The story of jeans starts long before they became the everyday uniform of farmers and gold miners — and it ends with a protest against sexual violence. Denim Day, an annual observance, is about far more than the pants themselves.
A Timely Idea
The inventor of the world’s most popular clothing item wasn’t a tailor but a merchant: Levi Strauss, founder of Levi Strauss & Co., never sewed a stitch himself. In 1847, 18-year-old Löb (Leiba) Strauss emigrated from Bavaria to the United States. He adopted the name Levi and Americanized his family name to Strauss. In his new home, Strauss made a living selling dry goods and tools in Kentucky, learning the trade through hands-on experience as a traveling salesman.
After his father’s death, he joined his mother and sisters and reunited with his older brothers, who had emigrated two years earlier to trade in fabrics. He later shipped their goods to San Francisco, which by 1849 had become the epicenter of the Gold Rush. Selling his wares straight off the ship, he commissioned a tailor to make pants from leftover sailcloth. Gold seekers soon valued them for their comfort. From that point, Strauss devoted himself to building what would become the world’s most popular pants, while earlier contributions to similar clothing faded into obscurity.
The Patent
Levi Strauss founded his namesake denim business in 1853. The first jeans from Levi Strauss & Co. sold for $1.50; workwear for miners and cowboys was initially priced at $1.46. The birth date of this iconic new generation of clothing is considered May 20, 1873, when the patent for pants made from hemp sailcloth with copper rivets was officially registered. Patent No. 139121 covered the construction of work pants without suspenders, featuring four pockets—three large ones for tools and small items, plus a tiny pocket for coins. The characteristic five-pocket layout that would follow began with the 501 model, which had two front pockets, two back pockets, and a “watch pocket” on the right front side.
Early jeans weren’t cotton but hemp sailcloth. Made from English and American sailcloth, the pants earned a reputation for incredible durability. That durability was advertised for more than a century and a half on the brand’s leather patch. In 1886 Levi Strauss & Co. began using an image of two horses attempting to tear a pair of pants in half. The practical advantage of these work pants over traditional leather cowboy attire was that they could be washed. Manufacturers used natural indigo dye because it held up to repeated washing and became the classic blue of Levi’s jeans.
A Profitable Deal
An important detail in the history of jeans is that Levi Strauss obtained the patent in partnership with the inventor of the pocket rivet. Another immigrant played a key role: Russian émigré Jacob Davis joined Strauss in registering the brand. Jacob Davis, as he became known in America, had the idea to reinforce pocket seams with metal rivets. In his tailoring shop in Reno, he worked with fabrics and dry goods from the Strauss brothers and sewed garments on Levi Strauss’s orders. Davis’s inventive idea was to use metal rivets to strengthen parts of clothing that had not previously been reinforced this way.
Davis immediately saw the value of his idea and wrote to Strauss in 1872: “The demand for these pants exceeds what one person can produce. This interest has largely arisen due to the rivets on the pockets. Therefore, I intend to register my idea with a patent to protect my priority. If you file the patent in my name, your expenses will be minimal compared to the potential profits from improving workwear—only $68 for an idea that you can apply to the production of pants, shirts, vests, jackets, and coats. My sewing experience indicates successful sales of such products, so the costs will quickly pay off.”
Metal and Sails
Their joint patent was approved, and in the first year the company sold about 21,000 pairs of pants and jackets with the signature copper rivets, which remain synonymous with Levi’s today. At one point metal was even used on the zipper, but after consumer complaints manufacturers removed the metal that injured cowboys, damaged saddles, and scratched chairs. Rivets could heat up by a campfire and burn skin in sensitive areas, which posed a real problem for riders warming themselves at night.
Over time, Strauss’s company moved away from sailcloth. Levi used ship fabric for only the first few years, when it became very cheap because of a crisis in shipbuilding. Eventually hemp gave way to cotton, and the coarse sailcloth was replaced by a softer fabric known as denim. The name comes from French: de Nîmes, meaning “from Nîmes,” a city in southern France. From the English words denim and jeans, fashion historians have traced the material’s true lineage.
