The most popular item of clothing in the world, jeans, were patented and perfected at the end of the 19th century by two immigrants, Jacob Davis and Levi Strauss. But which of them actually invented them?

 

Jacob Youghes came from Riga. When he emigrated to the USA in 1954, he changed his name to Davis. He ran a tailor's shop in New York City and in Augusta, Maine. He mainly made tarpaulins and tents from a coarse, robust fabric, which were sold by Levi Strauss in San Francisco.

 

In the 1970s, a woman came into his shop and ordered cheap trousers for her husband, who always wore his trousers out very quickly. As Davis had learnt that the fabric alone did not always hold the trouser pockets together well, he used rivets for this order, which had worked well for horse blankets.

Davis soon began to routinely sew trousers with rivets, meanwhile using denim. When other tailors began copying his trousers, he contacted Levi Strauss so that he could help him apply for a patent.

After several rejections, the patent for Davis and Strauss was finally recognised on 20 May 1873.

The popular denim trousers were soon generally referred to as Levi's. As Davis had unfortunately not insisted that his name be included, it was only Levi Strauss who was considered synonymous with jeans and is mistakenly regarded as the inventor.