There is no denim story without Levi's. Levi Strauss & Co. was founded in San Francisco in 1853, supplying dry goods to a city transformed by the Gold Rush. In 1873 Levi Strauss and the tailor Jacob Davis received a patent for riveting the stress points of work pants, and with it the blue jean was born.
What began as clothing for miners and labourers became, over the following century, the uniform of cowboys, rebels, musicians and students, and then of almost everyone. Few garments have shaped how the world dresses so completely.
The codes
The 501, the original straight-leg, button-fly jean. The Red Tab, stitched beside the back pocket since 1936. The Arcuate, the double arc of stitching on every back pocket. And the trucker, the denim jacket every other is compared to.
The denim
Levi's is the home of the five-pocket jean, made in every cut, but the 501 remains the reference point, the straight leg against which all others are measured.
Why it's on jeans.com
Levi's is where denim begins, and no edit would be complete without it. To wear a 501 or a trucker is to wear a piece of history.
