The unique origin of the most popular pair of pants. How did the sailor and workers' clothing come up fashionable
The jeans, as Romanians say, are very fashionable pants, for both men and women. In reality they have the name of jeans or denim and have a long history. Initially they had nothing to do with fashion, being a practical clothing of the lower classes.
Jeans, blue-jeans or simply jeans, as Romanians say, are an almost indispensable dress accessory. Practices, resistors, even fashion, jeans do their job. The consecrated brands are very expensive and are not available to anyone. Although it seems like a specific clothing object of the contemporary world, jeans have a long history and have had a purpose, totally different from today.
From “Bleu de Gene” to “de Nîmes”, the clothing of the sailors and the hammers
The history of jeans begins with a pair of pants called, in French “Bleu de Gene”, that is “Blue de Genoa”. They were made in the sixteenth century in a fabric from France. More precisely from the city of Nîmes, renowned for “Serge de Nîmes” a mixture of silk and wool. Thus, by slapping the words, over time, “Bleu de Gene” has been transformed into “blue-jeans” and “Serge de Nîmes” into “denim”. These pants, “Bleu de Gene” were used by the Genoese Marina. They were, first of all, resistant. Genoese sailors but also hammocks in ports had a hard life, at sea and needed resistant clothing. In addition, “Bleu de Gene” were very easy to maintain. The Genoese sailors were washing them by introducing them into the fishing nets. At the same time, that color of discolored, washed jeans appeared. And that's when the pants were strongly faded from the sun and salt water.
From the ports of Europe, in America
Through the 19th century, “Blue-Jeans” and “denim” pants were very popular in working environments in Europe, but also for ports. These “denim” were not, but the same as modern jeans. The old “denim” work pants were transformed into today's jeans, at the end of the 19th century, into California. Specifically, in 1850, a Jew emigrated from Germany, to the United States, left for the west, in California, during the famous “gold chances”. It was called Levi Strauss and sold the gold seekers, the usual “denim” work pants.
For a decade, Levi Strauss & Co, as his family's business was called, was the main supplier of western stores. In 1872, Levi Strauss receives an unexpected offer from a tailor, in the city of Reno, called Jacob Davis. He asks the Jewish merchant to improve the quality of the “denim” pants, to be more resistant. Levi Strauss changes the cut and invent an emblematic accessory: pocket staples. With the new cut and the necessary reinforcements, the new denim pants have become the most sought after dress in the West.
It was used by both gold seekers, railway workers and cowboys, famous cowboy. Levi Strauss becomes a business partner with Jacob Davis, who was also a Jew, but emigrant in Latvia, and set up one of the most profitable clothes with clothes. The new product gained the name of “Blue-Jean”, with the Levi Strauss brand. Initially, Levi Strauss was making overalls for workers and miners. Then he expanded the range for cowboy. In the year 1873, the invention of pocket staples, with the necessary reinforcements, was officially patent, through US Panten 139.121.
Blue Jeans or Jeans, as these pants are correctly called, were used almost exclusively by workers, sailors and cowboy until the 1950s. In the movie “Rebello without cause”, the famous actor James Dean dressed a pair of blue-jeans, making these pants famous. Shortly after, all young people wanted a pair of jeans, like those worn by James Dean. Blue Jeans became a fashion and a dress phenomenon.
