Business
From the California gold rush to Sydney Sweeney: How denim became the most enduring garment in American fashion
Jodie Foster, Billie Perkins, and Robert De Niro perform a scene in Taxi Driver directed by Martin Scorsese in 1976 in New York, New York.
Michael Ochs Archives | Moviepix | Getty Images
In the dwindling days of the California gold rush, the wife of a local miner faced a problem.
Her husband’s denim work pants kept ripping, so her tailor, Jacob Davis, had the idea to add copper rivets to key points of strain, like the pocket corners and the base of the button fly, to keep them from tearing.
Davis’ “riveted pants” soon became a roaring success and, unbeknownst to him at the time, marked the official birth of the blue jean, a garment that would transform fashion and come to represent the United States around the globe.
“It really has democratized American fashion and it also is the greatest export that we have sent to the world, because people identify jeans specifically with American Western culture,” said Shawn Grain Carter, a fashion professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. “It doesn’t matter your economic or social class. It doesn’t matter what your views are in terms of the political spectrum. Everybody wears denim.”
Jacob Davis
Courtesy: Levi Strauss & Co.
These days, denim is a major sales driver for retailers big and small, as the global denim market reached $101 billion this year, up 28% from 2020, according to data from market research company Euromonitor International. Major apparel companies from American Eagle to Levi Strauss are in a race to corner that market, leaning on A-list celebrities like Sydney Sweeney and Beyonce to win over shoppers and drive sales in an unsteady economy.
But if it weren’t for Levi Strauss, founder of the eponymous blue jeans company, Davis’ invention may not have gone far beyond the railroad town where it was created in the early 1870s.
How Levi’s created blue jeans
Soon after Davis created his riveted pants, called “waist overalls” or “overalls” at the time, they began selling like “hot cakes” and he needed a business partner to secure a patent, said Tracey Panek, Levi’s in-house historian. So he wrote to Strauss, a Bavarian-born immigrant who was running a successful wholesale business in San Francisco and had supplied Davis the denim he used to create his riveted pants.
“The secret of them Pents is the Rivits that I put in those Pockets and I found the demand so large that I cannot make them up fast enough,” Davis wrote Strauss in a letter, according to PBS.
Levi Strauss
Courtesy: Levi Strauss & Co.
Strauss, an “astute” businessman, recognized the opportunity and agreed to partner with Davis, said Panek.
“This would have been the first time that Levi was actually” manufacturing his own products, said Panek. “He was no longer just importing and selling other people’s goods. He was manufacturing himself and selling to retailers.”
On May 20, 1873, the two men secured a patent for the riveted pants and eventually opened a factory on Fremont Street, close to the modern-day Salesforce tower in San Francisco’s financial district.
They promised to offer workers the most durable jeans on the market and soon, business was booming.
Dude ranch duds and the American worker
Through Strauss’ connections as a wholesaler, the company’s riveted overalls soon spread across the U.S., becoming the garment of choice for working men everywhere: miners, cowboys, farmers – any role that required durable clothing.
Jeans were exclusively reserved for work settings at the time, but as emerging denim manufacturers vied for a similar customer base, they looked to expand their assortment to drive sales.
“Slowly and steadily into the 20th century, you start to see some of these manufacturers making variations,” said Sonya Abrego, a New York City-based fashion historian. “There was this one design called spring bottom pants that was kind of a more form fitted, a more dressed up, a slightly flared, maybe what the factory foreman would be wearing, right? As opposed to just the guy on the shop floor.”
In 1934, Levi created the first ever line of jeans for women. Around that time, denim started to become more popular in settings outside of work, primarily for activities like dude ranch vacations, camping and horseback riding.
“So they were kind of taking on a cowboy’s garment or a worker’s garment but wearing it in a … resort setting,” said Abrego.
Courtesy: Levi Strauss & Co.
Dude ranch vacations had become popular because there were finally highways connecting different parts of the country, and few were willing to venture to Europe during a war. Companies like Levi began releasing advertisements highlighting their denim as “dude ranch duds” and “authentic western riding wear” to capture shoppers looking for jeans to bring with them on vacation, according to archival advertisements from the time.
These cultural moments helped to expand denim beyond workers, but jeans didn’t become widespread casual attire until after World War II, when American fashion overall started to shift.
The rise of the backyard BBQ
By the time World War II ended, the mighty American consumer was beginning to emerge. For years, Americans had been forced to ration common goods like rubber, sugar and meat while simultaneously being encouraged to save their money by buying war bonds and socking away spare cash.
When the country shifted from wartime to peacetime, Americans were ready to splurge and soon began spending big on new cars, appliances and clothes.
“With a little bit more money to spend, you start seeing a bigger push for leisure clothes and fun clothes and play clothes, clothes to wear to backyard barbecues,” said Abrego. “Clothes that we would consider today as just like casual style.”
Courtesy: Levi Strauss & Co.
Slowly and surely, it became more and more acceptable for both men and women to wear jeans outside of work settings. Then, denim manufacturers made a push to allow jeans in schools.
