Utilitarian to fashion in one garment.

In 1848 the famous Gold Rush began as gold was discovered in California and gold miners wanted clothes that were strong and did not easily rip. During this time cloth was made from cotton, it was strong and did not easily wear out making it the ideal fabric for the gold miners clothes.

In the 1870's a tailor named Jacob Davis was asked by a women if he could make her husband a pair of work trousers that did not fall apart. He soon came up with the idea of putting rivets on the points of strain, such as the corners of the pockets and the base of the button fly. These rivets proved to be extremely effective and Davis decided to patent his idea. However, he needed a business partner to get the project rolling. At the time Davis bought his heavy duty cotton denim from of a much respected and successful businessman dry goods store, Levi Strauss. Strauss had come to San Fransisco in 1853 to open a West Coast branch of his brothers New York dry goods and clothing store which he built into a successful business over a twenty year period.

Strauss was an acute businessman and when Davis wrote him suggesting that the two men hold the patent together Strauss agreed as he could see the potential of the new product. The patent was received on 20th May 1873 from the U.S Patent and Trade Mark Office. Shortly after the first riveted clothing were made and sold using the traditional denim fabric for men's work wear at the time because the material was strong and did not wear out easily. The new riveted trousers were known as "Waist Overalls or Overalls". It was not until the 1960's that they adopted the name of jeans. Another feature of the new overalls was the introduction of a double orange thread that Davis stitched onto the back pocket which became another registered trade mark to the Strauss company. This enabled customers to distinguish Davis's overalls from those of his competitors. 

Strauss was the financial backer and he quickly set up a Tailor shop in San Fransisco for the production of the new riveted work pants. As demand for these pants grew the shop was eventually super seeded by a manufacturing plant, Levi Strauss & Co, Davis continued to work for Strauss for the remainder of his life. During this time he not only oversaw the production of his work pants but he also introduced working shirts and overalls.

Denim jeans where originally only associated with miners, ranchers and farmers as their working garments because of there hardiness. However, it was  Hollywood who in the 1930's introduce jeans to the general public when Western films became popular. These films depicted cowboys wearing denim jeans.  In 1939 the film "Stagecoach" was a huge success and made a relatively unknown actor, John Wayne, into a star. In the film Wayne is wearing a pair of 1938 Levi's 501 and every boy in America wanted a pair of jeans just like their cowboy idols. Through out the centuries Hollywood continued its love affair with denim, "Brando wore Levi’s 501s and a Schott Perfecto, Dean had on Lee Rider’s 101 and a red windbreaker in arguably the most iconic denim fit in history".(Fig 8)

Fig 8:Dean and his gang intimidating townspeople. The jeans and slouchy postures purposefully accentuate the lines of their legs and hips.