Levi’s

archBogenFew fashion items have had such long-lasting popularity as jeans. In Iconic Products, we look at the jeans brand that started it all — Levi’s.

Two horses pull this pair of jeans in different directions — but they don’t tearreißentear. The rivetNieterivets hold. The pants are blue and made of cotton denim with a small red tagEtiketttag. The stitchingVersteppungstitching on the back pockets is shaped like a double arch. What started out as work pants eventuallyschließlicheventually became a casuallässig, sportlichcasual classic: Levi’s jeans. 

In 1872, San Francisco businessman Levi Strauss, a Bavarian immigrant, was shown a pair of work pants by one of his customers, Jacob Davis. Davis had found a way of making pants last longer by putting copperKupfercopper rivets at the corners of pockets and seamNahtseams. Strauss loved the idea and, in May 1873, the two men were given a jointgemeinsamjoint patent. Levi’s blue jeans were born. Cut from nine-ounce denim, these pants had a straight leg, five pockets, and were called “XX” jeans. In 1890, XX were renamed “lot numberChargennummerlot number 501.” Miners, ranchers, farmers, and builders in the American West all loved the comfortable, hard-wearingstrapazierfähig, widerstandsfähighard-wearing 501s. 

In 1934, Levi’s produced the first jeans for women. The red tag was added in 1936. During World War II, the US government decided that Levi’s were important to the war effort, and production was controlled to keep the prices low. By the 1960s, jeans had become a fashion garmentKleidungsstückgarment — Marilyn Monroe wore Levi’s in the 1961 film The Misfits. Today, we can buy Levi’s in every color, style, and texturestoffliche Beschaffenheittexture, but in 2020, it’s the classic 501s that Americans voted the most iconickultigiconic fashion itemArtikelitem of all time.