Why are classic jeans blue?

Currently, there are jeans of any color: green, yellow, white, etc. But the classic color was, is, and always will be blue (many people refer to “jean blue” as being a specific type of blue). Do you know where the most popular piece of clothing in the world came from and why it is called that?

awesome.club investigated the history of its origin and invites you to discover it.

The fabric from which jeans are made was created in the 15th century, but the mass distribution of this garment took place in the following century. At that time, jeans were workers’ clothing. However, the man who changed everything came along. Levi Strauss made a living sewing miners’ clothes, but decided to travel from Belgium to the United States to seek new job opportunities.

One day, he overheard workers complaining that their pants would come undone within a week, and he decided to sew clothes for them from the fabric he used for tents, with the intention of solving the problem of fragile pants. The success was impressive and, quickly, all over the country, rumors spread that this was a super resistant garment.

Its name is, today, a reference to one of the most famous jeans brands in the world: Levi’s.

The term “Jeans” originates from the Italian city of Genoa. From there, the famous fabric was exploited, in the late 19th century, but Americans read the word the way they heard, which is why everyone got used to the pronunciation “jeans” quickly. In this way, they began to call this material by that name, and after that, also the pants made of “jeans”.

In very old records, the jeans were not blue, as shown in the photo above, from a 100-year-old jeans. After some time, the pieces were commercially made in blue and brown.

Blue originated from a special dye called indigo. Even at that time it was cheap clothing. Jeans had a peculiarity: it had only two transverse seams. After each wash, the pants became softer, and gradually took on the shape of the body. The brown dye did not have such an effect: the clothing remained rigid and therefore less pleasing. As a result, they practically stopped producing them in brown, and blue became the main shade.

However, there is a whole legend behind the origin of this color: they say that in the hold of a boat that was going to the USA, along with the fabric for jeans requested by Strauss, they also carried barrels of blue paint. During a storm, the barrels overturned and stained some rolls of fabric. Despite the mistake, the businessman decided to sell them in the same way. And finally, people liked this color better than the original. Since then, they started coloring all the pants with blue.

For over 100 years, jeans have changed a lot. We owe their appearance to the miners and workers for whom they were created. They had double stitching so they were strong. Front and back pockets were created for tools. They invented copper rivets to make the seams more resistant, and also a small pocket, which was certainly not made for coins. In the old days, watches were kept inside this little pocket; at the end of the 19th century they were very popular. In Brazil, jeans never go out of style. It is the darling of several generations, gaining colors and styles that appeal to various tastes.