The history of Jeans. From the origins to the legendary Blue-Jeans
Authors: Monica Bruzzone and Clelia Firpo
Scientific supervision: Marzia Cataldi Gallo, 2021 – Registered copyright
Bibliography:
Marzia Cataldi Gallo, Jeans before blue-jeans, Genoa, Geko Edizioni, 2021.
Degree Thesis, Blue Blue-Jeans. An exhibition in Genoa, dissertation by Clelia Firpo, advisors V.Scelsi, M.Bruzzone, University of Genoa, year 2014
The oldest and most illustrious ancestors of Jeans are the Passion Cloths. A truly unique series of 14 cotton cloths dyed indigo blue mixed with lead white, depicting the Stories of the Passion of Christ. The first cycle dated between 1538 and 1540 is the work of Teramo Piaggio.
The inventory of a trader in Richmond bears the words “Whitt jeanes” (archaism for white Jeans), to define a white fustagno of Genoese production.
Some statuettes of late eighteenth-century crib, of valuable manufacture, preserved at the Luxoro Civic Museum represent people and document how the Jeans is commonly used, in Genoa, to make clothes for work and party.
Alessio Pittaluga, designer active in the early nineteenth century, draws a cycle of watercolors dedicated to Ligurian folk costumes. With this collection he provides valuable evidence on the use of blue jeans in the tradition of popular clothing between ‘700 and ‘800.
The leader and patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi, in the night between 5 and 6 May 1860 departs from Genoa Quarto to Marsala at the head of the Expedition of the Thousand, wearing trousers made with blue fustagno. The trousers worn by Garibaldi in the company could be the oldest jeans in the world.
The Blue-Jeans legend coincides conventionally with Licence No 139,121 which the United States Government grants to Davis and Levi Strauss. It is the patent of copper riveting, designed as a reinforcement to strengthen the pockets of trousers that Levi Strauss packed in Jeans fabric for gold diggers in the California of the pioneers.
The Great Depression of 1929 offers an exceptional chance for the success of Jeans. The lack of economic availability, increasing the prices of fabrics, brings back the attention to the most accessible fabric among all. In these years the myth of the cowboys, jeans icons and symbol of the reconquest of the Wild West has been affirmed.
For the first time, Levi’s advertises a pair of cowboys’ Blue-Jeans with a women’s cut in Vogue magazine.
Luigi Candiani founded the eponymous company in Milan, which produces textiles and specialized in Denim in the post-war period. Today at the fourth generation, Candiani produces a high quality denim following the most innovative sustainability criteria and was the first company to introduce stretch.
American illustrator Norman Rockell portrays model Mary Doyle Keefe as Rosie the Riveter. It is the symbol of the woman who works in the factory to replace the men who left for the front in the Second World War.
Elio Fiorucci, a young Italian fashion designer who arrived in London in 1965, opens two years later in Milan the first store in the Galleria Passerella designed by Amalia Del Ponte on the model of the London Carnaby Street.
The Rolling Stones recorded Sticky Fingers. The allusive cover designed by Andy Wharol represents the lacing of a pair of Blue-Jeans with a real zip and makes the disc a total work of art.
Renzo Rosso and Adriano Goldschmied founded the company Diesel in Molvena in the province of Vicenza. In 1991 the company launched the first communication campaign on the theme: For Successful Living. It is the beginning of international success.
Fabrizio De Andrè, a Genoese singer-songwriter inextricably linked to the city of caruggi and via del Campo, recorded the single “Una storia sbagliata” dedicated to the murder of Pier Paolo Pasolini. The cover of the album frames a jacket in Blue-Jeans.
From the 2nd to the 6th of September 2021 the 2021 edition of GenovaJeans, the great annual event with a rich calendar of exhibitions, museums, conferences, meetings, entertainment and shows.
From the 5th to the 8th of October 2023 the 2023 edition of GenovaJeans.
2024 edition coming soon
