One Month of Denim - Day 7

First of all it should be said that I'm sorry for focusing almost solely on the history of Levi's. There are of course other iconic denim brands that should be focused on, but it is the history I'm most familiar with and it is the one denim brand that seems to have the widest appeal. I may be focusing on the history of the two other big, old American companies - Lee and Wrangler.

Levi's has a big gap in their knowledge of their own history from the very beginning of the company to around 1906. In 1906 San Fransisco was hit by an earthquake and big fire followed. Everything was basically lost in that fire. This has been one of the things that their very own archivist, Lynn Downey, is trying to piece together. She has been collecting old clothing and memorabilia (of literally all sorts) from the company and trying to piece their history together. This collection is unfortunately not open to the public, but you may find reproductions of some of the pieces, as the line "Levi's Vintage Clothing" is mostly based on things found in the archive.

The oldest pair in line of what became the 501 jeans in Levi's archive - or should I rather say Lynn's archive - is a pair of jeans from around 1879. This pair is locked up in a (fire-proof) vault in San Francisco and they have a value of approximately $150,000. Not bad for a pair of jeans that were bought for $1.50, when they were originally purchased.

If you want to expand your denim vocabulary some of the features on this pair are, natural dyed indigo denim, single stitched construction, hand punched copper rivets, cinch back, one back pocket (with hand done arcuate), raised watch pocket, no belt loops, but suspender buttons and a button fly.

One Month of Denim - Day 5

When Jacob Davis contacted Levi Strauss regarding acquiring a patent for his new invention he didn't invent jeans. His invention was merely, that he had reinforced a pair of pants with copper rivets. This of course made a huge difference for the common working man, who stuffed the pockets of his pants with rocks and what not to the point of actually breaking the pockets. The demand for riveted pants grew and grew and Levi Strauss with a proposition of a partnership and the rest is what we say, history. The birth of blue jeans or waist dungarees, as they were called back then, was a reality.

Up until 1937 the rivets on all stress points were all exposed. This caused for a lot of distress among cowboys and housewives alike. The rivets would simply scratch the surface of the saddles, as well as the living room furniture. This led to another invention, the hidden rivet.

The hidden rivet on the back pocket was finally replaced by a simple bar tack in the 1960's. Bar tacking is cheaper, less labour intensive and finally the hidden rivet solution was only temporary, as the rivet would wear through the protective layers of denim, and scratch saddles and chairs alike.