The Story of Jeans

Blue jeans are the most popular type of clothing in the world, but they are not modern! In fact, jeans have existed for over 160 years. Jeans were the classic clothes of the American West. In 1853, a young tailor from Germany, called Levi Strauss, began working in San Francisco. Levi sold thick canvas to miners. The miners used it to make tents.
One day, a miner told Levi that he could not find trousers that were strong enough for work in the gold mines. Levi decided to make some trousers out of the canvas. Very soon, he had sold all the canvas trousers he had made! They were just what miners wanted. However, the canvas was very heavy and stiff. Levi, therefore, began to look for a different textile. Soon, he found a heavy textile from France; it was called serge de Nimes. Americans just called it de Nimes, and this name soon got reduced to denim.
Denim was a bit lighter than canvas, but it was very strong and ideal for the miners working in the gold mines. However, original denim was almost white, and the gold miners did not like the colour! Their denim trousers got dirty as soon as they began working! As a result, Levi Strauss decided to use coloured denim, and he chose dark blue. In 1873, he began to make denim trousers with metal pins to make them stronger. This was a radically new idea and it became very successful. Levi’s jeans were so popular that his company got bigger and bigger. Soon, other firms were making blue jeans too. Miners
liked them, but so did cowboys and other working men and women. Blue jeans became classic American working trousers. After the Second World War, jeans became trendy all over the world. Today, blue jeans are made all over the world – most of them in Asia. Very few jeans are now made in the USA because of the cost. However, it is still possible to buy blue jeans that are made in San Francisco. They are extremely expensive though.
Today there are hundreds of different brands of jeans. People still find jeans very stylish. Many top fashion brands, like Armani or Benetton, make their own blue jeans. But for real, authentic jeans, ‘Levi’s’ are still the most popular brand in the world.