Through much of the American experience, blue jeans have been a common thread
SAN FRANCISCO -- When Americans want to show their patriotism, they often don red, white and blue clothing, or sometimes even drape themselves in the U.S. flag. But if you truly want to embody the country’s zeitgeist, just slip on your favorite blue jeans. You probably already own at least one pair, just like almost everyone else you know.
Even in divisive times, denim remains an American skin that’s worn by liberals and conservatives, young and old, rich and poor, the cool crowd and the nerdy outcasts, citizens born in the USA like the denim-clad Bruce Springsteen on his chart-topping 1984 album and immigrants who came here hoping for a better life like Levi Strauss.
If there is a common thread in America's crazy quilt of racial diversity, it's blue jeans.
The pants didn't start out blue. They were made from brown tent canvas when they were first conceived in 1853 by Strauss, a Bavarian immigrant who came to San Francisco in the aftermath of California's Gold Rush. The pants proved so popular among the gold miners still looking to strike that Strauss ran out of tent canvas. So he switched to a different fabric — indigo-dyed denim. After Nevada tailor Jacob Davis suggested reinforcing the pockets of Strauss' pant design with copper rivets, the two men patented the concept in 1873 to create the style of blue jeans worn today.
Levi Strauss & Co. and its imitators such as H.D. Lee and Wrangler have made billions selling denim through the decades, but blue jeans have always been more about the culture than the capitalism that shaped America.
Besides harking back to the Gold Rush's sediments, blue jeans evoke:
—the rugged determination of the railroad workers who wore them while laying the tracks for travel and commerce across the country;
—the derring-do of the cowboys and wandering spirits who wore them while settling the frontier;
—the work ethic of the farmers and factory workers who wore them on the job;
—the rebellious ethos of the bikers and other mavericks who embraced them after Marlon Brando's performance in the 1953 film “The Wild Ones;”
—the colorful flair of the hippies who stitched flower patches and psychedelic designs on bell-bottomed versions of the pants that were conceived in San Francisco during 1967's “Summer of Love."
In all shapes and styles, blue jeans are the perfect fit for America.
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Liedtke covered Levi Strauss & Co. and Gap Inc. during eight of his 26 years at The Associated Press. Part of a recurring series, “American Objects,” marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. For more American objects, click here. For more stories on the anniversary, click here.
