Jeans
Jeans are a type of trousers made from denim or dungaree cloth. Often the term "jeans" refers to a particular style of trousers, called "blue jeans", with the addition of copper pocket rivets added by Jacob W. Davis in 1871 and patented by Davis and Levi Strauss on May 20, 1873. Prior to the patent, the term "blue jeans" had been long in use for various items of workwear, constructed from a heavy blue-colored denim fabric.
Originally these trousers were designed as attire for manual workers such as miners for whom rivets were added to strengthen pocket seams in the United States, these modern riveted blues jeans as a fashion item were popularized as casual wear by Marlon Brando and James Dean in their 1950s films, particularly The Wild One and Rebel Without a Cause, leading to the fabric becoming a symbol of rebellion among teenagers, especially members of the greaser subculture. From the 1960s onwards, jeans became common among various youth subcultures and subsequently young members of the general population. Nowadays, they are one of the most popular types of trousers in Western culture. Historic brands include Levi's, Lee, and Wrangler.
History
Fabric
Research on the trade of jean fabric shows that it emerged in the cities of, Nîmes, France followed by then Genoa, Italy. Gênes, the French word for Genoa, might be the origin of the word "jeans". In Nîmes, weavers tried to reproduce jean fabric but instead developed a similar twill fabric that became known as denim, "de Nîmes", meaning "from Nîmes". Genoa's jeans fabric was a fustian textile of "medium quality and of reasonable cost", very similar to cotton corduroy for which Genoa was famous, and was "used for work clothes in general". The Genoese navy equipped its sailors with jeans, as they needed a fabric that could be worn wet or dry. Nîmes's "denim" was coarser, considered higher quality, and was used "for over garments such as smocks or overalls". In 1576, a quantity of "jean fustians" arrived into the port of Barnstaple on a vessel from Bristol. Nearly all indigo, needed for dyeing, came from indigo bush plantations in India until the late 19th century. It was replaced by indigo synthesis methods developed in Germany.By the 17th century, jean was a crucial textile for working-class people in Northern Italy. This is seen in a series of genre paintings from around the 17th century attributed to an artist now referred to as the Master of the Blue Jeans. The ten paintings depict impoverished scenes with lower-class figures wearing a fabric that looks like denim. The fabric would have been Genoese jean, which was cheaper. Genre painting came to prominence in the late 16th century, and the non-nobility subject matter in all ten paintings places them among others that portray similar scenes.
Dungaree, a type of fabric, was mentioned for the first time in the 17th century, when it was referred to as coarse calico cloth, often colored blue but sometimes bleached white, worn by impoverished workers in what was then a region of Bombay, India a dockside village called Dongri. This cloth was "dungri" in Hindi. Dungri was exported to England and used for manufacturing of cheap, robust working clothes such as overalls. In English, the word "dungri" became pronounced as "dungaree". It was used by utility workers of the US Navy throughout World War I. Dungaree was replaced with denim, a textile named after the Nîmes, that gained popularity after being manufactured by Jacob W. Davis.
Rivets
The term jeans appears first in 1795, when a Swiss banker by the name Jean-Gabriel Eynard and his brother Jacques went to Genoa and both were soon heading a flourishing commercial concern. In 1800 Massena's troops entered the town and Jean-Gabriel was entrusted with their supply. In particular he furnished them with uniforms cut from blue cloth called "bleu de Genes" whence later derives the famous garment known worldwide as "blue jeans".Levi Strauss, as a young man in 1851, went from Germany to New York to join his older brothers who ran a goods store. In 1853, he moved to San Francisco to open his own dry goods business. Jacob Davis was a tailor who often bought bolts of cloth from the Levi Strauss & Co. wholesale house. In 1872, Davis wrote to Strauss asking to partner with him to patent and sell clothing reinforced with rivets. The copper rivets were to reinforce the points of stress, such as pocket corners and at the bottom of the button fly. Strauss accepted Davis's offer, and the two men received US patent No. 139,121 for an "Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings" on May 20, 1873.
Davis and Strauss experimented with different fabrics. An early attempt was brown cotton duck, a bottom-weight fabric. Finding denim a more suitable material for work-pants, they began using it to manufacture their riveted pants. The denim used was produced by an American manufacturer. Popular legend incorrectly states that it was imported from Nîmes. A popular myth is that Strauss initially sold brown canvas pants to miners, later dyed them blue, turned to using denim, and only after Davis wrote to him, added rivets.
