Beat it, Billy Jean...
They're a fashion staple, able to be worn for a relaxed and casual look or perfect to look your sassy best for a night of high octane clubbing. Jeans are the ultimate in utilitarian trousers, but their practicality extends to the fact that they're universally accepted and tailored to look fashionable and stylish no matter the season or occasion.
Yet forget today's celebrity modelled designer jeans in their various long-legged shapes and waif-thin sizes, the history of jeans mingles with early American Gold Rush era history and the need for hard-wearing workers trousers amongst the miners. It's all thanks to the bolts of fabric that German-born Levi Strauss happened to have on hand as he took his textile and tailoring business to the goldfields near San Francisco. Both prospectors and miners complained of fragile and easily torn trousers, and it didn't take Strauss long to realise that his supply of canvas sailcloth, intended for wagon-coverings and tent-fabric, could be put to a far more profitable use. We can also thank Levi Strauss for the copper rivets on the pockets, for which his company took out a patent in 1873.
Fact or fiction, it doesn't matter, that's the history of jeans according to urban lore. The name Levi Strauss has become synonymous with the production of jeans, and the company has even expanded to making designer dresses and designer handbags, more often than not utilising denim. Blue jeans have become an iconic feature of American culture, representing both the American Old West and 1950s rebel youth culture. Even top name designers, like Marc Jacobs, and brands with fashion house legacies to fulfil, such as Dior Homme, design jeans - and the fashion landscape is eternally thankful for this, as the miners' jeans would have only had a limited lifespan otherwise!