Going casual? Bust out the jeans

Blue jeans are a fashion staple, but how much do you know about them?

Here are some facts about the Casual Friday go-to wear.

A staple is born: On May 20, 1873, Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis received the patent for their denim blue jeans with copper rivets. Davis had invented them two years earlier.

Origins: The garment had its origins in Europe. Genes is the French word for Genoa, where jean fabric was made. A close cousin to the jean fabric, denim, was made in Nimes, France. De Nimes = denim.

The dye was indigo, from India. Clothing of this fabric was worn by the working class in 17th-century Italy.

Zippers: Jeans’ popularity was helped along by the introduction of the zipper, first shown at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 and invented by Whitcomb Judson. A more practical version was invented by Gideon Sundback for the Talon company in 1913.

Bad ideas: The original name for jeans was “waist overalls,” which was a terrible name.

Women’s jeans originally were made with the zipper on the left side. By the 1960s, both men’s and women’s jeans had a zipper in the front center.

Rebel wear: James Dean made jeans popular by wearing them in the movie “Rebel Without a Cause” in 1955. And jeans were adopted by the greaser subculture in the 1950s.