Today in HistoryâMay 20: How Jeans Turned the Whole World Blue
On this day in 1873, two men were granted a patent for trousers reinforced with rivetsâthe origin of what we now call âjeans.â
One of those men was Levi Strauss, whose name is so deeply woven into fashion history that itâs become synonymous with the garment. The other man was a humble tailor named Jacob Davis, whose name has largely faded from it.
Davis plied his trade in Reno, Nevada, at a time when the American West was developing into a manufacturing hub at breakneck speed. Miners, railroad workers, factory hands, and laborers were the engine of this expansion, and this crowd was tough on clothes.
In 1870 the wife of one of those laborers visited Davis on behalf of her husband and asked him to stitch a pair of inexpensive trousers that could endure rough use. Davisâs solution was to fasten the pockets and other stress points with copper rivets for reinforcement.
Aware of the potential of his idea but short on seed money, Davis wrote to Levi Strauss, who ran the dry goods company that supplied Davis with cloth. In 1872 he offered Strauss a partnership in exchange for financing the patent and manufacturing the product. Strauss, who had moved to San Francisco during the Gold Rush, knew he had struck it rich.
The adjective âblue-collarâ comes from the denim clothing worn by manual workers.
The pair received their patent within a year. It gave them the sole right to make and market riveted trousersâinitially called âwaist overallsââfor 17 years. It was enough time for Levi Strauss & Co. to become a household brand.
The company initially made the pants out of both denim (a tough, indigo-dyed fabric) and duck (a plainer weave). It was the sturdy and comfortable denim that caught on, and by the 20th century these denim trousers had become the unofficial uniform of the working class.
The trousers also became a staple of Hollywood, memorably worn by the likes of John Wayne, James Dean, and Marlon Brando. They became an emblem of youth counterculture, and in the 1950s and â60s, schools tried to ban jeans (as they had become known). Naturally, that only made them more popular. Riveted trousers had woven themselves into our lives.
- 501: Lot number assigned to the original riveted waist overalls
- 1954: Year in which zippers are used for the first time in Leviâs jeans
- $25,000: Amount Levi Strauss & Co. paid in 1997 for a pair of its 100-year-old jeans
- 1862: U.S. Pres. Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act
- 1891: Thomas Edison gives the first demonstration of his Kinetoscope
- 1932: Engelbert Dollfuss, Austriaâs âLittle Napoleon,â is sworn in as chancellor
