Jeans - A Well Worn History

Jeans are ubiquitous. It's estimated that almost half of the global population will be wearing a pair of jeans on any given day. This is a staggering fact, though is backed up by research and figures collated in the US during 2004 and 2005. Over the course of those two years Americans spent $29 billion dollars on the denim trousers.

The beginnings of Jeans were as you'd expect, were born of necessity for hard wearing work pants. In the 1850s Jeans were being sold for exactly this purpose, notably by Levi Strauss. However they were not riveted.

It was one of Levi's wholesale customers who realised that reinforcing the most exposed areas with brass rivets would improve the lifespan of the garment. He did this for his own customers using copper rivets, but could not afford the patent for the process. He decided to write to Strauss and suggest a partnership, Levi accepted and they obtained the patent for an 'Improvement In Fastening Pocket-Openings'.

The explosion in their popularity through the 1950s and 60s had more to do with what Jeans symbolised rather than the utilitarian values that the garment possessed. Initially the romantic notion of California cowboys, independent and hardworking provided an attractive association, along with a self-made blue collar attitude.

It was however subculture that brought the real boom. 1953 saw the release of the The Wild One with Marlon Brando in the lead and 1955 brought James Dean to the screen as Jim Stark in Rebel Without A Cause. The cool and the restless wore denim. Jeans were the uniform of counter culture.

This was so much the case that they became banned in many establishments, particularly schools, which served only to boost their popularity even more. They were here to stay.

Obviously today the counter culture effect of denim jeans is nullified; they're a wardrobe essential regardless of gender, age, size or shape. Today the average North American owns between five and ten pairs.

Despite jeans being about as American as apple pie, the name is actually derived from French. It comes from Blue de Genes, which translates as the blue of Genoa. Denim is also French in origin, first created in Nimes, or de Nimes, 'denim'.

The production of jeans is currently undergoing a fairly significant change. It is estimated that the average pair of jeans in its life span will use over 900 gallons of water, from watering cotton crops, through manufacturing to washing by the end user. In terms of green manufacturing this isn't ideal where water shortages are an ever increasing global problem.

Big brands are changing their practices though. Levi now produces a WaterLess line that has already saved 172 million litres of water.

This is evidence of the constant evolution of jeans. It's a sign that they are here to stay. Especially when you consider they have been around, wearing hard and looking great, for the best part of 150 years, and are at this moment arguably the most popular they've ever been.

David Poult wears jeans day in, day out while coming up with great unusual gift ideas for retailer Find Me A Gift.