Homestead mailing list

["Don Bowen" <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>]

> wore khakis.  Don't know if khaki was the pants of preference, or if
> they had gotten into the habit of wearing left-over WWI pants, as
> Levis didn't start making pants until the 1920s.  

Levi Strauss & Co started in San Francisco and were making pants for the
gold rush miners.  They used a Genoan sail cloth riveted in strategic places
to make a pair of work pants that were sturdy enough to stand up to heavy
mining work.  A mispronouncing of Genoan leads to Jeans.

One story is about the rivets.  Sometime around the turn of the century the
president of the company was camping in the Sierras.  While sitting around
the campfire the rivet in the crotch heated up and causing an unpleasant
burn.  The rivet was soon eliminated.

Levis had only US plants until several years ago and now there are no US
plants.

Don Bowen  KI6DIU
http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html