Toady, Jeans are basic life needs. Some how the Brands are deciding our Class and Standard of living.But the history of denim is completely different and we are Thanks to Sir Jacob W. Davis and Sir Levi Strauss. Jeans are made of a material called denim.Basically Jeans used for coil mine workers, Shepherd, factory workers.
Jeans are pants made from denim or dungaree cloth. They were invented by Jacob Davis and Levi Strauss in 1873 and a worn still but in a different context. Jeans are named after the city of Genoa in Italy, a place where cotton corduroy, called either jean or jeane, was manufactured. Levi Strauss came from Germany to New York in 1851 to join his older brother who had a dry goods store.
In 1853 he heard about Gold Rush in the West so moved to San Francisco to establish Western Branch of the family dry goods business. There he sold, among other things, cotton cloth. One of his customers was Jacob W. Davis, a tailor from Reno, Nevada. Davis made functional items such as tents, horse blankets, and wagon covers.
One day, his customer ordered a pair of sturdy pants that could withstand hard work. He made them from denim that he bought from Levi Strauss & Co and made them stronger by placing copper rivets at the places pants rip the most: pockets and flies. When he wanted to patent them, he wrote to Levi Strauss, and they became partners. They opened a bigger factory, and that is how jeans were born.
This kind of pants, made from duck and reinforced with rivets, became very popular among people in need of heavy work clothing. Orders began to flow in and Jacob made 200 pairs in the next 18 months some of them made from duck and some from denim. He began to fear that someone will steal his idea so he decided to patent it. Because he didn’t have enough money (some $68) for patent application he asked Levi Strauss to help him. On May 20, 1873 the full US Patent No. 139121 was granted in the name of Jacob W. Davis and Levi Strauss and Company.
May 20, 1873 is considered to be the official “birthday” of blue jeans. After that Jacob Davis was named production manager at the shop of Levi Strauss & co. One more characteristic thing Jacobs used on his denim pants was double orange threaded stitch to distinguish them from those made by his competitors. This became Registered US Trade Mark No.1339254. Demand continued to grow so Strauss decides to make manufacturing plant which Davis continued to manage for Strauss. Beside denim pants – jeans, Levi Strauss & co also manufactured other lines including work shirts and overalls. Jacob W. Davis worked there until the end of his life overseeing the production. He died in San Francisco in 1908.At the historic location of Jacob Davis’ tailor shop: 211 N. Virginia Street in Reno, the Reno Historic Resources Commission placed a historic marker on May 20, 2006. if you are want to know more about Levis and history. You can click on this link http://www.historyofjeans.com/jeans-inventor/jacob-w-davis/
Do you know? Levi Strauss sells in 110 countries around the world, in more than 50,000 retail locations. Fifty-five percent of its revenue comes from the Americas, with the U.S. the largest market. Levi generates 28 percent of its revenue in Europe, and 16 percent in Asia.
the Denim name comes
The name “denim” comes from the name of a sturdy fabric called “Serge de Nîmes”, initially made in Nîmes, France, hence “de Nîmes” – “denim”. Weavers of Nîmes tried to reproduce the cotton corduroy that was famously made in the city of Genoa, in Italy, but with no luck. With trial and error, they developed another twill fabric that became known as denim. That was cotton twill textile, in which the weft passes under two or more warp threads. Warp threads were dyed in indigo while weft threads remained white that gave to denim blue color on the one side and white on the other. Denim is highly durable, and that is why he was used by people that needed clothes that would last long.
What is Denim
Denim is define as twilled usually cotton woven indigo dyed warp threads which the weft passes under two or more warp threads. In denim, warp thread has indigo dye which is done in Vat dyeing process.
Indigo Dyes and Properties:
Indigo dye is an organic compound with a distinctive blue color. Indigo plant, named as “Indigofera tinctoria”. It was basically nature dye extracted from the leaves of certain plants. Now days it is synthetic because require thousand tones indigo dyes per year. Indigo Dyes are in blue color only. If you see any other color of Denim pants ie Sulphur Dyed or tinted. Indigo dyes have poor washing fastness, good light fastness, good perspiration fastness and poor crocking fastness.
It was manufactured and used in India, from where it got its name, since the ancient times. From India, Indigo is imported to Egypt, Greece and Rome. Other ancient civilizations, such are China, Japan, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Britain, Mesoamerica, Peru, Iran, and Africa also used indigo for dyeing. Indigo in India was made from plant Indigofera tinctoria. It was used on cotton because it was the easiest method of coloring. The only problem was: color didn’t last long. Indigo was a rare luxury in Europe in the Middle Ages because of high duties imposed by Persian, Levantine, and Greek middlemen. With discovering of a sea route to India that problem was solved and indigo plants are moving to colonies. Organic Indigo is used until the discovery of the synthetic indigo in the late 19th century. It becomes cheaper variant and replaces it.
There are two main methods of indigo dyeing:
1. Classic method: beaming and dyeing the warp yarns in rope form than rebeaming and sizing
2. Open-width method: Dyeing warp yarns and than sized
Initially, there was 100% cotton twill fabric used for Denim fabric.There was no value added washes or color variations.
There are two type of Denim fabric twills Left hand Side Twills ie know LST fabric and Right hand Side Twills ie RST fabric. In market around 90% denim fabrics are RST.
Categories Of Denim Fabrics
Basically, there are four types of denim fabric use for garments. They are given as per below:
A) IndigoB) SulphurC) Sulphur Top Indigo Bottom D)Sulphur Bottom Indigo Top
