jeans

Jeans are trousers traditionally made from denim, but may also be made from a variety of fabrics including corduroy. Originally work clothes, they became popular among teenagers starting in the 1950s. Historic brands include Levi's and Wrangler. Today jeans are a very popular form of casual dress around the world and come in many styles and colors.

History

The earliest known pre-cursor for jeans is the Indian export of a thick cotton cloth, in the 16th century, known as dungaree. Dyed in indigo, it was sold near the Dongarii Fort near Mumbai. Sailors cut it to suit them. [1]

Jeans were first created in Genoa, Italy when the city was an independent republic and a naval power. The first were made for the Genoese Navy because it required all-purpose trousers for its sailors that could be worn wet or dry, and whose legs could easily be rolled up to wear while swabbing the deck. These jeans would be laundered by dragging them in large mesh nets behind the ship, and the sea water would bleach them white. The first denim came from Nîmes, France, hence de Nimes, the name of the fabric. The French bleu de Gênes, from the Italian blu di Genova, literally the "blue of Genoa" dye of their fabric, is the root of the names for these trousers, "jeans" and "blue jeans", today.

Riveted jeans

In the 1850s Levi Strauss, a Franconian dry goods merchant living in San Francisco, was selling blue jeans under the "Levi's" name to the mining communities of California. One of Levi's customers was Jacob Davis, a tailor who frequently purchased bolts of cloth from the Levi Strauss & Co wholesale house. After one of Jacob's customers kept purchasing cloth to reinforce torn trousers, he had an idea to use copper rivets to reinforce the points of strain, such as on the pocket corners and at the base of the button fly. Jacobs did not have the required money to purchase a patent, so he wrote to Levi suggesting that they both go into business together. After Strauss accepted Davis's offer, on May 20, 1873, the two men received patent #139,121, a patent for an "Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings", from the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Jeans in popular culture

Blue jeans

Initially blue jeans were simply sturdy trousers worn by workers especially in the factories during World War II. During this period men's jeans had the zipper down the front whereas women's jeans had the zipper down the right side. By the 1960s both men's and women's jeans had the zipper down the front. In the United States during the 1950s, wearing of blue jeans by teenagers and young adults became symbolic of mild protest against conformity. This was considered by some adults as disruptive; for example, some movie theaters and restaurants refused to admit patrons who wore blue jeans. During the 1960s the wearing of blue jeans became more acceptable and by the 1970s had become a general fashion in the United States, at least for informal wear. Notably, in the mid-1950s the denim and textiles industry was revolutionized by the introduction of the stone-washing technique by GWG (Great Western Garment). Entrepreneur, importer and noted eccentric, Donald Freeland of Edmonton, Alberta pioneered the method which helped to bring denim to a larger and more versatile market. Denim suddenly became an attractive product for all age groups and Freeland became one of the most important innovators in the history of denim and denim products. It should be noted, also, that Freeland contributed to a variety of other denim textile developments throughout his career with Great Western Garments (GWG)[2]] Acceptance of jeans continued through the 1980s and 1990s to the point where jeans are now a wardrobe staple, with the average North American owning seven pairs.

Being imported American products, especially in the case of the Soviet Union which restricted hard currency imports, jeans were somewhat expensive. In Spain they are known as vaqueros or "cowboys" and in Chinese, jeans are known as niuzaiku (SC: 牛仔裤), literally, "cowboy pants" (trousers), indicating their association with the American West, cowboy culture, and outdoors work.

Jeans can be worn very loose in a manner that completely conceals the shape of the wearer's lower body, or they can be snugly fitting and accentuate the body. Historic photographs indicate that in the decades before they became a staple of fashion, jeans generally fit quite loosely, much like a pair of bib overalls without the bib. Indeed, until 1960, Levi Strauss denominated its flagship product "waist overalls" rather than "jeans".

Fits

Fits of jeans are determined by current styles, gender, and by the manufacturer. Here are some of the fits produced for jeans:

Jeans for men have a longer waist and zipper, where as women have a shorter waist and zipper.

• Ankle - mostly for women
• Loose
• Straight
• Boot cut
• Baggy
• Skinny jeans - mostly for women
• Phat pants
• Slim Fit
• Overalls
• Boy Cut or Boyfriend - women
• Bell Bottom/Flares
• Saggy
• Carpenter
• Original
• Classic
• Skinny Leg/Drainpipe - mostly for women
• Wide Leg

Rises in jeans (the distance from the crotch to the waistband) range from high-waisted to superlow-rise.

Types

Besides trousers, denim can also be made into:

• Shorts
• Skorts
• Dresses
• Skirts
• Shirts
• Jackets
• Bags
• Capris
• Cut offs
• Daisy Dukes

Law

On 10 February 1999 the Italian Supreme Court of Appeal in Rome overturned a rape conviction, stating that jeans are unable to be removed without the wearer's consent. Therefore, they ruled, the supposed victim must have been an active participant in the act. [3] This last verdict, however, was also overturned, on 28 November 2001 by the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation, which finally established that wearing jeans does not excuse rape. [4]