Jeans - How It All Started - Tight Jeans Blue Jeans
It all started in the 1850s when Levi Strauss, a German dry goods merchant living in San Francisco, was selling blue jeans under the "Levi's" name to the mining communities of California.
- Levi Strauss had moved to San Francisco during the 1853 California 'gold rush' to start a Western branch of his family's dry goods business. He was a German immigrant to the USA, moving to New York in 1851 to work with his brother.
- Levi sold many products. One of which was a sturdy imported cotton fabric, denim. He recognized the need for durable clothing for the hardworking people of the time.
- Patent - In 1873, Strauss and Davis received a U.S. patent for their "Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings". This is considered the birthday of blue jeans.
- The term "jeans" may have originated from the French city of Nimes, where a coarse, woven cotton called "blue de Genes" was produced. When translated into English, this became "Blue Jeans".
- Blue jeans became a staple of American culture after James Dean wore them in the 1950s movie Rebel Without a Cause.
- Today, jeans are worn casually in the United States and many other countries
