Denim Comes To America

History

As denim moved across the Atlantic in the late 18th century, American textile mills started to produce their own denim fabric on a small scale, mostly as a way to become independent from foreign producers (mainly the English). From the very beginning, cotton fabrics were an important component of American mills product line. A Factory in the state of Massachusetts wove both denim and jean. American President George Washington toured this mill in 1789 and was shown the machinery that wove denim. That same year, one of the first printed references to the word “denim” in the United States appeared: a Rhode Island newspaper reported on the local production of denim among other fabrics. The book “The weavers Draft Book and Clothiers Assistant,” published in 1792, contains technical sketches of the weaving methods for a variety of denims.

In 1864, an East Coast wholesale house advertised that advertised that it carried 10 different kinds of denim, including “New Creek Blues” and “Madison River Browns,” terms that still sound contemporary today. Webster’s Dictionary from the same year contained the word “denim,” referring to it as “a coarse cotton drilling used for overalls, etc.”

Research shows that jean and denim were two very different fabrics in 19th century America. They also differed in how they were used. In 1849, a New York clothing manufacturer advertised topcoats, vests or short jackets in chestnut, olive, black, white and blue jean. Fine trousers were offered in blue jean; overalls and trousers make for work were offered in blue and fancy denim. Other American advertisements show working men wearing clothing that illustrate this difference in jean and denim usage. Mechanics and painters wore overalls made of blue denim. Working men in general, including those not engaged in manual labor, wore more tailored trousers make of jean.   

Denim, then, seems to have been reserved for work clothes, when both durability and comfort were needed. Jean was a sturdy fabric, but it did not offer the added benefits of denim, such as durability and comfort.

The first Blue jeans in 1962, the magazine American Fabrics fan an article that stated, “If we were to use a human tern to describe a textile we might say that denim is an honest fabric – substantial, forthright, and unpretentious. “So how did this utilitarian and unpretentious fabric become the stuff of legends that it is today? And how did pants made out of denim come to be called jeans, when they were not made out of the fabric called out of denim come to be called jeans, when they were not made out of the fabric called jean? One very important reason can be found in the life and a Bavarian-bran jean? One very important reason can be found in the life and work of a Bavarian-bran businessman who made his way to Gold Rush San Francisco nearly 150 years ago.

Levi’s ® Jeans, of course, are named for the founder of the company that invented them: Levi Strauss, in Bavaria in 1829. He, his mother and two sister left Germany in 1847 and sailed to New York, where Loeb’s half-brothers ran a wholesale dry-goods business (selling bolts of cloths, linens, clothing, etc.) For a few years, young Loeb worked for this brother, and by 1850 had changed his name to Levi. In 1853, he obtained his American citizenship and decided to make a new start and undertake the hazardous journey to San Francisco, a city enjoying the benefits of the recent Gold Rush. His mission was to open the West Coast branch of his brothers’ wholesale dry-goods business, which he started as soon as he got off the boat.

He sold common dry-goods products to small stores all over the West. These products included pillows, blankets; underwear and clothing whose manufactures are no longer in business. Levi worked hard, and acquired a reputation for quality products over the next tow decades.

In 1872, he got a letter from Jacob Davis, a Reno, Nevada tailor, who had come up with a great idea. To improve the strength of the pants he makes for his customers, he added metal rivets, which proved to be a big success. He wanted to patent the idea, but didn’t have the money he needed to file the paper. So he wrote to Levi, saying that if he would pay for the application, the two men could make riveted clothing and, as Davis put it in his letter, “makes a very large amount of money.” Levi knew a good business opportunity when he saw one, and in 1873 he and Davis received a patent for an “Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings.”

Levi brought Jacob Davis to San Francisco to oversee the first manufacture of their copper riveted “waist overall,” the old name for jeans. These pants were made from brown cotton duck and blue denim. Knowing that the riveted pants were going to be perfect for work wear, Levi and Jacob decided to make them out of denim rater than jean because denim was a very sturdy fabric appropriate for work wear.

Levi Strauss died in 1902, at the age of 73. He left his thriving manufacturing and dry goods business to his four nephews – Jacob, Louis, Abraham and Sigmund Stern who helped rebuild the company after the big earthquake and fire of 1906. The following year, Jacob Davis sold back his share of the company.

The oldest surviving catalog in our company archives, which was published after the earthquake, shows a variety of denim products for sale.

This attitude could be seen very clearly in the “decorated denim” craze in the 1970s, which included beaded, embroidered, painted and sequined jeans appearing on streets from California a New York and abroad. Personalizing one’s jeans was such a huge trend in the United States that Levi Strauss & Co. sponsored a “Denim Art Contest” in 1973, inviting customers to send in pictures of their decorated denim. The company received 2,000 entries from 49 of the United States, as well as from Canada and the Bahamas. The winning garments were sent on an 18-month tour of American museums and some of them were purchased by Levi Strauss & Co. for the company archives.