LITTLE PART OF

JEANS HISTORY
1873: The Birth of Jeans

Back in the day—the mid-1800s to be exact—dungarees a.k.a.

«waist overalls» were all the rage. And not because they were
stylish, but rather, practical. The brainchild of businessman Levi
Strauss and tailor Jacob Davis, blue jeans combined metal rivets
to denim trousers to create a durable uniform that stood up to the
rough-and-tumble work of the 49ers (the Gold Rush miners, not
the football team). Workwear as we knew it had been
revolutionized and would never be the same.
1920 - 1930s: Wild, Wild, Western

Jeans as workwear continued throughout the 1920s and 1930s,

especially in the American West among miners, cowboys, and
laborers. But it wasn’t until Hollywood took this trend to the
silver screen with its Western films that jeans entered mainstream
culture. On the fashion front, Levi’s® first used its designer label
(the signature red tab) on the outside.
1950s: Cool Blue

Jeans became a symbol of «cool» in the 1950s. Pop culture bad

boys like James Dean and Marlon Brando popularized cuffed,
boxy styles of denim as they shook up the squares in their films.
Unsurprisingly, rebellious teens took hold of this fashionable
symbol against the status quo. What followed was a backlash
from some school boards that banned students from wearing jeans
—they were too «anti-establishment»—to which we say (er,
sing): «Down with the moral majority!»