TheOriginOf.com

Jeans

May 3, 2007 – 8:19 am

Everyone wears it; everybody loves it. It’s a universal wear and your wardrobe is incomplete without it. It’s your rugged, trendy and comfortable pair of jeans. Find someone around who have never worn a pair of [[jeans]] in his life. If you don’t find anyone, it’s a probability that you asked the wrong person or you are in the wrong neighborhood. Or perhaps, you stay away from modern civilization in a different era.

History and origin
Let us delve into the history of [[jeans]] or the popular and original blue jeans. In the past, jeans were generally worn by miners and sailors in the US because of its sturdiness and comfort before it become part of popular fashion. Jeans are made from denim, which is again made of cotton, and is strong and comfortable to wear. Blue jeans or denim acquired its color when it was treated with a natural blue dye gathered from the indigo plant. Until the twentieth century, indigo was imported from India and was later replaced by the use of synthetic dyes.
However, it was not until Levi Strauss, an immigrant American, came along that the ubiquitous jeans evolved to its present form. The enterprising Strauss saw that the mining communities of California required work pants that were strong but comfortable to wear since they were hard manual workers. In 1850, Levi Strauss marketed and started the Levi’s brand, which would go on to become a household name in the world a century later. The popularity of the design can be measured from the fact that very few alterations have been made from the original design since 1850.

One of the most important additions to the original Levi’s jeans was the rivet. The use of rivets was not Strauss’s original idea but was given to him by a tailor named Jacob Davis. With Davis’s permission Strauss patented riveted pants in his name and introduced the design in 1873. Later, button flies replaced zippers; the rivets from back pockets were removed because of negative feedback from school authorities and, of course, the cowboys, who wore jeans extensively.
The craze
Blue jeans started gaining popularity around the 1950s and a whopping 150 million pairs were sold worldwide in the year 1957. The ‘Jeans Revolution’ had started. Soon it became a coveted possession for the young and the old alike. Until 1981 jeans sales were registering an upward climb; in the United States alone sales improved from 200 million pairs in 1967 to 520 million in 1981. Soon other manufactures started to climb the jeans bandwagon and laughed away heartily to their banks. Even when the prices of jeans doubled in 1970, demand was still exceeding supplies. Though, the phenomenal success of the 80s has never been witnessed again, jeans are here to stay for a long, long time. The fact is, nothing can substitute a rugged, sturdy and comfortable pair of jeans.

Manufacturing

Jeans manufacturing goes through stringent quality checks to ensure that the pair of jeans hugging your body is a piece of perfection. Firstly, the denim manufacturer picks the right type of cotton based on its color, fiber length and strength from the cotton bales. The strength of the fiber is determined by using weight to break it and the force used is compared with the weight of the fiber to calculate its strength.
Before the denim goes for the sewing and stitching process, it is thoroughly checked for defects. Each defect in a denim cloth is graded according to a scale regulated by the government. Most denims are pre-shrunk, which means they are washed and dried several times to check its tendency to shrink. It also determines its durability and strength. Every part of jeans pair is checked after it is finished including the buttons, snaps, rivets, zipper and the stitch. All defected materials are sent for sewing and correction.

The quality of a pair of jeans is determined by the grade of denim used in its manufacturing. Though polyester blends are available, jeans exclusively made of pure cotton is preferred. All the parts of a jeans pair including the pockets, waistband, belt-loops and leggings are made of indigo-dyed denim. Other parts are the zipper, buttons, label made of steel, and rivets are made of copper. Today’s jeans are of several types like faded jeans, acid washed jeans, embroidered jeans, textured and colored jeans. Apart from trousers, denim is also used in manufacturing shirts and jackets. Jeans manufacturing today has gone a complete overhaul with different fits and styles, like the body hugging ones preferred by young females and the loose-fits preferred by young males. There’s a line of jeans for the old and kids as well.

Jeans or denim wear is one of the oldest of fabrics, yet it remains eternally young. It is one of those few wears that have withstood the test of time and have never gone out of fashion.