CLOTHES FOR ALL TIMES

"All America has grown in them" - says the slogan of a denim company. "The whole world wears them" - we can rightly add. Because there is no other garment loved equally by presidents and athletes, aristocrats and workers, movie stars and students...

Most robust and stylish

In fact, the creation of jeans, like almost any great invention, was accompanied by accident. And it happened as follows. In March 1853, one Loeb Strauss (a Belgian immigrant of Jewish origin) arrived in America. He was a tailor's son and was called Levi Strauss while on the ship. Thanks to the efforts of his brothers, the 24-year-old Levi was left high and dry with just a roll of canvas inherited from his father. Destitute and hungry, he began to offer his services on the street sewing tents in order to survive in the crazy world of the Wild West. His appeal was heard by a tipsy gold digger who said "in sturdy trousers, you can even sleep under a tree." Levi himself had never sewn trousers, but had often seen his father doing so. Thus, the tailor's son was not taken aback and, as a result, the digger became the first owner of a pair of jeans from Levi Strauss! The price was high enough - 1 dollar and 20 cents. Levi could not make a bad bargain, because he had to give half of the proceeds to his brother who had given him thread and scissors. Besides, the work was worth the effort. This was the first experience for the young tailor, and it changed abruptly both his life and the world of fashion. In less than a year, in 1853, Strauss opened his own workshop to tailor trousers in San Francisco and his brothers, who had treated him so cruelly, ran his errands. Over time, the wonder trousers were given a belt loop, deep front and convenient rear pockets, the famous double stitching and the rivets for which the jeans are famous to this day. The jeans also acquired their classic indigo colour, thanks to Levi Strauss. When he ran out of the canvas he had inherited from his father, he began to use a dense cotton fabric - blue serge. It was made in Nimes, France. The town gave its name to the fabric - denim (de Nimes - from Nimes). The fabric came from the Italian port of Genoa, so the bales of goods were marked with the place of departure, "Genoese", which Americans read in their own way: "Jeans".

By 1886, the price of Levi Strauss's wonder trousers had reached 22 dollars. Then there appeared the famous leather label with the image of two horses trying unsuccessfully to tear a pair of Levi jeans apart. It is believed that the appearance of the label is connected to the story of a train driver who once used his trousers to tie carriages together and reached the station in this way. He claimed that the wonder trousers passed this stiff test with ease. From 1890, they began to put the lot number on the jeans. The first was lot 501; this was the debut of the world-famous Levi's 501 jeans. Despite the fact that the mines soon ran out in San Francisco and, consequently, there was no longer work for prospectors there, not only did jeans retain their popularity, on the contrary, interest in them actually increased. In the 1930s, cinemas showed movies featuring cowboys who always wore alluring tight jeans. Thus, not only Hollywood, but the whole world literally fell in love with these comfortable, practical and beautiful clothes.

A real revolution in denim fashion occurred in the 1960s. In addition to trousers, designers began to sew coats, shirts, skirts, caps, jackets and even shoes in denim. In the late 1960s, Louis Ferro presented jeans embroidered with rhinestones on the catwalk. Fashion designers had a new, wide field for the realization of their creative abilities. They experimented not only with the style and appearance of trousers, but with the fabric itself: it was soaked in acid, rubbed almost to the base, cut with blunt scissors, bleached on the knees, buttocks or anterior thighs and even shot with guns. Denim clothes had to endure all this "torture" to realize the ideas of the world's leading designers: Jean-Paul Gaultier, Alexander McQueen, Karl Lagerfeld etc. A real jeans boom began when denim was dyed in various colours; different colours and shades of thread were also used in the stitching. The history of jeans is a shining example of how provocative world fashion can be and what changes it may undergo, due simply to an invention by a seemingly unremarkable man.

