работа на коференцию
творческая работа учащихся по английскому языку (8 класс) на тему

Муниципальная  научно-практическая конференция школьников

«ЭВРИКА »

Научно-исследовательская работа  

 «История появления джинсов»

Выполнили: Угрюмова Кристина

Обломова Виктория

ученицы  8«а» класса

МОУ СОШ №56

города Саратова

руководитель: Февралева Е.Н.

учитель английского языка  

Саратов

2016

Contents:

1. Introduction – p.3
2. The origin of the word “jeans” –p.4
3. Some facts about Levi Straus and Jacob Davis-   p.5-9
4. How jeans became popular-p.9-10
5. Styles of jeans –p.11-12
6. Сonclusion – p.13
7. References -14
8. Supplementary materials

Introduction.

     Why do we wear   jeans? Probably    because we choose to. They are durable, comfortable and easy to wear. They also last longer than conventional trousers.

      Jeans mean different things to different people .They are a classic symbol of the American West.  And now they are a staple in wardrobes for men and women around the world. Today half the world appears to wear them.        People find jeans very cute and stylish. Some people may think that it makes them look good. It's a little more casual in different circumstances.  

  Why do we choose this theme?

• At our English lessons we often   speak about different kinds of clothes, once we came across the text about jeans,  we  got interested in this theme. Besides I like to wear jeans very much.
• The knowledge   we got working with this theme expands my notion about the English-speaking country (the USA) and allows to understand   its history and customs of the people.
• We’d like to know if the pupils of our school know much about such popular kind of clothe as jeans.
• We’ve read a lot of materials in the Internet.

The aim of the project:

• To find out the origin of the word “jeans”
• To get acquainted with the history   of jeans.
• To find out the number of pupils who know main facts about jeans
• To improve my English, to practice in English grammar and translation.

The origin of the word “jeans”.

Jeans are trousers typically made from denim or dungaree cloth. Often the term "jeans" refers to a particular style of pants, called "blue jeans”. They   were invented by Jacob Davis in partnership with Levi Strauss   in 1871. They were patented by Jacob Davis and Levi Strauss in 1873. Before Levi Strauss patented trousers, the term "blue jeans" had been long in use for various garments (including trousers, overalls, and coats), constructed from blue colored denim.

        Originally designed for cowboys and miners, jeans became popular in the 1950s among teenagers. Jeans were a common fashion item in the 1960s in Hippie subculture and they continued to be popular in the 1970s and 1980s in youth subcultures of punk rock and heavy metal. Historic brands include Levi's, Lee, and Wrangler.  In the 2010s jeans are a very popular article of casual clothes around the world. They come in many styles and colors. However, blue jeans are particularly identified with American culture, especially the Old West.

 Denim and jeans - where do the names come from?

     Traditional jeans are made of denim, and denim is made from cotton.   The word jeans  comes from a kind of material that was made in Europe. The material, called jean, was named after sailors from Genoa in Italy, because they wore clothes made from it. The word 'denim' probably came from the name of a French material, serge de Nimes: serge (a kind of material) from Nimes (a town in France).

     At first, jean cloth was made from a mixture of things. However, in the eighteenth century as trade, slave labour, and cotton plantations increased, jean cloth was made completely from cotton. Workers wore it because the material was very strong and it did not wear out easily. It was usually dyed with indigo, a dye taken from plants in the Americas and India, which made jean cloth a dark blue colour.

      In 1848, gold was found in California (not too far from San Francisco) and the famous Gold Rush began. The gold miners wanted clothes that were strong and did not tear easily. In 1853, a man called Leob Strauss left his home in New York and moved to San Francisco, where he started a wholesale business, supplying clothes. Strauss later changed his name from Leob to Levi.

      A big  problem with the miners' clothes were the pockets, which easily tore away from the jeans. A man called Jacob Davis had the idea of using metal rivets (fasteners) to hold the pockets and the jeans together so that they wouldn't tear. Davis wanted to patent his idea, but he didn't have enough money, so in 1872, he wrote to Levi Strauss and offered Strauss a deal if Strauss would pay for the patent. Strauss accepted, and he started making copper-riveted 'waist overalls' (as jeans were called then). 

      In 1886, Levi sewed a leather label on their jeans. The label showed a picture of a pair of jeans that were being pulled between two horses. This was to advertise how strong Levi jeans were: even two horses could not tear them apart.

Some facts about Levi Straus and Jacob Davis.

      Levi Strauss  , born Löb Strauß, ( February 26, 1829 – September 26, 1902) was a German-American businessman of German Jewish descent who founded the first company to manufacture blue jeans. His firm, Levi Strauss & Co., began in 1853 in San Francisco, California.

      Levi Strauss was born in Bettelheim, Germany, on February 26, 1829, in the Franconian region of Bavaria, Germany, to an Ashkenazi Jewish family. He was the son of Hirsch Strauss and his second wife Rebecca Strauss. At the age of 18, Strauss, his mother and two sisters traveled to the United States to join his brothers Jonas and Louis, who had begun a wholesale dry goods business in New York City called J. Strauss Brother & Co.

