Dating Your Denim, Part 1

Jean Style By the Decade

Welcome to the first installation in my series on denim! As a key component of American wardrobes for over 60 years, denim is one of the most ubiquitous garments in fashion history. From the red carpet to your grandpa’s closet, denim is everywhere - and for good reason! There’s a lot to discuss here, so I’m spreading out specific topics within the great big world of jeans through multiple letters.

Bulgarian-French singer and actress Sylvie Vartan in a denim set that has a permanent spot on my dream vintage wishlist.

Part 1 is focusing on denim style and trends by era. Keep reading for my breakdown on what the most popular denim looked like during each decade of American fashion, including historical benchmarks like the invention of stretch denim and the first jeans to appear on a runway. I have at least two more letters planned for this series: Dating Your Denim using fiber content, fabric treatments, and hardware and the Dating Your Denim brand guide.

As a rule of thumb, I generally regard the overall style and look of a garment as the first and last steps to dating vintage. Step one is just the shot-in-the-dark guess based solely on appearance. This is typically your starting place if you’re finding pieces without any context, like at a thrift store. Once you’ve looked over other identifying details like branding, fiber content and label design, the garment style could be your final definitive clue. If a brand was using the same manufacturing country and same label design throughout two decades, style markers like wash or rise can help narrow down your window.

The Early Years (1871-1920’s)

Jeans got their start as true workwear, and all of the various early iterations were designed with specific jobs and needs in mind. Denim from this time was very sturdy, heavy, and stiff. While denim fabric dates back to the 17th century, the copper riveted denim pants we now know as jeans were first invented by Jacob W. Davis in 1871. The design was patented, and widely distributed shortly after, by Davis and Levi Strauss on May 20th, 1873. The garment would be widely referred to as “overalls” or “waist overalls” until the 1960’s. The stitching was done in orange to match the copper rivets used in Davis’ design. The iconic Levi’s logo, still seen on their patches today, features an image of two horses attempting to pull apart a pair of jeans. The imagery, along with high rates of illiteracy among the laborers who wore jeans, led to early denim pants being commonly referred to as “two horse” pants or the “two horse” brand.

The iconic Levi's two horse imagery, seen in an early brand advertisement and on the leather patch still affixed to denim sold today

A 1918 advertisement for women’s “Freedom-Alls,” one of the earliest denim garments specifically marketed towards women.

Jeans were essentially only worn by laborers like miners, loggers, sailors, farmers, and ranchers for the first many decades. All new updates and improved styles throughout this time were designed specifically for utility. In 1926, Lee was the first to implement a zipper in their jeans designed for cowboys. The new “hookless fastener” went alongside other practical considerations like rivets that were placed out of the way of a saddle.

FUN FACT: The baby pocket inside of the front pocket on jeans was originally made to hold a pocket watch! Wrist watches all but eliminated pocket watches after WWI, but the little pocket has stuck around.

Cuts: Straight leg, relaxed fit. 

Colors: Dark blue washes were the most common, but jeans were also sold in black and stripes.

Rise: High waisted.

1882, gold miners in California wear Levi’s jeans. Photo: Getty Images.