Harbingers of the Future
What looked new was actually a reinvention of something old. If you set aside commercial priorities, calling Levi Strauss the sole inventor of jeans ignores earlier history. In his version, Strauss largely improved on garments that already existed. Artists depicted sailors in sailcloth pants from Genoa as early as 1597, and French textile workers had been producing a twill called serge de Nimes since the early 1300s. Sails made from that material even crossed the Atlantic on ships in Christopher Columbus’s 1492 expedition.
From the 16th century, European manufacturers used cotton twill with a diagonal weave to make men’s and women’s clothing. These garments took their names from the material: in French they were called jane, in English jean, and in Italian gene. The Genoese fabric’s name became a toponym for Genoa—the city that supplied indigo dye. Indigo has been used since ancient times: a textile found in Peru has been dated to about 6,200 years old. The modern indigo-colored denim differs in dyeing technique: manufacturers dye only the warp thread (the longitudinal thread) before weaving, leaving the weft thread undyed. That makes the reverse side of the fabric lighter than the face and gives denim its distinctive look.
Fibers and Cuts
Modern denim comes in more varieties than the classic twill. Chambray is a fine, soft variant that often feels dressier. A cheaper option is jean, a fabric with a more uniform diagonal thread coloring. Ecru refers to unbleached cotton and comes from the French word écru, meaning “raw” or “unbleached.” Denim can also be woven as chevron (also called broken twill or reverse twill), where the thread pattern creates a two-sided look with a broken-line effect. Stretch denim blends cotton with synthetic fibers like Lycra or elastane; natural stretch mixes cotton with plant fibers such as ramie (sometimes called Chinese nettle).
Today’s jeans also come in many cuts. The three main leg shapes are Straight Leg (same width from hip to ankle), Tapered Leg (narrowing toward the ankle), and Slim Leg (closer to the body at the ankle). The construction of the front closure has its own names: a button-fly closure is called Button Fly, and a zipper closure is called Zip Fly. Labeling jeans by cut helps customers navigate the wide selection designers now offer.
Favorite Clothing
Classic five-pocket jeans in a standard cut fall under Regular Fit (straight leg or slightly tapered). Skinny jeans are tight-fitting, hugging the leg. Slim jeans have a tapered leg and a higher waistline. Relaxed Fit is looser than Slim Fit. Loose Fit describes the wide-leg jeans that are roomy throughout. Straight Fit maintains the same width from top to bottom. Baggy jeans, popularized in hip-hop culture, are intentionally wide and often sag at the waist. Low Waist jeans sit lower on the hips. Easy Fit models also have a lowered waist and a slightly tapered leg at the ankle. Boot Cut jeans fit the hips and then flare slightly from the knee to the ankle so they can be worn over boots. Jeggings are a designer hybrid of jeans and leggings. Despite all these variations, the basic five-pocket cut introduced by Levi Strauss remains the foundation: a Western-style pair with five pockets and a slightly tapered leg that tucks easily into boots.
The industrial maker of the first jeans combined practical technologies into one product, and successive generations of the family business worked to spread durable workwear around the world, turning it into a beloved wardrobe staple on every continent. After the founder’s death in 1902, his nephews inherited the company. Descendants of the family continued to own and manage Levi Strauss & Co., and Levi’s jeans secured a permanent place in fashion.
Denim Day
Denim Day (April 24, 2024) has no direct historical connection to the invention of jeans. Wearing jeans on that day in several countries is a symbol of protest against sexual violence and against unjust treatment of survivors. Denim Day began in the U.S. in 1999 as an act of solidarity with women protesting in the Italian Parliament after a controversial 1992 rape ruling. In that case, Italian judges partly blamed the victim because she wore tight jeans—a justification that shocked many people.
After the controversial acquittal, Italian women entered the parliamentary chamber wearing jeans and unfurled a banner that read, “Jeans—an alibi for the rapist?” Their action prompted support in the United States. Thanks to advocacy by the chairwoman of a committee investigating attacks on women, Denim Day became an annual event, first in California and later across other states, where millions wear jeans on the last Wednesday of April to make a political and social point.
