Blue jeans have been a part of American culture for over 125 years. They became not only an expression of American fashion but also an element of American identity recognized around the world. Jeans started in the nineteenth century as work clothes, customized to the needs of gold rush miners in California. They have evolved through the decades to represent the rugged individualism of the American West, the nonconformity of the rebel, and the height of designer fashion.

The first jeans were made as a joint venture by a Bavarian immigrant shop owner named Levi Strauss (c. 1829–1902) and a San Francisco tailor named Jacob Davis. Davis had designed a pair of work pants with metal rivets on the pockets and seams to help them hold up under the rough use of the California miners, who filled their pockets with heavy ore samples. Strauss supplied the money to buy a...