徐常蘭

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.

本文講述的是美國的一個現(xiàn)已遍及世界大部分地區(qū)的堅實象征。這一象征不是美元，甚至也不是可口可樂。它只是一條叫做藍布牛仔褲的普普通通的褲子，這種褲子所象征的是亞歷克西·德托克維爾所謂的“對平等的勇敢而正當?shù)目释辈徽撌枪賳T還是牛仔，銀行家還是賴賬者，時裝設計師還是酒鬼，都同樣喜歡它。它對任何人都一視同仁，不分階級；凡是美國人都可以穿。然而它幾乎在世界各地都備受青睞，包括俄羅斯，那兒的當局最近破獲了一個在黑市上以每條200美元的價格倒賣牛仔褲的青少年團伙。牛仔褲已經(jīng)流行了很長時間，看來生命力甚至會比領帶還旺盛。

這個無處不在的美國象征是一個在巴伐利亞出生的猶太人發(fā)明的。他的名字叫李維·施特勞斯。

他于1829年生于德國的巴德奧切姆，在1848年歐洲政局動蕩期間，他決定去紐約碰碰運氣，因為他的兩個哥哥已經(jīng)移民到了那里。到了紐約之后，李維很快便發(fā)現(xiàn)，他的兩個哥哥關于在這個充滿賺錢機會的國家生活舒適的說法有些夸大其詞。他們告訴他說他們擁有土地；但他發(fā)現(xiàn)他們在向家庭主婦兜售針頭線腦、鍋碗瓢盆、緞帶紗線以及剪刀紐扣等。李維做了兩年寒酸的小商販，拉著180磅左右的雜貨挨家挨戶地叫賣，才得以勉強維持生計。1850年，他的一個嫁到舊金山的姐姐表示愿意出路費讓他去西部時，他立即抓住這一機會，帶著幾匹帆布去投奔她，他希望把帆布賣掉過活。

帆布并不好賣。但當他在和一個在主礦脈挖煤的礦工交談時得知，能夠經(jīng)得住采礦磨損的結實的褲子很難找到。機會向他招手了。施特勞斯當場用一條帶子量出了那個男子的腰圍和褲管內(nèi)縫的尺寸，用帆布做出了一條粗硬耐磨的褲子，換到了價值6美元的金末。礦工對那條褲子很滿意，于是關于“李維的那些褲子”的消息傳開來，施特勞斯開始做起了褲子生意。打那以后公司一直在運營。

施特勞斯把帆布用完后，便寫信叫他的兩個哥哥再送些過來。但他收到的卻是產(chǎn)自法國尼姆的一種叫做“尼姆嗶嘰”的堅韌的棕色棉布，它很快就被簡稱為“勞動布”。幾乎從一開始施特勞斯就把這種棉布染成獨特的靛藍色，從而有了藍色牛仔之稱。但是直到19世紀70年代，他才在褲子上加了銅鉚釘，長期以來這種鉚釘便成了公司的典型標志。釘鉚釘是內(nèi)華達州弗吉尼亞市的裁縫雅各布·W·戴維斯的主意，他這樣做是為了安撫一個脾氣暴躁，名叫阿爾卡利·愛可的礦工。據(jù)說阿爾卡利抱怨在他把礦石標本塞入牛仔口袋時，口袋總是被撐破，于是他便要求戴維斯想點辦法。戴維斯像是在開玩笑似的把褲子拿到鐵匠那里，給口袋釘上了鉚釘。這個主意很奏效，消息再次傳開；1873年施特勞斯采納了這個小革新，并為它申請了專利，同時聘請戴維斯擔任了地區(qū)經(jīng)理。

這時，施特勞斯已將兩個哥哥和兩個姐夫招進公司，準備在舊金山開辦第三家分店。在以后的幾十年中，公司在當?shù)嘏畈l(fā)展，到1902年去世時，施特勞斯已成為加利福尼亞的名人。在那以后的30年里，公司的生意雖小，銷售對象也僅限于西部勞工——諸如牛仔、伐木工、鐵路工人等，但它一直在盈利。顯然是在20世紀30年代的農(nóng)場度假熱期間，李維的牛仔褲首次被引入東部。當時在西部度假的東部人回家后便到處宣傳這種帶鉚釘?shù)纳衿娴难澴印Ａ硪淮螣岢背霈F(xiàn)在二戰(zhàn)期間，當時藍色牛仔褲被宣布為緊俏商品，只出售給參加防御工作的人。到1946年，這家公司只有15名推銷員，兩家工廠，在密西西比河以東幾乎沒有什么業(yè)務，但經(jīng)過30年的發(fā)展，它已擁有2萬2千多人的銷售團隊，并在35個國家設有50家工廠和辦事處。每年，有2億5千多萬件李維的服裝售出——其中包括8千3百多萬條釘有銅鉚釘?shù)乃{色牛仔褲。通過市場營銷、良好的口碑以及顯而易見的可靠性，它們已經(jīng)成為美國常見的褲裝，以符合無產(chǎn)者的形象。人們可以買到經(jīng)過水洗的、褪色和縮水處理的牛仔褲。它們可以被改做成各種奇特的式樣；婦女們將褲管內(nèi)縫拆開，把它們改成長裙，男人們將其從膝蓋上方剪開，變成沖浪時穿的短褲。牛仔褲上還綴滿了各種裝飾物。

這種褲子已經(jīng)成了一種傳統(tǒng)，并在其發(fā)展中譜寫了自己的歷史——這種歷史內(nèi)容極為豐富，以至于公司在舊金山開設了一座博物館。