“They wanted to sell to as many people as they possibly could,” said Abrego. “The idea that jeans are good for school means that they’re good for every day.”
By the time the 1960s hit, denim manufacturers had expanded their products and were selling a wide variety of colors, fits and styles. It became a symbol of the hippie movement and a mainstay on Hollywood sets.
Soon, denim was everywhere, and the 1970s brought the iconic bell bottom pants and the first iteration of the “designer jean” — denim pants being produced by labels and brands whose designs had nothing to do with work wear or western wear, like Calvin Klein and Gloria Vanderbilt.
Since then, denim has remained a constant in global fashion. While silhouettes, washes and fits have changed over time, jeans never really go out of style, which is what makes them so enduring, said Abrego.
“This is a design from 1873 … do we see anything else from 1873 on the street? It’s kind of wild if you think about it that way,” said Abrego. “We can talk about all the details, all the changes in manufacturing and all the different fits and finishes but it’s a recognizable thing, it’s still a pair of jeans. For me as a historian, that continuity is so compelling because I can’t really name anything else that has stayed the same to this degree.”
NEW DELHI: With the big Gulf carriers operating a fraction of their schedules, foreign airlines are expanding their India flights to meet the increased demand for options to the likes of Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad. SWISS will operate a second daily light between between Delhi and Zurich from April 1 to May 31, 2026. British Airways will have a third daily service from Delhi starting April 7, followed by a third daily service from Mumbai from May 15. Air India has been adding flights to the west whenever possible during the Iran war.In a statement Thursday, Lufthansa group carrier SWISS said it is increasing its flight offering between Switzerland and India. “From April 1 to May 31, 2026, in addition to its regular service from Zurich to Delhi, SWISS will operate a second daily connection using an Airbus A330. Numerous passengers of other airlines are currently unable to take their originally booked flights via the Gulf region. As a result, many are switching to direct connections to and from Asia. SWISS is seeing a corresponding rise in demand for such nonstop services. We are pleased to offer our customers this additional flight to Delhi over the next two months. The flights are available for booking with immediate effect,” SWISS said in a statement.“Depending on further developments in the Middle East, SWISS continuously assesses how aircraft and capacities that become available can be deployed where demand is particularly strong. In addition to demand, key factors include operational constraints such as available airport slots, traffic rights and fleet deployment capabilities,” SWISS statement added.British Airways also announced additional flights from Delhi and Mumbai “to meet strong travel demand”. “In response to the ongoing situation in the Middle East, the airline is adding short-term capacity from Delhi and Mumbai to meet customer demand. A third daily service from Delhi will launch on April 7, followed by a third daily service from Mumbai from May 15. With this additional capacity, British Airways will operate up to 63 weekly flights with more than 1,000 additional seats per week between India and the UK, offering more options for customers travelling to the UK or connecting onwards across the airline’s global network,” BA said in a statement.Neil Chernoff, British Airways’ chief planning and strategy officer, said: “As we continue to respond to the evolving situation in the Middle East, we’ve been able to reallocate additional capacity to meet strong demand to other destinations across our route network. India remains one of our most important global markets, and these additional services from Delhi and Mumbai respond to customer demand and provide greater choice and flexibility for our customers when travelling to the UK and beyond. We will continue to review our network and make adjustments based on where our customers want to fly this summer.”
Two major CEOs told CNBC in recent months that the rise of artificial intelligence contributed to their decisions to hand over the reins and step down from their positions.
It’s one of the latest insights into how America’s corporate leaders are sizing up the AI transition.
Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Thursday that his decision to step down from his role was influenced by larger “waves of the organizational momentum.”
“My job is also to think who’s the best team to put on the field to get the next wave done,” Quincey said. “And I concluded that, actually, it was time to put someone else on the field for the next wave of growth.”
Quincey, who has served as CEO of the beverage giant since 2017, will be succeeded by current COO Henrique Braun, effective at the end of this month.
“In a pre-AI, a pre-gen-AI mode, we made a lot of progress. But now there’s a huge new shift coming along,” Quincey said.
While he said he’s leaning into the technological advances, he believes the beverage company needs “someone with the energy to pursue a completely new transformation of the enterprise.”
That person, Quincey said, is Braun, who he believes will uniquely equip the company to embrace its next chapter.
Quincey’s comments echo sentiments from former Walmart CEO Douglas McMillon in December ahead of his departure from that role.
McMillon, who had held the position as CEO of the global retailer since 2014, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” at the time that he had decided to hand over the role to someone “faster.” John Furner, who was previously head of Walmart U.S., took over the top job on Feb. 1.
“With what’s happening with AI, I could start this next big set of transformations with AI, but I couldn’t finish,” McMillon told CNBC.
“About a year ago, I really started feeling like this next run, you could see what agentic commerce was gonna look like, the vision for AI shopping, and I started thinking about everything that needs to happen over the next few years, and it really caused me to think that now was the right time [to step down],” he said.
Walmart in December made the move to list on the Nasdaq, something McMillon said was symbolic of the progress the company has made with technology.
