Museum Notebook: It's in the jeans

These women's shorts from the 1980s-1990s are pleated to create a stylish grid pattern. They were made by Formula Fashions in New Zealand. Photo / Whanganui Regional Museum Collection Ref: 2003.71.4

Dress them up, dress them down; denim jeans are a wardrobe staple that have withstood the test of time.

These reliable garments have origins dating back to the 16th century, when the city of Genoa in Italy was renowned for manufacturing a cloth made with cotton warp (vertical) and wool weft (horizontal) fibres. Fabric manufacturers in Nîmes, France, tried to replicate this fabric from Gênes (as the French called Genoa) but created a thicker, coarser twill fabric.

The cotton strands for the weft were left white while the warp was dyed with indigo. The weaving technique involved passing the weft under two or more warp strands, producing a diagonally woven fabric which was white on the underside and blue on the surface. The new cloth was called serge de Nîmes, then shortened to de Nîmes, and finally Anglicised to denim.

The sturdy fabric found popularity in the 19th century. Levi Strauss left Germany for America in 1851, opening a dry goods store in San Francisco. He supplied denim around the country including to Jacob W. Davis, a tailor in Nevada. Davis had the idea of making denim trousers with copper rivets fastened at pocket corners and other points under stress, making them sturdier and longer lasting.

A pair of classic Levi 501 women's jeans, featuring five pockets and the original style of button fly opening that made a comeback in the 1990s. Photo / Whanganui Regional Museum.

Davis' trousers became the favourites of miners, factory workers, and farmers, and the demand outstripped what he could produce in store. In 1873 Davis wrote to Strauss and suggested a business partnership, using Davis' design with Strauss' manufacturing capability. The deal was made and the denim trousers were patented on May 20, 1873 – the now iconic design known as Levi 501s.

These trousers featured a button fly as they were designed before the invention of the zipper. The original blue jeans had two pockets on the front and one on the back, but a watch pocket added in the 1870s and a second back pocket in 1901 finalised the five-pocket style we are familiar with today.

In the early 20th century, jeans were the uniform of railway and factory staff, becoming associated with 'dirty work' and the working classes. 'Lady Levis' were introduced in 1934 but weren't popular and jeans remained in the realm of menswear.

Jeans became more mainstream in the 1950s after being worn by Marlon Brando in The Wild One and James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause. Marilyn Monroe, Doris Day, and other celebrities were seen wearing them as leisure wear, breaking jeans' association with the working class.

Jeans were worn as a symbol of rebellion but became less shocking and more popular as leisure wear throughout the 1960s. By the next decade they were extremely fashionable.

Another pair of jeans from the 1990s, made by Jeanco in a flared style. These have a zip closure, pintuck detail on the hips, and two patch pockets on the back. Photo / Whanganui Regional Museum

Jeans have been customised to suit the styles of the passing decades and the 1990s were no exception. This decade saw an abundance of denim – straight legged jeans; ripped for grunge fans; oversized for the skaters; loose and high-waisted for the fashionable; multiple pockets, chains and loops for the Goth subculture; and not to mention unlimited double denim options with all the jackets, trousers, shirts, shorts, dresses, skirts, and overalls available.

These days we are seeing a resurgence of 1990s loose-denim fashions, and Levis are producing their latest season styles based on the 146-year-old 501 pattern. A pair of classic 501s can be seen in the Museum's refreshed Dressed to Thrill 1890 and 1990 exhibition, which opens on Friday, November 18. Come in and take a stroll down 1990s fashion lane.

Sandi Black is the Archivist at Whanganui Regional Museum.