Levi's in Baku

Azerbaijani followers of quality fashion got their chance to purchase original jeans from the legendary American brand, including the canonical 501s, in January 1995, from the company shop at 18 Gogol Street. In the cosy Levi Strauss store, whose design is based on the company's own ethos (in its early years, the shop depicted the cowboy spirit of the 20th century, while in 2006 Levi's architects replaced the decoration and design of the shop with a new 21st century style - author), you can buy absolutely everything - jeans, trousers, blouses and shirts. They all coexist peacefully with denim sarafans and skirts and complement each other well, creating Levi's brand identity. There is everything here - from jeans of the legendary brand to accessories - belts, wallets and rucksacks. It is impossible to get lost. You may not be able to find your size but, in this case, the sales consultants will assuredly help you to find the desired size. There are spacious fitting cabins and moderate, democratic prices here. Garments bearing the world-famous logo are sewn at company factories in Turkey, Portugal, Morocco, Poland, Germany and other countries. However, this fact does not affect the quality of product. The collection of clothes in the Levi's shop in Baku, as in all the famous brand's boutiques across the world, is updated twice a year - the autumn-winter collection is replaced by the spring-summer collection and vice versa. You can already buy from the spring-summer collection and, in August, the dealer will be preparing for the winter of 2010/2011. The work of the Levi's shop has shown that the products of this legendary brand are no less popular in Azerbaijan than in America or Europe, and today the legendary model 501, which is 130 years old, is represented here in 10 new colours (the colours are developed each new season) and fourteen basic ones. And the shop already has a circle of regular customers. Today, the shop offers 300 models of jeans trousers (80-160 AZN), including women's cuts (sizes 25-3436) and men's designs (sizes 30-42/36). In total, the store offers about 7,000 items of clothing, including some which are no longer made and whose prices fall every year, down to a 50 per cent discount. Representatives of the company, whose Eurasian headquarters are located in Belgium and Turkey (http://eu.levi.com - Eurasia, http://levi.com - US), regularly visit the Levi's shop in Baku to monitor the current situation. Each month, the owner and store manager, Arif Karimli, submits a report to Levi's Eurasian office in Belgium on the level of sales and other marketing policies of the legendary brand's Baku boutique.

According to Karimli, Levi's jeans are a high quality, time-tested label, and allow you best of everything to achieve a popular democratic style; the main motto is functionality and comfort. Levi's motto, adorning the label on all its trousers, is: "Quality Never Goes Out Of Style". "The most famous model, 501, created exclusively for men in 1890, is worn happily by women. What lies behind these magic numbers? 501 is just the number (not serial) of a model in a huge stream of denim garments created by company designers in the 150 years of its existence," he said. Arif Karimli is a man who knows a lot about denim clothing. In his 15 years of work in this area, as long as Levi's Baku shop has existed, he has learned much about the gyrations of the jeans business in the world. Therefore, relying on his rich experience, the expert gives lovers of denim garments just one, but one most important, piece of advice - do not buy counterfeit jeans products: "Once, on duty, I had to watch a very entertaining movie about how jeans are manufactured in China under the trademarks of D&G, Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein. It is terrible to think that these jeans are made from recycled materials and clothing that has been thrown away. Moreover, these materials include bandages used in hospitals. Will Chinese jeans "manufacturers" spend money on expensive chemicals to disinfect these waste materials? Hardly. The final stage in the production of these garments is when polyethylene is added for adhesion. It is easy to imagine what happens to your skin and health when you wear such clothes. And what if we also mention the dust, summer heat and fashionable pipe jeans which stick to the body? That's where allergies and infertility come from! So my advice to consumers is - do not buy jeans from dubious outlets at seemingly attractive prices. Believe me, you will spend a lot more on medicines from wearing such clothes. The Chinese have one goal - to feed their more than one billion people. And for this, as they say, all means are justified. But why should we, Azerbaijanis, help the Chinese to achieve their goal?"

Karimli stressed that the quality of Levi's jeans is unquestioned, since they are recognized around the world and will never lose their popularity. Company designers are developing more and more new items, which are made of high quality, organic denim. "In our shop, there are clothes made from material called ORGANIK. This is 100 per cent cotton, which is cultivated in Greece in a good climate. This cotton is cultivated in natural conditions in the complete absence of any chemical fertilizers. This raw material, grown specifically for Levi's jeans, is used to make ORGANIK trousers. So isn't it better to pamper yourself, save some money and walk around in clean clothing?" asks our interviewee. So do not economize on yourself and your health. Buy Levi's jeans and be healthy.