The Legend of the 501: Levi’s Celebrates 149 Years of Rebellion 

Meanwhile in Reno, Nevada, tailor Jacob Davis was innovating the design of worker’s pants by reinforcing areas of high tension with copper rivets. Having had a stroke of genius, Davis approached Strauss – now a renowned businessman, and they teamed up to attain a patent for the first pair of denim jeans ever. 

May 20th, 1873 is 501 day – the anniversary of the patent which altered the history of fashion forever. Little could the men have known that one hundred years from then, the stars of the 1970s would be redefining how denim could be worn, and what it meant to wear it. The era of Spaghetti Westerns was forged with denim closely linked to the cowboy look, largely thanks to Levi’s presence during the Gold Rush. 

Since then, denim has gone on to become closely tied to social justice movements. Over time, the working-class origins of Levi’s denim came to be closely embraced by figures such as Martin Luther King Jr, who wore Levi’s to signify solidarity with blue collar workers. Moreover, Levi’s were a unisex garment, able to signify equality of the sexes and was embraced as such during the fight for women’s equality. 

By the 1950s, there was no subculture that hadn’t adopted the 501 as a blank canvas they could forge their identity in; Mods and Rockers in the UK, Beatniks and Punks, Teddy Boys, the Paninari in Italy in the 80s, and Preppies and Greasers in the US.