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The history of blue jeans goes back to XVI Century Europe. It’s amazing that a product developed 500 years ago fuels today’s multi-million dollar denim industry. Who would have thought back in Genoa in the 1500’s that the material worn by Genovese sailors in their everyday pants would evolve to become the textile and fashion industry phenomenon that denim is today.

The story goes that “jean” derives from the word Genoa. It refers to the material that sailors from Genoa used in their pants. This was a coarse cotton-wool and/or linen blend. It originally came from Italy, and is evidence of the custom of naming a material for its place of origin. By the late 16th century, jean was already being produced in Lancashire, England. The composition eventually evolved to 100% cotton by the 18th century.

 

Jean and denim remained two very different fabrics, and were used for different types of clothing. Denim was used mainly for workers clothes and jean for lighter clothes that did not have such high durability requirements.

So, how did the modern term “jeans” come to refer to pants made out of a fabric called denim you ask? The answer lies in the story of Loeb (Levi) Strauss. This is where the modern history of blue jeans starts.

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Mr. Strauss came to America from Bavaria in 1847 with his mother and two sisters. They arrived in New York where his half brother ran a wholesale business selling, among other things, various types of fabrics and clothes. After working for his brother for a few years, Levi decided to travel West to San Francisco and partake of the benefits of the Gold Rush.

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His fate and the history of clothing would change forever when in 1872 he received an offer from Jacob Davis, a tailor from Reno Nevada. Mr. Davis, in order to improve the durability of the pants he made for his clients, added metal rivets to the highly stressed seams. The idea was successful and he wished to patent it. Lacking the money to do so, he turned to Levi for financial backing, and of course, a partnership. In 1873, the new partners received a patent for “an improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings”, and thus the history of blue jeans as we know them begins.

They started making “waist overalls” out of denim and cotton duck. They knew that the selling point of the new product was its durability, making it more appropriate for work clothes. Eventually, the cotton duck was dropped for the more comfortable denim.

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Hope you guys enjoyed a little piece of history!!!!!

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