wear while swabbing the deck. These jeans
would be laundered by dragging them in large mesh nets behind the ship,
and the sea water would bleach them white. The first denim came from
Nîmes, France, hence de Nimes, the name of the fabric.
The French word for these trousers was anchored around their word for
Genoa. The French bleu de Gênes, from the Italian
blu di Genova, literally the "blue of Genoa" dye of their
fabric, is the root of the names for these trousers, "jeans" and "blue
jeans", today.
Circa 1872, jeans made a formal
arrival in America. Levi Strauss was a Bavarian dry goods
merchant living in San Francisco. One of Levi's customers
was Jacob Davis, a tailor who frequently purchased bolts of
cloth from the Levi Strauss & Co wholesale house. After one of
Jacob's customers kept purchasing cloth to reinforce torn
trousers, he had an idea to use copper rivets to reinforce
the points of strain, such as on the pocket corners and at the
base of the button fly. Jacobs did not have the required money
to purchase a patent, so he wrote to Levi suggesting that they
both go into business together. After Strauss accepted Davis's
offer, on May 20, 1873, the two men received patent
#139,121, a patent for an "Improvement in Fastening
Pocket-Openings", from the United States Patent and Trademark
Office, and the blue jeans, as we know it today, was born.
Jeans in popular culture
Blue jeans
Initially blue jeans were simply sturdy
trousers worn by workers. In the United States during
the 1950s, wearing of blue jeans by teenagers and young
adults became symbolic of mild protest against conformity. This
was considered by some adults as disruptive; for example, some
movie theaters and restaurants refused to admit patrons who wore
blue jeans. During the 1960s
the wearing of blue jeans became more acceptable and by the
1970s
had become a general fashion in the United States, at least for
informal wear. Notably, in the mid-1960s
the denim and textiles
industry was revolutionized by the introduction of the
pre-washing craze. Entrepreneur and noted eccentric, Donald
Freeland of Edmonton, Alberta developed the technique to
bring denim to a larger and more versatile market. Denim
suddenly became an attractive product for all age groups and Don
Freeland became one of the most important innovators in the
history of Denim and denim products. 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 7 pairs.
Outside of the United States, particularly
in Russian popular culture, blue jeans (джинсы) were and are
fashionable, symbolizing American culture and the good life.
Being imported American products, especially in the case of the
Soviet Union which restricted hard currency imports, they
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.
Most North Americans prefer not to iron or
press their jeans, but wear them somewhat wrinkled and creased,
sometimes with stains, tears, or holes for a more rugged and
casual look. It is considered strange to wear pressed jeans in
the United States, whereas Western Europeans may press their
jeans like dress pants for a more formal appearance.
Today, types of jeans range from every-day
wear to highly fashionable, with a range of prices (from tens to
hundreds of dollars US or equivalent) to match