       Levi's sister and her husband David Stern moved to St. Louis, Missouri, while Levi went to live in Louisville, Kentucky, and sold his brothers' supplies in Kentucky. In January 1853, Levi Strauss became an American citizen.

   The family decided to open a West Coast branch of the family dry goods business in San Francisco, which was the commercial hub of the California Gold Rush. Levi was chosen to represent the family and he took a steamship for San Francisco, arriving in early March 1853, where he joined his sister's family.

    Strauss opened his dry goods wholesale business as Levi Strauss & Co. and imported fine dry goods—clothing, bedding, combs, purses, handkerchiefs—from his brothers in New York, but right before he made jeans, he made tents. Levi lived with Fanny's growing family.

    Jacob Davis, one of Strauss's customers and one of the inventors of the first pair of riveted denim pants in 1871, went into business with Strauss to produce blue jeans. The two men patented the new style of work pants in 1873.

     Levi Strauss died on September 26, 1902, in San Francisco at the age of 73. He never married, so he left the business to his four nephews, Jacob, Sigmund, Louis, and Abraham Stern, the sons of his sister Fanny and her husband David Stern. He also left bequests to a number of charities, such as the Pacific Hebrew Orphan Asylum and the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum. Levi's fortune was estimated to be around 6 million dollars (about $164 million in 2014 dollars). He was buried in Colma, California.

     Jacob W. Davis (born Jacob Youphes,) (1831–1908) was a Latvian-Jewish tailor and American immigrant  who is credited with inventing modern jeans.           Jacob Youphes was born in the city of Riga, then Russian Empire, today Latvia, in 1831. During his time in Riga city, he trained and worked as a tailor.

     In 1854, at the age of 23, he emigrated from the Russian Empire to the United States, arriving in New York where he changed his name to Jacob Davis. There he ran a tailors shop before moving to Maine and then, in 1856, San Francisco before moving on to Weatherville. 

    After this itinerant spell in America, during which time it is believed he worked as a journeyman tailor, in 1858 Davis left California and moved to Western Canada to try and find more profitable work. There, Davis met a German immigrant, Annie Parksher, whom he married and together, Jacob and Annie had six children. During his time in Canada, Davis worked at the Fraser River panning for gold, as well as selling tobacco and wholesale pork in Virginia.  

      In January 1867, Davis returned to San Francisco with Annie and his family. Later that year, they moved to Virginia City, Nevada where he ran a tobacco store for a few months before beginning work once more as a tailor. By 1868, the family had moved once again, this time to Reno, Nevada which at that time was a tiny railroad town and there he helped Frederick Hertlein build a brewery. 1869 saw Davis revert to his original trade, opening a tailors shop in the main street of the town. 

      In his tailor shop, Davis made functional items such as tents, horse blankets and wagon covers for the railway workers on the Central Pacific Railroad. The fabric Davis worked with was a heavy duty cotton “duck” cloth and a heavy duty cotton “denim” cloth which he bought from Levi Strauss & Co. a dry goods company in San Francisco. To strengthen the stress points of the sewn items he was making, Davis used copper rivets to reinforce the stitching.

     In December 1870, Davis was asked by a customer to make a pair of strong working pants for her husband who was a woodcutter. To create suitably robust pants for working, he used duck cloth and reinforced the weak points in the seams and pockets with the copper rivets. Such was the success of these pants that word spread throughout the labourers along the railroad. Davis was making these working pants in duck cotton and, as early as 1871, in denim cotton. Before long, he found he could not keep up with demand.

       Davis had previously applied for patents for other inventions. Realising the potential value in his reinforced jeans concept, in 1872, he approached Levi Strauss, who was still his supplier of fabric, and asked for his financial backing in the filing of a patent application. Strauss agreed, and on May 20. 1873, US Patent No. 139,121 for “Improvements in fastening pocket openings” was issued in the name of Jacob W. Davis and Levi Strauss and Company. That same year, Davis started sewing a double orange threaded stitched design onto the back pocket of the jeans to distinguish them from those made by his competitors. This trademark feature became Registered U.S. Trade Mark No.1,339,254.

     By this time, Strauss had set up a sizeable tailor shop in San Francisco for the production of Davis' working pants and Jacob and his family had moved back to San Francisco for Davis to run this shop. As demand continued to grow, the shop was superseded by a manufacturing plant which Davis managed for Strauss. Davis continued to work there for the remainder of his life, overseeing production of the work pants as well as other lines including work shirts and overalls. Davis died in San Francisco in 1908.

How jeans became popular.

In the 1920s   jeans were considered popular Western wear worn by miners, cowboys and other workers who needed durable clothing that could withstand wear and tear. In 1936, Levi Strauss added his signature red flag to the back pocket of jeans, making it the first item of clothing to have an outside label.  

      In the 1930's, Hollywood made lots of western movies. Cowboys - who often wore jeans in the movies-became very popular. Many Americans who lived in the eastern states went for vacations on 'dude ranches' and took pairs of denim 'waist overalls' back east with them when they went home as a souvenir .