Initially, Strauss's jeans were simply sturdy trousers worn by factory workers, miners, farmers, and cattlemen throughout the North American West. During this period, men's jeans had the fly down the front, whereas women's jeans had the fly down the left side. When Levi Strauss & Co. patented the modern, mass-produced prototype in 1873, there were two pockets in the front and a patch pocket on the back right reinforced with copper rivets. The small riveted watch pocket was first added by Levi Strauss to their jeans in the late 1870s.
20th century evolution
In 1901, Levi Strauss added the back left pocket to their 501 model. This created the now familiar and industry-standard five-pocket configuration with two large pockets and small watch pocket in front with two pockets on the rear.The popularity of "waist overalls", as jeans were sometimes called, expanded during World War II. By the 1960s, both men's and women's jeans had the zipper down the front. 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 called its flagship product "waist overalls" rather than "jeans".
After James Dean popularized them in the movie Rebel Without a Cause, wearing jeans became a symbol of youth rebellion during the 1950s. During the 1960s, the wearing of jeans became more acceptable, and by the 1970s it had become general fashion in the United States for casual wear. In Japan in 1977, a professor of Osaka University Philip Karl Pehda chastised a female student wearing jeans in the classroom. Then he was protested by the students, and a controversy arose in the country.
Examples of intentional denim distressing strictly to make them more fashionable can be seen as early as 1935 in Vogue's June issue. Michael Belluomo, editor of Sportswear International Magazine, Oct/Nov 1987, p. 45, wrote that in 1965, Limbo, a boutique in the New York East Village, was "the first retailer to wash a new pair of jeans to get a used, worn effect, and the idea became a hit." He continued, " hired East Village artists to embellish the jeans with patches, decals, and other touches, and sold them for $200." In the early 1980s the denim industry introduced the stone-washing technique developed by GWG also known as "Great Western Garment Co." Donald Freeland of Edmonton, Alberta, pioneered the method, which helped to bring denim to a larger and more versatile market. Acceptance of jeans continued through the 1980s and 1990s. Originally a utilitarian garment, jeans became a common fashion choice in the second half of the 20th century.
Levi' 501s are featured prominently in the chapter on trousers in the 1987 book A Gentleman's Wardrobe: Classic Clothes and the Modern Man by British fashion journalist Paul Keers.
In the early 21st century, Details Men's Style Manual devoted a chapter to jeans, saying, "Now that jeans have become more acceptable cocktail-hour attire, you should probably own more than one pair." Calling Levi's 501s "an icon from the moment they were introduced," and "the quintessential pair of jeans," the guidebook calls the standard straight leg design, "a classic clean-cut American Graffiti look."
Manufacturing processes
Dyeing
Traditionally, jeans were dyed to a blue color using natural indigo dye. Most denim is now dyed using synthetic indigo. Approximately 20 thousand tons of indigo are produced annually for this purpose, though only a few grams of the dye are required for each pair. For other colors of denim other dyes must be used. Currently, jeans are produced in any color that can be achieved with cotton.For more information on dyeing, refer to denim and the discussion there of using pigment dyes.
Pre-shrinking
In 1962, Levi Strauss introduced their own pre-shrunk jeans ; these did not shrink further after purchase, allowing the consumer to purchase a correctly fitting size. Pre-shrink is common in jeans nowadays. These jeans were known as the 505 regular fit jeans. The 505s are almost identical to the 501s with the exception of the button-fly. The Levi's Corporation also introduced a slim boot-cut fit known as 517 and 527. The difference between the two is that the 517s sit at the waist line and the 527s sit below the waist line. Later, Levi's would develop other styles and fits such as the loose, slim, comfort, relaxed, skinny, and a regular fit with a tapered leg.Used and distressed looks
A significant amount of the aesthetic treatment of jeans may occur after the denim has been cut and sewn into the final garment. Many denim articles are washed to make them softer and to reduce or minimize shrinkage even beyond what sanforization prevents. Significantly washed denim can resemble dry denim which has faded naturally over extended use. Such distressing may be supplemented by chemical treatments or physical techniques such as stone washing.The used or "acid wash" look is created by means of abrading the jeans or treating them with chemicals, such as acryl resin, phenol, a hypochlorite, potassium permanganate, caustic soda, acids etc.
Ripping or distressing of jeans, though also arising naturally as a result of wear and tear, is sometimes deliberately performed by suppliers—with distressed clothing sometimes selling for more than a nondistressed pair. For example, Pucci sold "embellished mid-rise boyfriend jeans" for £600.