Remembering Levi Strauss on his birth anniversary; the man who brought blue jeans to wider public

Born on February 26, 1829, Levi Strauss was a German-American businessman who founded the first company to manufacture blue jeans, in 1853, effectively bringing about a huge metamorphosis in trousers for men.

Durable, versatile and easy to match – these are a few words that can be used to describe one of the most oft pieces of clothing worn nowadays – jeans.

A type of trouser, typically made from denim or dungaree, jeans originally referred to a particular style of trousers called ‘blue jeans’ which were invented by Jacob W Davis in partnership with Levi Strauss & Co in 1871. In fact, blue jeans were patented by Davis and Strauss in 1873.

Born on February 26, 1829, Levi Strauss was a German-American businessman who founded the first company to manufacture blue jeans, in 1853, effectively bringing about a huge metamorphosis in trousers for men.

Originally designed for miners, the humble jeans was popularised among teenagers as fashionable wear by Marlon Brando and James Dean in films such as The Wild One and Rebel Without a Cause.

However, none of that would have been possible without Levi Strauss popularising blue jeans as a wearable through his company. On his birth anniversary here’s looking at a few interesting facts about him.

- Levi Strauss was born to an Ashkenazi Jewish family in the Franconia region of the Kingdom of Bavaria. Bavaria was a part of the German Confederation at that point in time.

- He travelled with his mother and two sisters to the US when he was 18 to join his brothers Jonas and Louis, who had begun a wholesale dry goods business in New York City called J. Strauss Brother & Co.

- On January 1853, Levi Strauss became an American citizen.

-He opened his wholesale business as Levi Strauss & Co. and imported fine dry goods from his brothers in New York. Jacob W Davis was one of his customers and one of the inventors of the denim pants in 1871. The two patented the new style of work pants in 1873.

- In 1899, Levi Strauss hired local architect Albert Pissis to design an addition to the company’s headquarters in San Francisco and even made him design numerous homes and buildings following the 1906 earthquake.

- In 1897, he donated money to the University of California, Berkeley. The money was meant to match the 28 scholarships established by California’s legislature and covered more than 1/3 of a student’s expense. The first Levi Strauss scholarship was given in 1898.

- He was a member of the Reform branch of Judaism and helped establish the first Jewish synagogue in the city of San Francisco.

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