Fabric ,
Genoa, Italy.
Indigo dyed cotton textiles have been produced and traded from India for millenia, the textiles becoming known, in the 18th century, as ‘
blue goods’ in English, or ‘
guinée’ in French, and were a core trade good of the Indian Ocean, and Atlantic slave trades. Nearly all
indigo, needed for dyeing, came from indigo bush plantations in India until the late 19th century, until replaced by indigo synthesis methods developed in Germany. Research on the trade of jean fabric shows that it emerged in the city of
Genoa, Italy, in the 16th century, followed by
Nîmes, France, in the 17th century. Genoa's jeans fabric was a
fustian textile of "medium quality and of reasonable cost", very similar to cotton
corduroy for which Genoa was famous, and was "used for work clothes in general". The
Genoese navy equipped its sailors with jeans, as they needed a fabric that could be worn wet or dry. Gênes, the French word for Genoa, might be the origin of the word "
jeans". In Nîmes, weavers tried to reproduce jean fabric but instead developed a similar
twill fabric that became known as denim, "
de Nîmes", meaning "from Nîmes". Nîmes's "denim" was coarser, considered higher quality, and was used "for over garments such as smocks or overalls". s for reinforcing pockets are a characteristic feature of blue jeans. By the 17th century, jean was a crucial textile for working-class people in Northern Italy. This is seen in a series of genre paintings from around the 17th century attributed to an artist now referred to as the Master of the Blue Jeans.
Dungaree, a type of fabric, was mentioned for the first time in 1613, when it was referred to as coarse calico cloth, often colored blue but sometimes bleached white, worn by impoverished workers in what was then a region of
Bombay, India a dockside village called Dongri. This cloth was "dungri" in
Hindi. Dungri was exported to England and used for manufacturing of cheap, robust working clothes such as
overalls. In English, the word "dungri" became pronounced as "dungaree". It was used by utility workers of the US Navy throughout World War I. The copper rivets were to reinforce the points of stress, such as pocket corners and at the bottom of the button fly. Strauss accepted Davis's offer, and the two men received US patent No. 139,121 for an "Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings" on May 20, 1873. Davis and Strauss experimented with different fabrics. An early attempt was brown
cotton duck, a bottom-weight fabric. Finding denim a more suitable material for work-pants, they began using it to manufacture their riveted pants. The denim used was produced by an American manufacturer. Popular legend incorrectly states that it was imported from Nîmes. A popular myth is that Strauss initially sold brown canvas pants to miners, later dyed them blue, turned to using denim, and only after Davis wrote to him, added rivets. During this period, men's jeans had the
fly down the front, whereas women's jeans had the fly down the left side. When
Levi Strauss & Co. patented the modern, mass-produced prototype in 1873, there were two pockets in the front and a patch pocket on the back right reinforced with copper rivets.
20th century evolution In 1901, Levi Strauss added the back left pocket to their 501 model. This created the now familiar and industry-standard five-pocket configuration with two large pockets and small watch pocket in front with two pockets on the rear. The popularity of "waist overalls", as jeans were sometimes called, expanded during
World War II. By the 1960s, both men's and women's jeans had the
zipper down the front. Historic photographs indicate that in the decades before they became a staple of fashion, jeans generally fit quite loosely, much like a pair of
bib overalls without the bib. Indeed, until 1960, Levi Strauss called its flagship product "waist overalls" rather than "jeans". After
James Dean popularized them in the movie
Rebel Without a Cause, wearing jeans became a symbol of youth rebellion during the 1950s. During the 1960s, the wearing of jeans became more acceptable, and by the 1970s it had become general fashion in the United States for casual wear. In Japan in 1977, a professor of
Osaka University Philip Karl Pehda chastised a female student wearing jeans in the classroom. Then he was protested by the students, and a controversy arose in the country. Examples of intentional denim distressing strictly to make them more fashionable can be seen as early as 1935 in Vogue's June issue. Michael Belluomo, editor of
Sportswear International Magazine, Oct/Nov 1987, p. 45, wrote that in 1965, Limbo, a boutique in the New York East Village, was "the first retailer to wash a new pair of jeans to get a used, worn effect, and the idea became a hit." He continued, "[Limbo] hired East Village artists to embellish the jeans with patches, decals, and other touches, and sold them for $200." In the early 1980s the denim industry introduced the
stone-washing technique developed by GWG also known as "Great Western Garment Co." Donald Freeland of
Edmonton, Alberta, pioneered the method, which helped to bring denim to a larger and more versatile market. Acceptance of jeans continued through the 1980s and 1990s. Originally a utilitarian garment, jeans became a common fashion choice in the second half of the 20th century. Levi' 501s are featured prominently in the chapter on trousers in the 1987 book ''A Gentleman's Wardrobe: Classic Clothes and the Modern Man'' by British fashion journalist Paul Keers. In the early 21st century, ''
Details Men's Style Manual'' devoted a chapter to jeans, saying, "Now that jeans have become more acceptable cocktail-hour attire, you should probably own more than one pair." Calling Levi's 501s "an icon from the moment they were introduced," and "the quintessential pair of jeans," the guidebook calls the standard straight leg design, "a classic clean-cut
American Graffiti look." == Manufacturing processes ==