History of Jeans

Jeans have made the history of generations and represent a very casual clothing icon.

What is their history?
The invention of blue jeans is not  American (as it is often thought), but it has its origins in Genoa (Italy), precisely in the Middle Age.
The term “Blue Jeans” comes from the French expression “bleu de Gênes”, showing a kind of very strong blue-colored fabric. This production has been made in the city of Nimes.

Afterwards, during  the nineteenth century, thanks to the commercial relationships, this type of fabric was really appreciated by English merchants and Americans.
In 1853, after the discovery of gold in California, Levi Strauss founded a company in San Francisco named Levi Strauss & Co. to sell clothing useful for gold miners, which is now well-known under the name “Levi’s“.
Strauss tried to improve their quality using denim, a durable heavy and blue fabric.

However, the modern jeans denim was invented in 1871 by the tailor Jacob Davis, who added to denim trousers copper rivets to reinforce the points that are most subject to wear, such as budgets, particularly filled by gold prospectors and miners. It was patented on May 20, 1873 by the USA Patent and Trademark Office with the number 139121 and the category “for improvement in fastening pocket openings“. But at the same time he entered into a partnership with Levi Strauss because he hadn’t enough money to process the registration.

Thus, the Levi’s could produce their denim in an exclusive way.
Jeans became the uniform of the workers of the trans rail,  of the “miners” and of the Cowboys, having an immediate success.

At the end of the 19th century, many other industries had the permission to produce this item, such as Harry David Lee and C.C. Hudson.

Nowadays, jeans (which were work items) have turned into fashionable clothes.