Denim is a complete science. From the first jeans in denim that were manufactured in 1860 until today, a lot has happened. Johan at the jeans department at Tiger, is a bit of a denim maniac and knows almost everything there is to know. I sat down with Johan to get the facts straight (like for instance why denim is called denim), and here is the first chapter in a serie about denim- the history.

The Word denim comes from a French textile that was manufactured in Nîmes. The fabric was called deNîmes (from Nîmes), and later on just denim. In the 18th century it was one of the strongest fabrics in the world, used mainly for sails. The word “jeans” comes from Genua, where the first jeans were manufactured in the 16th century, and were worn by Italian sailors.

In 1847 the 24 year old Levi Strauss immigrated to San Francisco from Germany. After working with his brothers selling textiles, he set up a wholesale firm selling supplies to gold diggers. One of the best selling products was workpants, and the company was flourishing. When the gold era came to an end in the 1860´s, Levi Strauss was a wealthy man.

At first jeans wasn’t that durable. A tailor named Jacob Davies in Nevada was busy repairing jeans that had been torn, especially around the pockets. He came up with the idea of strengthening the pockets in the same way used on horse equipment- with copper rivets. He started making jeans with his new invention, buying denim from Levi Strauss. The jeans was a success and when he tried to apply for a US patent he didn’t have the required 68 dollars. He turned to his fabric supplier and they teamed up together. It was an immediate success.  In 1873 Levis gave the different models numbers. The first model given a number was the 501, which is still a big seller today.

When the patent expired in 1891 competitors started to pop up. Henry David Lee was a merchant selling food and later on textiles and clothes. When his suppliers couldn’t guarantee delivery, he started his own work wear factory. Lee’s driver often complained that he got dirty while repairing the car. Together they came up with the idea of sewing a jacket and jeans together and the union-all overall was born. Targeted at mechanics and drivers, the overall was a success.

In 1924 Lee manufactured their 101 model, specially made for cowboys with thicker fabric and U shaped crouch (shaped for spending hours on a horseback). Another problem that the cowboys had was that it was hard unbuttoning the jeans with gloves on. In 1926 Lee released the first jeans with a zipper, making it easier for cowboys to take a leak.

During the twenties and thirties Hollywood started producing cowboy movies, and jeans became apart of popular culture. Common people started wearing jeans. In the 40´s only two major brands existed, Lee and Levis. When Wrangler started they launched the brand through rodeo. They hired a rodeo tailor named Rodeo Ben, who had designed clothes for rodeo stars. Soon almost every big rodeo star wore wrangler, and the sales started to take off.

At this time jeans was considered as workwear, garments worn on the countryside.
When the American troops came back from the Second World War, some bought motorcycles and started cruising the USA, wearing leather jackets and jeans. Hollywood picked up the phenomena and produced movies like “Wild one” with Marlon Brando and “Rebel without a cause” with James Dean. The jeans became a symbol of rebellion. At the same time when Elvis performed wearing jeans and stars like Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot had their pictures taken with jeans, the public’s image of jeans changed. Jeans spread among teenagers in America, and later on the rest of the world. Jeans became a part of popular culture, and still is today.

If you would like to learn more, there a few good books that you can read. Here are a couple that we warmly recommend:

You can get them at amazon, “Denim-from cowboys to catwalks” and “Vintage Denim”.