On May 20, 1873, Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis received a patent (number 501) for the jeans, trousers with rivets on the pockets. Since then, jeans have become a garment that has only grown in popularity. Levi Straus, who was born in southern Germany, had migrated to the US with his mother and sisters in 1847. He started a clothing factory in New York, and in 1853 he turned his attention to supplies for prospectors. First jeans ever. The first jeans ever made, where did they come from? Who was the maker of the first jeans? How long have jeans been around and how were jeans discovered? These are all questions you may have regarding the oldest jeans in the world.
The first jeans. Gold diggers and jeans
When were the first jeans made? One of the necessities that prospectors needed were strong trousers. Levi Straus initially had them made from durable sailcloth, and the prospectors liked them quite well. Levi Strauss then experimented with various strong fabrics, including the thick cotton type, twill from Nîmes. In itself, this type of cotton was fine, but there were complaints that the bags often tore during the rough work of the gold seekers. Levi Straus did not immediately have a solution for that.
Rivets, the nails in jeans
But at that time (around 1872), tailor Jacob Davis had come up with a unique solution to prevent trousers from tearing out. A woman once came to him complaining that her obese husband was constantly tearing his pants. Jacob Davis had then made extra sturdy trousers for her husband by hammering rivets into them. He had driven the rivets into the corners of the pockets, and some into the crotch. This turned out to be a very effective solution. As other tailors also began to use the idea, Davis wanted to get his idea patented as quickly as possible, but he was not wealthy enough to fork out $68 in patent money. That’s why he wrote a letter to Levi Strauss, just when he needed a solution for the weak spots in the trousers made from Nimes twill for the gold diggers. So problem and solution came together at the right time.
Copper colored rivets and orange thread
Levi Strausss wanted to try it out and together they paid the money to register the patent. This is how the (first) jeans were officially born. The rivets also proved a success for the prospectors, and to this day there are still many jeans on the market with rivet reinforcement. The first pants from Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis were a waist overall with suspenders, Acurate Stitching Design, and a watch pocket. The first trousers made of blue fabric were also (already) put together with orange thread, because Levi Straus thought it would match the copper-colored rivets.
Watch pocket
Today’s jeans often still have orange stitching, watch pockets and copper-colored rivets. The original design is beautiful, and therefore timeless and universal.
The older designs also had an orange embroidered/stitched V on the back, in the shape of a flying eagle. The trousers basically had buttons, because the zipper in the fly was not introduced until 1926. The rivets on the back of the jeans were dropped because they damaged the saddles of horses and the upholstery of furniture in houses.
Indestructible jeans
After a while, the Levis logo was modified to include the image of two horses trying to tear apart a pair of jeans, with the underlying message that the pants were strong and durable.
Oldest jeans in the world
The promise regarding the durability of jeans turned out not to be exaggerated. In the spring of 1998, four friends investigated an abandoned silver mine in the Mojave Desert. Deep underground they found an old pair of jeans in an abandoned mine shaft. She takes the jeans up from the mine. Later, these pants were identified by the Levi Strauss company as an original pair of jeans, from the first series of the 501 line. The jeans, which were still in remarkably good condition after all these years, were rumored to have sold on eBay for more than $40,000.
The oldest jeans in the world, which were found in the mine shaft of a silver mine, can hardly be distinguished from modern jeans. There are several buttons on the waistband at the front, for the suspenders. There is a horizontal reinforcement at the back, this reinforcement can also be used to attach suspenders. Extra rivets are punched through the fabric along the pockets and in other places. The fabric of the old pants is barely worn.
Levi Strauss & co
The Levi Strauss & co factory still exists in 2016. The company’s turnover amounts to several billions per year.
From ”Blue de Gênes’ to Blue jeans
The fabric used to make jeans is woven with a warp of indigo thread and a white weft. The blue dye that was used in the past was called blue de Gênes, in French. Blue de Gênes was pronounced in English-speaking America and corrupted to blue jeans.
Jeans arrived in Europe during the Second World War, but they were not exported to Europe until 1959. The term overalls was replaced by jeans in 1960.