LEVI STRAUSS SOUTH AFRICA CELEBRATES 75th ANNIVERSARY OF WOMEN’S JEANS

The company that invented blue jeans for working men created the world’s first women’s jeans in 1934 for bold women of the American West 

 

Today’s hottest styles trace back to the earliest women’s jeans

 

Seventy-five years ago, Levi Strauss & Co. took a risk that forever changed the course of women’s fashion.  In the fall of 1934, the company introduced “Lady Levi’s® jeans” – the world’s first jeans made exclusively for women. Originally created as men’s workwear, jeans are now a fashion must-have around the globe, with women’s jeanswear leading the way in denim trends each season.

 

Jeans were originally created by Levi Strauss & Co. for working men in 1873, but the category has since seen a dramatic shift with the advent of the first jeans for women. Today, new fits, fabrics and finish innovations are typically first developed to meet women’s needs and tastes and are driven by the demands of the women’s market as seen with our South African designed range of jeans for women with more curvaceous bottoms.  The SA-‘invented’ Levi's® EVA jeans are a result of SA women speaking out about wanting to show off their ‘booty’ and challenging the industry to give them the right fit.

 

Despite the latest high-tech finishing techniques for women’s jeans, today’s most popular styles – the Boyfriend and Skinny jeans – trace their ancestry back to the earliest jeans developed by Levi Strauss & Co.

 

Last year, the ‘Boyfriend jean’ exploded on the fashion scene when trend-setting celebrities were spotted in Hollywood wearing men’s 501® jeans, reminiscent of the early 1900s when women wore men’s 501® jeans because there was no other option. Today, these women put on men’s 501® jeans because they love being in ‘boyfriends’ clothes’. This quickly became a trend look, with women all over the world adopting the Boyfriend jean style. it is a style that offers a relaxed, straight leg and comfortable fit in a range of washes that can be dressed up or down. In Asia, the 501® jean for women was introduced early this year as the definitive and original ‘Boyfriend jean’.