I love wearing jeans. Be it for work or for a casual outing, there aren’t many garments that match it in terms of comfort and looks. I pack one of them almost every time I am out on a trip and there’s always at least one pair of blue jeans in my wardrobe. If you, like me, also take to these with great fondness, then we have reason to celebrate. For it was on May 20, 1873 that the blue jeans were born.
Strauss learns the trade
Before we head to how the blue jeans came to be, we would have to introduce two characters to our story. First would be Levi Strauss, an immigrant from Bavaria who emigrated to New York in 1846. He joined his brothers in their wholesale dry goods business and learnt the trade himself.
In 1853, Strauss headed west to San Francisco to make his fortune during the height of the California Gold Rush. Unlike others, though, he wasn’t after the gold, instead he established a wholesale dry goods business as a West Coast representative of the family-run business. This business was eventually renamed Levi Strauss & Co.
Business flourishes
Strauss’ business flourished as he was able to sell clothing, fabrics and various other items not just to the miners heading to the gold fields, but also to the local people in various locations all over the West Coast. But the turning point was still a couple of decades away.
For that, we’ll have to bring in Jacob Youphes, a Latvian immigrant who changed his name to Jacob Davis, into the plot. One of Strauss’ customers, Davis worked as a tailor in Reno, Nevada. And when the wife of a local labourer approached him to make a pair of pants for her husband that wouldn’t fall apart, he got thinking.
Tailor’s trick
Having spent time deciding on how best to strengthen the trousers, Davis settled upon the idea of adding metal rivets at points of strain such as the base of the button fly and the pocket corners. These strengthened trousers were an instant hit and Davis realised that he was onto something.
Davis, however, didn’t have the means to patent the process. He needed a partner in order to get his business rolling and he thought of Strauss, from whom he had obtained the cloth to make his pants, as the ideal candidate. So in 1872, Davis shot a letter to Strauss suggesting that the two men work together and hold a combined patent for his product.
Davis, Strauss work together
Strauss, an astute businessman, knew a good idea when he saw one. Realising the potential of Davis’ product, Strauss agreed to his proposal and the two of them applied for a patent together. “Improvement in fastening pocket-openings”, the patent that would eventually give us the blue jeans as we know them today, was issued on May 20, 1873.
The first riveted clothing were soon made and sold. The first blue jeans, or waist overalls as they were known back then, were actually made of denim, and not the lighter cotton textile known as jean. As both men had predicted, the jeans flew off the shelves.
Long-lasting
While the fact that they were long-lasting ensured their success, it also meant that their demand soon overtook the supply, as seamstresses working out of their homes could only cope with so much. Strauss brought Davis to San Francisco to oversee the manufacturing facility and by the 1880s they had opened up a factory to produce these jeans.
Although denim pants were around as work-wear for years, it was the process of fitting them with rivets that created the apparel that we now call jeans. It is for this reason that the day Davis and Strauss received their patent is celebrated as its birthday.
Starting out as work-wear, these jeans have slowly made their way everywhere – across sexes and age groups. And if you wish to celebrate the birthday of the most popular apparel in our world, then there is no better way than to wear your blue jeans today!
