"This is very personal, because each pair of jeans is dyed in its own way... As you wear them, they seem to acquire their own individuality – with a wear pattern that is characteristic for you. Over time, the jeans conform to your figure and become unique," says Kara Nicholas, who works at Cone Denim, one of the historic denim manufacturers.
The Cone Denim factory called White Oak, located in Greensboro, North Carolina, USA, turned 110 years old on April 20. Here they make all artificially aged jeans of this brand, and here you can also find a collection of shuttle looms of the American Draper X3 model, produced in the 1940s.
Nicholas's passion for authentic denim began in the 1980s. "Then people started collecting vintage jeans, and the idea of imitating or recreating original samples arose. We took jeans from the turn of the century as a model and experimented with raw materials and various paint compositions," she explains.
Starting from the second half of the 20th century, jeans firmly established themselves in the fashion wardrobe – from dark blue cuffed trousers in the rockabilly style, to bell-bottoms and the ever-relevant skinny jeans (it is believed that the fashion for them was introduced by French designer Hedi Slimane in the early 2000s, while he was the head designer of Dior Homme). However, the origin of jeans is purely utilitarian.
Levi Strauss is considered one of the creators of blue jeans, which appeared in 1873 in the wake of the California Gold Rush – a couple of decades after its peak. The website of Levi's tells the story of the Bavarian Strauss, who moved from New York to San Francisco in 1853 to wholesale fabrics and haberdashery. His client, tailor Jacob Davis, was looking for a business partner to patent a model of trousers with rivets at the points of greatest tension – so they would last longer. The patent for riveted men's work trousers was issued to Jacob Davis together with Levi Strauss & Company on May 20, 1873. This day is considered the birth date of blue jeans and a new category of workwear.
According to Levi's, the first model of blue jeans – originally called the XX "waist overall" – had one back pocket with an arcuate stitching, a watch pocket, a cinch, buttons for suspenders, and a copper rivet between the legs.
It is claimed that the main material for their production – denim – originates from the French city of Nîmes. Its name is the Americanized pronunciation of the phrase Serge de Nîmes (that is, serge from Nîmes). Denim is characterized by the interweaving of indigo-colored warp threads with undyed weft (filling) threads. This durable cotton twill fabric was used in the 19th century for making trousers worn by sailors from Italian Genoa. There is an opinion that these trousers were the predecessors of jeans, and the word "jeans" itself presumably comes from the French name for Genoa – Gênes.
The slogan chosen was "Riveted workwear made of real blue denim." As a distinguishing mark, there was the Levi's leather patch "Two Horses", which appeared in 1886. It depicts jeans stretched between two workhorses – as a symbol of durability. In 1890, the model called XX, which later became the uniform of horse wranglers on the Wild West, was assigned lot number 501. The version with two back pockets appeared in 1901, and belt loops were added in 1922. In 1936, a red tag began to be sewn onto the right back pocket of the trousers: according to Levi's, it was needed to "distinguish Levi's overalls from competitors' products, which used dark denim and arcuate stitching."
Hollywood westerns sparked viewers' interest in cowboys, and in the 1930s blue jeans became clothing for the masses, then entered youth culture in the 1950s under the influence of Hollywood rebels in jeans – such as James Dean. It is believed that teenagers began using the word "jeans" in the same decade, but only in 1960 did Levi's replace the term "overalls" with "jeans" in advertising and packaging.
The first television advertisement for Levi's jeans aired in 1966, and the women's 501 model, which shrinks to fit the figure when washed, appeared in 1981. For it, the legendary "Travis" commercial was filmed (the heroine pronounces this name at the end of the video).
In the modern history of jeans, a new turn occurred: Japanese denim became iconic – with an uncut edge, the so-called "selvedge." It is made on traditional shuttle looms: the result is a narrow strip of fabric, from which the edge does not need to be cut and overlocked. The material used is 100% cotton, and dyeing is done exclusively with natural indigo dye. American manufacturers abandoned such looms in favor of cheaper "wide-loom" production.
The pragmatic roots of denim were due to its strength and longevity, and the path into the fashion wardrobe for jeans was paved by the emergence of fundamentally new stretch fibers. The peak came in the 2000s – the era of jeggings (a hybrid of jeans and leggings). The invention of synthetic fibers called spandex expanded the range of possibilities, agrees Kara Nicholas from Cone Denim. According to her, the use of eco-friendly and high-tech fibers also played a role – an attempt to make fashion functional.
For implementing such innovations, Cone Denim partners with fiber and yarn manufacturers such as Invista. A recent example is collaboration with Unifi, whose Repreve technology (fiber from recycled plastic bottles) was used in creating the Cone Touch material. "They use a special spinning method: it feels and looks like cotton yarn, but in terms of strength and other qualities, this material is no inferior to synthetic fibers," says Nicholas. "The idea is that all innovations related to sustainability and high technology should not prevent jeans from looking and wearing as if they were made of cotton denim."
Jeanologia, based in the Spanish city of Valencia and specializing in industrial laser equipment, was one of the first to apply an environmentally friendly technology to create the worn effect on jeans and their final finishing – these operations are among the most harmful to the environment in the textile industry. The company's products are sold as "real denim that takes just a couple of hours to produce."
"They say jeans have a soul and become part of us – because everyone wears their jeans in their own way. Going to a jeans store, we subconsciously look for an analogue of an old favorite pair of jeans," says Enrique Silla, director of Jeanologia. He believes that the current textile industry uses "prehistoric" methods when it comes to the use of water and chemicals. According to Silla, such inventions can breathe new life into an industry in need of reform. He claims that 20% of denim manufacturers already use his company's technologies.
More than five billion jeans are produced annually: on average, Europeans buy one and a half pairs of jeans per year, and Americans buy four, and soon "the average inhabitant of the Earth will have one pair of jeans per year," Enrique Silla is confident. Back to the future – that is the slogan of the denim industry: its source of inspiration remains the very first blue jeans.