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- [Narrator] They're a style staple of people
across the world, a part of our culture so ingrained,
you see someone wearing them everywhere you go.
Jeans.
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From movie stars, to celebrities, to people on the street,
jeans are a part of almost everyone's basic wardrobe.
But where did jeans come from?
And what kind of evolution have they gone through?
And what is their future?
This is how jeans took over the world.
Denim fabric's history can be traced back
to Genoa, Italy, in the 17th century.
It was used for work clothes, making it a crucial textile
for working class people of northern Italy.
Weavers in Nimes, France, tried to reproduce this fabric.
The end result was what we know today as denim.
The word denim comes from the French phrase,
"Serge de Nimes,", meaning serge from Nimes.
There are countless brands making jeans today.
- Calvin Klein, Wrangler, Lucky.
- Lee, Diesel.
- Seven For All Mankind.
- [Narrator] But when people are asked what brand of jeans
they know the most about, one name comes to mind.
- Levi's.
- Levi's; I like Levi's a lot.
- [Narrator] In 1853, Levi Strauss moved to San Francisco
to open a dry good store, targeted towards people
who had moved west for the Gold Rush.
In 1872, tailor Jacob Davis, who often bought
bolts of fabric from Strauss, asked Strauss to partner
with him to patent and sell clothing reinforced with rivets.
We went to the Levi's Store in the Meatpacking district
of Manhattan to check out their Lot 1 program,
which allows a customer to design
their perfect pair of jeans, from fit,
to type of denim, down to every last detail.
Here's how Levi's makes its jeans.
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- Lot 1 is a one-of-a-kind experience,
where clients and fans of the brand
can create a one-of-a-kind tailor-made jean,
crafted in-house by myself and my fellow tailors.
You get to choose pretty much every option on your jean,
from denims to thread options, hardware colors,
many things people don't even realize
go into the design and aesthetic of a jean.
There's no right or wrong way for a jean to fit or be worn.
All of the jeans we craft are made with selvedge denim.
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We custom-draft a pattern for each client
and each jean that is made.
After the consultation,
the turnaround time is approximately six weeks.
May 20th, 1873, is the day we consider
the birth date of the jean.
It is the day that Levi Strauss was granted
the patent for copper-riveted work wear.
The copper rivet is what differentiated
Levi's from any other product.
- [Narrator] Levi's rivets were revolutionary,
because they reinforced the stress points of the pants,
causing them to be sturdier
than other work wear on the market.
- It is also the key component of the modern jean.
And believe it or not, the jean has changed
very little since that date.
In fact, the Lot 1 jeans that we craft here
are made in a very similar fashion
to the way the original jeans were made back them.
Some of the equipment we use actually dates
back to that time, including our button-hole machine.
We have a Reece 101, which is over a century old.
Our rivet press, as well, is very similar
to the original presses that 501s were made with.
- [Narrator] In the 150 years following the first Levi's,
jeans have gone through many different phases.
The first style was the waist overall of the late 1800s.
- It wasn't until the mid-50s
that they were starting to be called jeans.
Levi's officially started using the term in the 1960s.
In the '50s, younger people started to wear jeans
and they didn't like the idea of looking
like their dads, who wore waist overalls.
So they liked the new term to differentiate themselves
from their dad's jeans.
- [Narrator] Jeans became a signifier
of the rebellious teen,
popularized by James Dean in "Rebel Without a Cause"
and Marlon Brando in "The Wild One."
The 1960s and '70s gave rise to the bell bottom,
while acid wash was all the rage in the '80s.
90s grunge brought about the era of baggy, ripped jeans,
while skinny jeans were popular in the early 2000s.
Today, there is a seemingly endless
amount of different styles of jeans.
- Boot cut, boyfriend.
- Skinny jeans, flair.
- Straight, mom jean.
- High-rise, low-rise.
- Acid wash, there's faded.
- [Narrator] But everyone has their own personal favorite.
- I think my mom jeans are my favorite.
- I love a good skinny jean.
- I love embroidered jeans, so anything with a cool pattern
or if it's ripped or if it has any sort of flower design.
- I think that if you find that right pair of jeans
that has just the perfect fit, it can make you just feel
so comfortable and so, "I'm on top of the world,"
confident kind of thing.
- Finding a good pair of jeans is both
the most difficult and most rewarding thing.
If you find a good pair of jeans,
you can wear them all the time.
- [Narrator] And their own style inspiration.
- Brittany Spears in "Crossroads" wears great jeans.
- In "Uptown Girls," where the lead character, Molly,
has this amazing overall dress with all these cool patches.
- Rihanna wears denim really well.
I find that she wears it in really unexpected ways.
- I feel like Kim Kardashian always rocks jeans pretty well.
Everyone has a lot to say about it
but she fills out her jeans and she looks good in them.
- [Narrator] Jeans have been a crucial part of pop culture.
- Brittany Spears
and Justin Timberlake's iconic jeans outfit.
That was taking jeans to a whole new level.
- It was amazing and awful and incredible at the same time.
- [Narrator] But not everyone is on the denim wagon.
- There's nothing wrong with denim jackets
or anything like that,
but denim jeans are the most overrated
pieces of clothing in anyone's closet.
- With denim, if it doesn't
fit exactly right, it's uncomfortable.
- [Narrator] Through their many iterations,
jeans have remained a style staple for over 150 years.
And they're sure to stick around for years to come.
- Jeans are just a staple throughout history
and they never go out of style.
And if they do for a little bit, they always come back.
- Denim has been a mainstay,
I think because of how it's made.
Denim is a very hardy fabric and wears out
really slowly and looks better as it ages.
- I personally think jeans
are the coolest product in the world.
Well-made things tend to get better in time.
I can't think of a garment that gets
any better in time than a jean.
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