It was Levi Strauss that provided the financial backing to turn Jacob Davis’ ingenious riveted blue denim design into an almost instantaneous fashion hit, making jeans a classic around the world that has endured ever since. Founded in 1853, Levi Strauss & Company worked hard to produce the riveted blue jeans with the red label for which they are now famous, along with other items that could be termed casual or street fashion. However, it was not until the 1960s that the big bucks started to roll in.
Even though the company started on Sacramento Street in New York, it now holds position with several Levi’s stores, as well as various outlet stores and concessions in department stores. The brand remains popular with all despite the company’s offshore labour scandal of the 1990s, which saw 3% of jeans with the “Made in USA” label on them being made by Chinese workers in ’slavelike conditions’. However, Levi’s is also increasingly famed for more positive and unusual innovations too, including the revival of older songs in its advertisements, which then cause the songs to leap up the charts again (such as Dinah Washington’s ‘Mad About The Boy’, which was originally released in 1952, but re-released 40 years later as a result of the ad). Another recent idea was the release of a Levi’s phone in association with ModeLabs in November 2007, whereby many of the phone’s cosmetic attributes were customisable at the point of purchase.
The most famous Levi’s clothing item is probably the shrink-to-fit 501s, whose size on the label indicates the size of the jeans prior to shrinking – with the shrinkage being substantial – and Levi’s still reports this item as being their number-one bestseller.