The retailer has been incorporating AI to optimize its supply chain, provide assistants for customers and more.
“I think what you’re going to see from the Walmart team is they’re just going to keep scaling what we’ve already started, build some new stuff on top, and then use AI to transform it all,” he said.
Business
India’s voluntary carbon market gains ground as net-zero goals drive ecosystem buildup – The Times of India
NEW DELHI: With Climate action gaining momentum as part of India’s net-zero commitment by 2070, the country’s carbon market is beginning to take shape and gain momentum. Homegrown institutions such as the Carbon Registry of India (CRI) are emerging as important enablers for the voluntary carbon market offering platforms to register and track carbon projects, even as corporates and developers scale up efforts around offsets, credits, and trading in line with evolving global frameworks. While the regulatory framework is still in the development stage across many industries, India is leading the development of platforms for listing of voluntary carbon projects in South Asia, creating implementation partners, enabling trading of credits and audit process — all to to align the processes with international standards having an end-to-end setup. “The carbon market today is split into two clear paths,” says Priya Bahirwani, co-founder of Terrablu Climate Technologies, a carbon project developer with proprietary carbon accounting, offsetting and trading platform. “The compliance market is regulation-led and has different levers and framework within which it operates. But the voluntary carbon market is where intent shows up, where companies invest for credibility, brand and long-term responsibility.” It is this voluntary market that is now steering the path and driving the momentum in India for a climate-driven economy. This market is driven by corporates looking to go beyond compliance and are committed to demonstrating real climate impact and social impact – Indian Carbon for Global Markets. CRI (a public-private registry) and other such reputed organisations are building the ecosystem in a sustainable manner. Especially companies like Varaha, Terrablu, NextNow Green (NNG), and other entities are slowly but steadily building the momentum for a climate resilient economy in India. From large conglomerates to mid-sized firms, companies are increasingly investing in carbon credits not just to meet regulatory norms, but to build long-term brand credibility and stakeholder trust. The is the just the beginning of new wave of building a climate resilient economy. CRI helps companies register and formalise their carbon projects in a standardised format. For India, this shift represents a strategic move — from being a supply-side participant to shaping the rules of the market itself. “Carbon markets will only scale on the foundation of trust, transparency, and traceability. With its depth in innovation and resilience, India is well placed to lead this evolution.,” says Richard Bright, CEO of CRI. CRI, he adds, is focused on building a credible domestic bridge between Indian climate projects and global demand, while leveraging digital frameworks to improve transparency, traceability and access. Companies listed on the CRI for carbon projects include Sahyadri Farms, Piplantri FPO, L&T Metro and others are in the pipeline, says Bright. Terrablu’s Bahirwani says India should not just generate carbon credits, but also own the platforms that certify them. “CRI is creating that opportunity, and we are already seeing increasing interest from corporates in sourcing credits listed on such platforms.” Companies such as NNG, which is a carbon consultancy and ecosystem implementation partner, believes that as India moves from a voluntary to a rules- and penalties-based setup in carbon, companies will increasingly work on carbon and climate strategies to strengthen their play in the area. “We are already seeing efforts in this regard. There are enquiries about how to go about carbon projects, how to carry out assessment and audit of current work, and how to work out credits and even offset them, or trade them, across diverse sectors including agriculture and industrial decarbonisation,” says NNG’s Archana Raha. This push is also being reinforced by ecosystem players such as legal frameworks to project developers. They see value in strengthening India’s own carbon market architecture. “Global registries will continue to play a role, but India needs trusted domestic platforms as well,” says Vishnu Sudarsan, senior partner at law firm JSA. “Platforms like CRI provide visibility and credibility within the Indian ecosystem, which is critical as the market matures, supported by robust, dual-layer governance structures that reinforce transparency and accountability,” Sudarsan adds. On the ground, this shift is already taking shape through projects that are choosing to align with India’s emerging carbon infrastructure. Take Piplantri as an example. It is a model that goes beyond carbon to integrate afforestation, water conservation and community livelihoods. By listing on CRI, stakeholders are signalling a clear intent to prioritise transparency, traceability and alignment with India’s evolving climate ecosystem. The market is gradually maturing as reputed and credible market players with sophistication and focus are shaping the ecosystem . The decision reflects a broader trend. Project developers and intermediaries are increasingly working with platforms like CRI and CCTS, supported by ecosystem players such as Terrablu and implementation partners like NNG. Alongside them, credible validation and verification bodies — including KBS certification, 4K Earth Science, VKU Certification and others — are empanelled with CRI, strengthening the integrity and credibility of the overall ecosystem, and helping create a more locally anchored yet globally credible carbon market framework. Experts say that India’s emerging carbon ecosystem is beginning to offer answers through creation of stronger platforms, better verification, and tighter integration across the value chain. “The direction is clear: India is not just participating in the global carbon market but it is leading the market for other emerging economies,” says Sudarsan. It is believed that with the foundation for the climate economy coming in place, India is well poised to become a hub for high-integrity carbon solutions.
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