Sunday, May 24, 2009

A Historical View Of Denim Jeans

Most of us today own at least a couple of denim jeans which we wear often and usually keep using for years. Jeans has long been the most widely used piece of clothing that we wear all over the world and has over the last decade become one of the most commonly used means of creating a fashion statement. It was not that long ago that most people only wore Levi’s Strauss, Wrangler or Lee Jeans that did not change , but today hundreds of jeans designers and manufacturers are competing to create the latest and greatest back pocket design in jeans fashion that will capture the customers eye.

The word jean originally comes from the word jene - which is a conjugation of Genoa - the town in Italy where the fabric of denim jeans first was manufactured. The birthplace of denim jeans as we know them today was in San Francisco where Levi Strauss in eighteen seventy three started manufacturing and selling them together with a tailor named Jacob Davies. Jacob Davies was constantly buying pieces of cloth from Levi Strauss to do repairs on jeans – which was mostly used by miners because of the durable denim fabric. Davies came up with the idea to reinforce the pockets and other stitching by adding copper rivets to the jeans. Being a poor tailor in the American eighteen fifties west he could not afford to take out a patent on his invention and so went to Levi Strauss with the idea of going into business together. The rest is – as they say – history.

Before the nineteen fifties, denim jeans were most commonly only worn by workers because of their sturdiness and durable fabric. During the pop culture that developed during this period, American teenagers and young adults started wearing denim jeans as a mild protest against the common conformity.

During the next decade however, the nineteen sixties, the use of blue jeans as a clothing garment became more widely accepted and not a lot of statement was read into those who were wearing them. During the seventies, jeans had really become a standard in general fashion, at least when talking about informal wear.

During the latter part of the nineteen seventies, the denim jeans industry were further developed and revolutionized by the invention of the stone washing technique. This allowed to bringing jeans to a much larger consumer market because of the increased variety in colors and fabrics this technique allowed for. People of all aged started wearing them in almost all social occasions and events.

Today, the global market for denim jeans is a multibillion dollar industry with manufacturers popping up from all over the world. Yves Saint-Laurent has said that "I wish I had invented blue jeans: the most spectacular, the most practical, the most relaxed and nonchalant. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, and simplicity - all I hope for in my clothes." This kind of says it all – denim jeans are just as large a fashion statement as any other piece of clothing and will keep being so in the foreseeable future.

By: Robb Stark

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