Levi's 501s

Jeans that went from work pants reinforced with metal rivets' to international fashion icon

- DELWYN MALLETT

THIS YEAR MARKS the 150th anniversary of the garment that became the most popular item of apparel ever, turning the world indigo blue. On Tuesday 20 May 1873, Jacob W Davis and Levi Strauss & Co of San Francisco were granted US Patent No.139,121 for 'work pants: reinforced with metal rivets. The following month The Pacific Rural Press, a local San Francisco newspaper, carried a modest ad announcing the granting of the patent, concluding with the statement: 'Levi Strauss & Co of this city are sole agents for the new manufacture, and will soon place them in the market in large quantities, so that our miners, farmers and workingmen can supply themselves with superior overalls. Little could anyone have imagined quite how large those 'large quantities' would be.

Jewish immigrant Levi Strauss arrived in New York from Germany in 1847 to join his two brothers in their dry goods wholesale business just as the California Gold Rush kicked off. With thousands making their way west to seek their fortunes, the Strauss clan decided to join the 'rush' by dispatching Levi in 1854 to open a San Francisco branch.

At around the same time, 23-year-old tailor Jacob Youphes, born in Riga, Latvia, arrived in the US and changed his name to Jacob Davis. He settled in Reno, Nevada, making tents and horse blankets for workers on the Central Pacific Railroad, purchasing his material - nine-ounce 'serge de Nîmes' and ten-ounce white duck twill - from Levi Strauss.