      Fewer jeans were made during the time of World War 2, but 'waist overalls' were introduced to the world by American soldiers, who sometimes wore them when they were off duty. After the war, Levi Co. began to sell their clothes outside the American West. Rival companies, like Wrangler and Lee, began to compete with Levi for a share of this new market.

       In the 1950's, denim became popular with young people. It was the symbol of the teenage rebel in TV programmes and movies (like James Dean in the 1955 movie Rebel Without a Cause). Some schools in the USA banned students from wearing denim. Teenagers called the waist overalls 'jean pants' - and the name stayed.

    In the 1960's many university and college students wore jeans. Different styles of jeans were made, to match the 60's fashions: embroidered jeans, painted jeans, psychedelic jeans...

      In many non-western countries, jeans became a symbol of 'Western decadence' and were very hard to get. US companies said that they often received letters from people all around the world asking them to send the writer a pair of jeans.

     In the 1980's jeans finally became high fashion clothing, when famous designers started making their own styles of jeans, with their own labels on them. Sales of jeans went up and up.

Styles of jeans.

Baggy Jeans

Comfortable and loose fitting, baggy jeans are best meant for tall men with a good built. Conversely, they give a wide look to short and heavy men; thus, they should best avoid wearing them. Further, baggy pants should be restricted to wearing only at home or at casual get-together. Do not sport a pair of baggy jeans on a formal event, lest you want to make a mockery of yourself?

Loose Fit Jeans.

Similar to baggy jeans, loose fit jeans are a category that fit somewhere between baggy jeans and tight fit jeans. Since they are loose-fitting, short people should keep them at bay; else they will only end up looking shorter than their height. Loose fit jeans forward a casual and laid-back look. So, best avoid such jeans when you are off for an interview or an important meeting.

Bootcut Jeans  

Synonymous to their name, bootcut jeans are worn with boots. These jeans are characterized by a tighter fit around the thighs exuding a slimmer look to the wearer. However, the end of the jeans flares out to fit over the boots comfortably without bunching up  Bootcut jeans are slim at the thighs, tapering towards the knees.

Straight Cut Jeans

People who have a consistent circumference of legs from hips down to the legs can bring out their figure with straight cut jeans. The bottom rims of these jeans do not open up, in fact, they are a little narrower at the bottom and ankle exuding a slim and straight look. Before you pick up a pair of straight cut jeans, make sure that your body is perfect for donning such a kind of jeans.

 Skinny Jeans

These slim fit jeans taper towards the ends of the ankles and hence, look best on a perfectly shaped body, especially taller people and women with smaller hips. They are known by various names, such as tapered pants, carrot leg pants, ice-cream cone pants, old-school hood pants, and so on. They are best sported with knee high boots or high-heeled shoes exuding a sexier and bold look.

Сonclusion.

 We hold a survey in order to find out if jeans are popular among our classmates, friends and relatives and if they know any facts from their history.  We asked 4 questions:

1. Do you wear jeans?  Answers:“Yes”-69%,  “No”- 7%, “Sometimes”-24%
2. What kinds of jeans do you wear? Answers: Straight -19%, Slim -28%, Boot cut -11%, Flared leg -2%.
3. Who invented jeans? Answers: “Levi Strauss”- 25%,

“Jacob Davis”- 25%, “I don’t know”-50%

4. Finish the sentence “I wear jeans when  I go to ...”

Answers: “school”-3%, “party”-28%, “the country”-22%, “for a walk”-47%.

According to the results of the survey we can say that today all kinds of people   wear jeans. And know rather much about them. People wear jeans everywhere.   Jeans are popular today for the same reasons they were popular when Levi Strauss first made them. They look good, they last long, and they are comfortable.  

We also think that our research has a practical meaning. It may be used at English lessons while speaking about the history of the USA or discussing the topic “Clothes”. We found some supplementary texts and exercises to work with.  (You can see them in supplementary materials)

References:

1/  Loverin, Jan (2006). "A Nevada Stylist: Your Denim Jeans Are a Nevada Invention" (PDF). Nevada State Museum Newsletter 36  . 

2/  The Master of the Blue Jeans: A New Painter of Reality in Late 17th Century Europe. Paris: Galerie Canesso. 2010. p. 23. 

3/  The Master of the Blue Jeans: A New Painter of Reality in Late 17th Century Europe. Paris: Galerie Canesso. 2010. p. 10. 

4/ "Origin and History of Dungaree Fabric". Historyofjeans.com. Retrieved 2015-10-28. 

5/  Downey, Lynn (2007). "A Short History of Denim" (PDF). official Levi Strauss & Co. historian. Retrieved 2 June 2014. 

  6/  Elmar Steingruber "Indigo and Indigo Colorants" Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry 2004, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim. doi: 10.1002/14356007.a14_149.pub2 

7/  "Levi Strauss & Co. Timeline" (PDF). Retrieved 23 November 2012. 

 8/, The blue jeans story, in the New Internationalist, June 1998. (Information sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica; No Sweat 1997 Andrew Ross (ed) Verso, London; A History of Denim Lynn Downey.)