徐常兰

This is the story of a sturdy American symbol which has now spread throughout most of the world. The symbol is not the dollar. It is not even Coca-Cola. It is a simple pair of pants called blue jeans,and what the pants symbolize is what Alexis de Tocqueville called “a many and legitimate passion for equality...” Blue jeans are favored equally by bureaucrats and cowboys; bankers and deadbeats; fashion designers and beer drinkers. They draw no distinctions and recognize no classes;they are merely American. Yet they are sought after almost everywhere in the world—including Russia,where authorities recently broke up a teen-aged gang that was selling them on the black market for two hundred dollars a pair. They have been around for a long time, and it seems likely that they will outlive even the necktie.

This ubiquitous American symbol was the invention of a Bavarian-born Jew. His name was Levi Strauss.

He was born in Bad Ocheim,Germany,in 1829,and during the European political turmoil of 1848 decided to take his chances in New York,to which his two brothers already had emigrated. Upon arrival,Levis soon found out that his two brothers had exaggerated their tales of an easy life in the land of the main chances. They were landowners,they had told him;instead,he found them selling needles,thread,pots,pants,ribbons,yarn,scissors,and buttons to housewives. For two years he was a lowly peddler,haunting some 180 pounds of sundries door-to-door to eke out a marginal living. When a married sister in San Francisco offered to pay his way West in 1850, he jumped at the opportunity,taking with him bolts of canvas he hoped to sell for a living.

It was the wrong kind of canvas for that purpose,but while talking with a miner down from the mother lode,he learned that pants—sturdy pants that would stand up to the rigors of the diggings—were almost impossible to find. Opportunity beckoned. On the spot,Strauss measured the mans girth and inseam with a piece of string and, for six dollars in gold dust, had them tailored into a pair of stiff but rugged pants. The miner was delighted with the result,word got around about “those pants of Levis,” and Strauss was in business. The company has been in business ever since.

When Strauss ran out of canvas, he wrote his two brothers to send more. He received instead a tough, brown cotton cloth made in Nimes,France—called serge de Nimes and swiftly shortened to “denim”(the word “jeans” derives from Genes,the French word for Genoa, where a similar cloth was produced). Almost from the first,Strauss had his cloth dyed the distinctive indigo that gave blue jeans their name,but it was not until the 1870s that he added the copper rivets which have long since become a company trademark. The rivets were the idea of a Virginia City,Nevada,tailor,Jacob W.Davis,who added them to pacify a mean-tempered miner called Alkali Ike. Alkali,the story goes,complained that the pockets of his jeans always tore when he stuffed them with ore samples and demanded that Davis do something about it. As a kind of joke,Davis took the pants to a blacksmith and had the pockets riveted;once again,the idea worked so well that word got around; in 1873 Strauss appropriated and patented the gimmick—and hired Davis as a regional manager.

By this time,Strauss had taken both his brothers and two brothers-in-law into the company and was ready for his third San Francisco store. Over the ensuing years the company prospered locally,and by the time of his death in 1902,Strauss had become a man of prominence in California. For three decades thereafter the business remained profitable though small,with sales largely confined to the working people of the West—cowboys,lumberjacks,railroad workers,and the like. Levis jeans were first introduced to the East,apparently,during the dude-ranch craze of the 1930s,when vacationing Easterners returned and spread the word about the wonderful pants with rivets. Another boost came in World WarⅡ,when blue jeans were declared an essential commodity and were sold only to people engaged in defense work... From a company with fifteen salespeople,two plants,and almost no business east of the Mississippi in 1946,the organization grew in thirty years to include a sales force of more than twenty-two thousand,with fifty plants and offices in thirty-five countries. Each year,more than 250,000,000 items of Levis clothing are sold—including more than 83,000,000 pairs of riveted blue jeans. They have become,through marketing,word of mouth,and demonstrable reliability,the common pants of America. They can be purchased pre-washed,pre-faded,and pre-shrunk for the suitably proletarian look. They adapt themselves to any sort of idiosyncratic use;women slit them at the inseams and convert them into long skirts,men chop them off above the knees and turn them into something to be worn while challenging the surf. Decorations and ornamentations abound.

The pants have become a tradition,and along the way have acquired a history of their own—so much so that the company has opened a museum in San Francisco.

