• AT A DEPARTMENT STORE
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One day in Nevada, in the year 1870, the wife of a laborer asked a local tailor, Jacob Davis, to make a pair of strong work pants for her husband. Davis used a strong blue cotton cloth from France, and because it was from the city of Nimes, it became known as denim (de Nimes). To make the denim pants even stronger, Davis had the idea to use metal rivets to secure the weak points of the pants and stop them falling apart so quickly. His idea was a big success and soon Davis was unable to meet the demand for his durable work pants. Davis wrote a letter to Levi Strauss, a Bavarian-born textile merchant from San Francisco who imported the denim that Davis used in his pants, and proposed that they become business partners.
Levi Strauss was a clever businessman and saw that the strong pants were a good idea, so he agreed to the partnership. Together, they applied for a patent on the idea of using metal rivets to strengthen denim pants. The day the partners received the patent for riveted pants was May 20, 1873, and it’s considered the birth date of the blue jeans. Jeans were men’s work clothes until the 1960s, when they were made popular by actors such as James Dean and Marlon Brando, and became a symbol of youth rebellion. Nowadays, jeans are casual clothes worn all over the world by men, women, and children.
Answer the questions according to the text. a) Where was denim from?
b) What did Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis do for a living?
c) What was the new characteristic that made blue jeans a success?
Do you think fashion influences people? Why? What is your opinion about fashion? Write some of your ideas in English on a piece of paper and compare them with a partner. 17
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7/27/16 3:37 PM