All About Jeans

Written by Amir Saleem

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On a chilly morning of January 24, 1848, James Marshall woke up with no stomach for work. He was hired by John Sutter to build a sawmill on one of his lands in Coloma, California. Half hearted, he went out to the site and started his day. While digging a water channel for the mill, Marshall found a few bright lumps that he believed were made of gold. He burrowed around the millrace itching to find some more nuggets. Succeeding in his quenchless wishes, he did found some more and smashed one of the nuggets between two rocks. The nugget flattened but didn’t break into pieces. It was gold.

Thereupon started one of the largest quests in man’s history as more than half a million people opted for a nomadic life in California where gold was being searched and successfully found in many places. People from around the country and from across the oceans were on their way to the land with a golden lining. The gold rush was on.

Over the next few years men gave up on their loved ones for the love of gold and took off on a journey to swarm the newly found paradise. In 1853, a ship sailed from New York, destined for San Francisco. When the ship cleared enough distance for the golden land to be seen, men thronged the deck and gasped sighs of hope and excitement looking at the land that embraced their dreams to be realized. An old man appeared from a corner and walked alongside the crowded deck. In all this restlessness, he found a young man of 24, standing their with an aura of exorbitant tranquility on his face but with a zealous light reflecting the ocean waves in his eyes.

The old man felt that sensation of nonconformity in this man and approached him. “In search of golden days young man?” he asked him with a conviction of finding an unusual answer. The young, intervened in his thoughts, looked at the old fellow, gave him a polite smile but uttered no words. With curiosity unfolding, the old man asked, “What’s your name fellow?” This time the young chap opened his mouth, with his smile shifting to his eyes, he answered the old man, “Strauss, Levi Strauss.” The old man gathered a faint smile on his lips, looking at his dress and luggage, chided him, “Well Strauss, you haven’t brought along enough supply of pants with you. When you go mining, this is one thing you will need more than anything young man. This golden place is real rough on you.” Young Strauss looked at him, gave him another smile and started looking at the city at a distance of reachable glances.

This young man, Levi Strauss, chided for not having enough supply of durable pants, gave the world the most quintessential dress of all times… the Blue Jeans.

Born on February 26 1829 in Buttenheim, Bavaria, he was named “Loeb” by his parents. In 1847, two years after the death of his father, Loeb emigrated to New York to join his step brothers Jonas and Louis who had started their own wholesale textile and tailoring business in that city. “Levi”, as often called by his family and the customers alike, spent most of his time learning the language and the customs of his new homeland as well the traits and secrets of his business. Resolute in his mind to start his independent business, one day he convinced his brothers to represent their company “J. Strauss Brother & Co.” in California.

A world was moving in quest of golden sunshine discovered in the swart mines of California. Levi Strauss, however, wasn’t prying for the ‘gold rush’, he had other plans. He wanted to sell his goods to the hordes of miners. Everyday, hundreds of miners would ensemble in the town center of California to outfit themselves before heading off to reap the crop of gold. Strauss decided he would take up the trade of helping and equipping these treasure hunters. In 1853, he took off on a ship to California carrying with him a supply of silk, cloth and a few luxury items. There was one other thing included in his baggage; a supply of canvas. He thought he would use this canvas to fit out the Conestoga Wagons used by gold hunters to travel around. He didn’t know that time and fate had other plans.

During his voyage, he ended up selling every piece of merchandise he had with him; except the canvas. It was a bright and fresh morning in the month of March, when his ship reached the oceanic outskirts of California. Standing at the deck, silent as the ocean underneath, he was thinking about the prospects of his success in the new city when an old man approached him and sarcastically pointed towards the lack of gear needed for mining gold. He looked at the old man and smiled; while heaven above was smiling on him.

Reaching California, Strauss wandered over the place for a while looking for a suitable place to start his business. At 90 Sacramento Street, he finally found a place closer to his heart and closer to the coast as well. This was a port after stormy seas and his ship was coming home. Having sold all his goods on his way to California, Strauss was left with only one asset at hand; the canvas. Recollecting what the old man had said to him, Strauss smiled again, cut the canvas and knitted it into trousers.

A fresh constellation of miners was flocking the city again in need of arraying their apparel while something astoundingly inventive was waiting for them. Straus welcomed them with his nouveau arrivé article. Without any hesitancy, these trousers were an instant hit and the name Levi Straus divulged into the synonymous of a new breed of clothing. This seal of approval was so emotive that he named his growing business as simple as “Levi Strauss”.

The business was looming up and Strauss was getting busier and busier, receiving shipments of supplies from his brothers in New York and selling them in California. In some time, Strauss deviated from Canvas to “serge de Nimes”, Denim – dyed with indigo; a product that still shadows the true quality of jeans. Up till now, Strauss sold these pants calling them ‘overalls’ however a man called Alkali Ike, with his bizarre manners was to unknowingly hasten the evolution of modern day jeans.

A husky fellow, Ike was one of the countless miners hunting for better prospects of their future. After long and tiresome working days in the gold mines, he would take a breather and go to Virginia City saloon. Each time he appeared in the saloon, he would get drunk and go on a cursing spree around the town. Amongst those he would visit during this intoxicated orgy was his tailor, Jacob W. Davis. Entering his shop, Ike would complain to him of his torn out trouser pockets and Davis would tell him it only happens because of his habit of keeping nuggets in his pant pockets. “But why cant you make them as strong as Strauss’s overalls?” Ike would keep murmuring. Exhausted of his constant whining, one day an idea glinted in Davis’ mind and he clamped the pockets together with copper wire.

A few weeks later, Ike appeared again in front of his shop but this time not drunk. In fact, he hadn’t even gone to the saloon but came straight to Davis to tell him that his pockets had held together. This bracing news gave Davis another idea; deciding to apply for a patent on his invention. However, the authorities required $68 to file the patent application and Davis didn’t have that much money with him at that time. He roved around in his mind thinking of a person who could partner with him in this venture. The only name that came to his mind was none other than Levi Strauss.

The moment Strauss received that letter from Davis asking for a partnership in this new invention, he knew he was going for it. On July 5, 1872 Levi Strauss and Jacob W. Davis applied for a patent and on May 20, 1873, from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office they received the documented proprietorship of their invention; ciphered 139,121. That day is generally considered to be the ‘birthday’ of the blue jeans.

In one of the early posters he got printed for his revived company “Levi Strauss & Co”, Strauss marked these words; “all over the west they wear LEVI STRAUSS & CO copper riveted overalls”. He preferred calling these denim pants ‘overalls’ instead of jeans and it wasn’t until 1960s that the word jeans became a familiar term.

Over the next twenty years, Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis went on to produce high quality denim overalls and these durable pants became a proverbial element of everyday dress of the working class. The last century witnessed the jeans becoming synonymous of casual dress. Today jeans is the most commonly worn dress in the world and next time you wear a Levi ® jeans, remember that it has an eventful history behind it.

The End

Tags: History

Category: Articles