Denim has been an integral part of American fashion since it debuted in the 1800’s as a widely available and inexpensive clothing option for workers in the fields, forests, mills, and coal mines. Russian-American tailor Jacob W. Davis is credited with invented blue jeans in his tailor shop is Reno, Nevada. Davis’ specialty was the creation of heavy duty textiles for laborers like tents, wagon covers and horse blankets made from durable cotton denim supplied by to him by San Francisco’s Levi Strauss & company. Davis was commissioned to make a pair of rugged custom work pants for a client who was a woodcutter, and he fashioned them from heavy duty “duck cotton” and reinforced the seams with copper rivets, thus laying the blueprint for the blue jean which became immensely popular in part due to the California Gold Rush.
Henry David Lee, the founder of Lee Mercantile Company, which is now known as Lee Jeans is credited with the addition of many elements of the blue jean which are still popular today. In the 1920’s Lee introduced the first jeans to feature a zipper fly as well as inventing the Union-All work jumpsuit, which eventually morphed into denim overalls. The actor James Dean further popularized blue jeans in the mainstream when he wore them in 1955’s Rebel Without A Cause. Elvis Presley and Marylin Monroe are also credited with popularizing jeans in the mainstream.
