Blue Jeans

Blue Jeans, the all-American
fashion..
Blue jeans are the most popular type of clothing in the
world; but they are not modern! In fact, jeans have existed
for over 140 years.
In 1996, someone found some very old clothes in an old mine in Nevada, USA; they included
a pair of dirty old jeans. Today, those jeans are very valuable, and they are now in the Levi
Strauss Archival Collection, in San Francisco. The jeans, which are over 120 years old, are the
oldest pair of Levi's 501 jeans in the world.
They are almost the same as a modern pair of 501's; there are just some small differences
in the detail. For instance, today's 501's have two back pockets, the old pair just has one.
THE STORY OF JEANS

Jeans were the classic clothes of the American West.
In 1853, a young tailor from Germany, called Levi Strauss, began working in San Francisco;
Levi sold thick canvas to miners; the miners used the canvas to make tents.
One day, a miner told Levi that he could not find trousers that were strong enough for work
in the gold mines. Levi decided to make some trousers out of canvas.
Very soon, he had sold all the canvas trousers he had made! They were just what miners
wanted.
However, the canvas was rather heavy and stiff. Levi therefore began to look for a different
textile; soon he found a heavy textile from France; it was called serge de Nimes. Americans
just called this de Nimes, and this name soon got reduced to denim.
Denim was a bit lighter than canvas, but it was very strong; it was ideal for miners.
However, original denim was almost white, and miners did not like the color! Their denim
trousers got dirty as soon as they began working!
Levi Strauss therefore decided to use colored denim, and he chose dark blue. In 1873,he
began to make denim trousers with metal rivets to make them stronger. This was a radical new
idea: "Blue jeans" had arrived!
Levi's jeans were so popular, that his company got bigger and bigger; soon, other firms were
making blue jeans too. Miners liked them, but so did cowboys and other working men. Blue
jeans became classic American working trousers.
After the Second World War, jeans became popular all over the world. Today, blue jeans are
made over the world most of them in Asia. Very few jeans are now made in the USA,
because of the cost: but it is still possible to buy blue jeans that are made in San Francisco.... if
you have a lot of money to spend.
Today there are hundreds of different brands of jeans. Many top fashion brands, like Armani
or Benetton, make their own blue jeans. But for real authentic jeans, "Levi's" are still the most
popular brand.
JEANS for EVERYONE ?
In America, everyone wears jeans as leisure wear. Some people wear jeans all the time,
even for work. But Americans are perhaps less formal than other nations.
At the "G7" summit in Denver, in 1997, American President Bill Clinton gave all his visitors
jeans, for a "Western evening". Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister, put them on, but other
European leaders, including Chancellor Kohl of Germany and Jacques Chirac, the President of
France, refused. Some people still think that jeans are not respectable clothes!
Not the young! Jeans are now the international uniform worn by young people. Why? That is
a good question!
The first jeans were made over 140 _______ _______ by a young _________
called
Levi Strauss. At first, Levi sold _________ to miners; the miners used this to make
_______ .
Then Levi began making ___________, because miners needed __________ that
were very
______. However, the _________ was really too _______ , so Levi looked for a
textile which
was _________. He found a textile _________ serge de Nimes; it was just what
he wanted
except that miners ____ _____ _______ the colour. So Levi coloured the denim
blue, and
made the worlds first ______ _______. He also made his fortune, because jeans
were ____
popular; everyone wanted to ______ them.
Today, jeans are popular ____ ______ the world. They are the _______ popular
type of
________ ____ the world.

Blue Jeans

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Blue Jeans, the all-American

THE STORY OF JEANS

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