Although warm, each day has been getting cloudier and cloudier. By the weekend, we should have a little cold snap with rain and highs back in the 50s. It will be interesting to see if the high mountains will get at least one more round of snow before true summer sets in and melts it all. One thing, I know, though, is that we will not be putting away our jeans here for the summer like we did in SC. Although I am very concerned about living with no air conditioning, there is no month that is totally free of a cool spot here and there when we are this far north. For that, at least, I am thankful, even if the Germans aren't too happy about it. :-)
Speaking of jeans, the question of the day was "What fashion item that is universally associated with America was actually brought to us by a German?" Denim pants have actually been around as long as there has been denim, since about the mid 1600s. It was often used as clothing for sailors, and after being dragged through the ocean and dried in the sun, they bleached white - hence the sailor dress of white pants. In the late 1700s, American textiles began to boom as a way to decrease dependency on England. This familiar material was then made here. Again, tailors made it into work pants, among other things, due to its durability; however, it had a flaw in the pockets and stress points. It wasn't until a certain German fellow, a Mr. Löb Strauss, came to American that the familiar "jeans" we think of today came into being.
Löb Strauss was born in Buttenheim, Bavaria, in February of 1829. He was the youngest of all his siblings. When he was 16, his father died, and a year later, his mother, two of his sisters and he packed up to move to America where some of his older brothers lived. At immigration, they changed his name from Löb to Levi because it was too hard to pronounce for the Americans. (I have to admit, this ö sound is really tricky!) His brothers had a wholesale goods store in New York, so he took up the family business there. When gold fever struck the US, Levi moved with the rush to open up a wholesale goods store in California to supply the miners as the "West Coast affiliate." He supplied not only the miners, but also those who supported the minors, such as the tailors, with items they needed, such as denim fabric to make clothing for the miners.
One such tailor was Jacob Davis. He figured out that if he put copper rivets in the pocket area and at the zipper, that the pockets and strain points could be made much stronger - strong enough to store ore and tools in the pockets. Jacob didn't have enough money to go it alone on the patent, so he and Strauss went in together. In May of 1873, the patent was issued, and Levi Strauss & Co. expanded its line from wholesale dry goods to work pants (at the time known as waist overalls.) They actually had the 501 jean even back then, although it was called XX until 1890, and like today, it was one of their best selling products.
Levi kept busy with many additional pursuits in the region, from bank director, gas and electric company director, to many other business activities. He also gave back to the community with monetary support of the orphanages and other needy charities as well as scholarship money for needy youth.
He died in 1902 at the age of 73 having lived a fulfilled life. Although he never married or had children, he was very close to his nephews, whom he had brought into the business. He left most of his fortunes to them to carry on the family business. Although the business was completely destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake by fire, they rebuilt and continued on in the legacy of their uncle. The company is still headquartered today in San Francisco and is still owned by family members of Levi Strauss.
Through their efforts, blue jeans became synonymous with America and American fashion. Although obviously already around as workwear, jeans first got recognition nationally as a pant for cowboys from the early westerns of the 1930s. The pants, which had not been sold east of the Mississippi, were now sought after everywhere. Then, they became the workwear of choice during World War II as a comfortable pant for so many new factory workers - particularly women, who until then were not normally seen in pants. Military men also took the pants overseas, popularizing them abroad. By the 1950s, they changed from being a work item to a fashion item, changed their item name to jeans from waist overalls, and the rest is history as we know it.
I wish to thank the information found on the Levi Strauss & Co. website http://www.levistrauss.com/ for its wealth of information on this blog.
The word for today is pants: die Hosen (hoe zehn). I could not use jeans as it is the same word pronounced the same way here. :-)
The question of the day for today is "What will we miss the most about Germany when we get back to the US?"
Auf Wiedersehen,
Frau Spitzer
