Once a utilitarian garment for worn-out miners, denim has evolved into a global fashion staple — worn everywhere from dusty gold fields to the red carpet.
In the final years of the California gold rush, a miner’s wife approached a local tailor named Jacob Davis with a frustrating problem: her husband’s work trousers kept ripping. To solve it, Davis reinforced the denim pants by adding copper rivets at their most vulnerable points — the pockets and the base of the fly.
The durability of his “riveted pants” made them an instant hit among workers. Recognizing their commercial potential, Davis partnered with businessman Levi Strauss to patent the design and distribute the hardy trousers across the country. That moment marked the birth of the blue jean, a garment that would come to define not just American workwear, but American culture itself.
Over the decades, jeans transcended their blue-collar origins. They became symbols of rebellion in the 1950s, counterculture in the 1960s, glamour in the 1980s, and street-style credibility in the 1990s and 2000s. And today, denim remains one of the most powerful constants in global fashion — worn by celebrities such as Sydney Sweeney as often as by everyday Americans.
Fashion historian and FIT professor Shawn Grain Carter credits denim with reshaping the way the world understands the United States.
“It really has democratized American fashion, and it also is the greatest export that we have sent to the world,” Carter explains. “It doesn’t matter your economic or social class… everybody wears denim.”
More than 150 years after Davis hammered the first rivet into a pair of work pants, the same core design continues to dominate store shelves. Whether distressed, embellished, or tailored into high fashion couture, denim jeans remain a universal garment — bridging cultures, generations, and lifestyles.
From the gritty gold mines of 19th-century California to TikTok trends and Hollywood premieres, denim has proven to be the most enduring style the U.S. has ever given the world — and its influence shows no sign of fading.