本文讲述的是美国的一个现已遍及世界大部分地区的坚实象征。这一象征不是美元，甚至也不是可口可乐。它只是一条叫做蓝布牛仔裤的普普通通的裤子，这种裤子所象征的是亚历克西·德托克维尔所谓的“对平等的勇敢而正当的渴望……”不论是官员还是牛仔，银行家还是赖账者，时装设计师还是酒鬼，都同样喜欢它。它对任何人都一视同仁，不分阶级；凡是美国人都可以穿。然而它几乎在世界各地都备受青睐，包括俄罗斯，那儿的当局最近破获了一个在黑市上以每条200美元的价格倒卖牛仔裤的青少年团伙。牛仔裤已经流行了很长时间，看来生命力甚至会比领带还旺盛。

这个无处不在的美国象征是一个在巴伐利亚出生的犹太人发明的。他的名字叫李维·施特劳斯。

他于1829年生于德国的巴德奥切姆，在1848年欧洲政局动荡期间，他决定去纽约碰碰运气，因为他的两个哥哥已经移民到了那里。到了纽约之后，李维很快便发现，他的两个哥哥关于在这个充满赚钱机会的国家生活舒适的说法有些夸大其词。他们告诉他说他们拥有土地；但他发现他们在向家庭主妇兜售针头线脑、锅碗瓢盆、缎带纱线以及剪刀纽扣等。李维做了两年寒酸的小商贩，拉着180磅左右的杂货挨家挨户地叫卖，才得以勉强维持生计。1850年，他的一个嫁到旧金山的姐姐表示愿意出路费让他去西部时，他立即抓住这一机会，带着几匹帆布去投奔她，他希望把帆布卖掉过活。

帆布并不好卖。但当他在和一个在主矿脉挖煤的矿工交谈时得知，能够经得住采矿磨损的结实的裤子很难找到。机会向他招手了。施特劳斯当场用一条带子量出了那个男子的腰围和裤管内缝的尺寸，用帆布做出了一条粗硬耐磨的裤子，换到了价值6美元的金末。矿工对那条裤子很满意，于是关于“李维的那些裤子”的消息传开来，施特劳斯开始做起了裤子生意。打那以后公司一直在运营。

施特劳斯把帆布用完后，便写信叫他的两个哥哥再送些过来。但他收到的却是产自法国尼姆的一种叫做“尼姆哔叽”的坚韧的棕色棉布，它很快就被简称为“劳动布”。几乎从一开始施特劳斯就把这种棉布染成独特的靛蓝色，从而有了蓝色牛仔之称。但是直到19世纪70年代，他才在裤子上加了铜铆钉，长期以来这种铆钉便成了公司的典型标志。钉铆钉是内华达州弗吉尼亚市的裁缝雅各布·W·戴维斯的主意，他这样做是为了安抚一个脾气暴躁，名叫阿尔卡利·爱可的矿工。据说阿尔卡利抱怨在他把矿石标本塞入牛仔口袋时，口袋总是被撑破，于是他便要求戴维斯想点办法。戴维斯像是在开玩笑似的把裤子拿到铁匠那里，给口袋钉上了铆钉。这个主意很奏效，消息再次传开；1873年施特劳斯采纳了这个小革新，并为它申请了专利，同时聘请戴维斯担任了地区经理。

这时，施特劳斯已将两个哥哥和两个姐夫招进公司，准备在旧金山开办第三家分店。在以后的几十年中，公司在当地蓬勃发展，到1902年去世时，施特劳斯已成为加利福尼亚的名人。在那以后的30年里，公司的生意虽小，销售对象也仅限于西部劳工——诸如牛仔、伐木工、铁路工人等，但它一直在盈利。显然是在20世纪30年代的农场度假热期间，李维的牛仔裤首次被引入东部。当时在西部度假的东部人回家后便到处宣传这种带铆钉的神奇的裤子。另一次热潮出现在二战期间，当时蓝色牛仔裤被宣布为紧俏商品，只出售给参加防御工作的人。到1946年，这家公司只有15名推销员，两家工厂，在密西西比河以东几乎没有什么业务，但经过30年的发展，它已拥有2万2千多人的销售团队，并在35个国家设有50家工厂和办事处。每年，有2亿5千多万件李维的服装售出——其中包括8千3百多万条钉有铜铆钉的蓝色牛仔裤。通过市场营销、良好的口碑以及显而易见的可靠性，它们已经成为美国常见的裤装，以符合无产者的形象。人们可以买到经过水洗的、褪色和缩水处理的牛仔裤。它们可以被改做成各种奇特的式样；妇女们将裤管内缝拆开，把它们改成长裙，男人们将其从膝盖上方剪开，变成冲浪时穿的短裤。牛仔裤上还缀满了各种装饰物。

这种裤子已经成了一种传统，并在其发展中谱写了自己的历史——这种历史内容极为丰富，以至于公司在旧金山开设了一座博物馆。