(I)Blue jeans in the last thirty years have attained such popularity that they have become an American icon. (II) It was not until the late 1960s, however, that blue jeans became the universally worn clothing item it is today. (III) In the history of fashion, no other garment has served as an example of status ambivalence and ambiguity than blue jeans. (IV) At its birth, blue jeans were created for the California coal miners in the mid-nineteenth century. (V) Levi Strauss was 17 years old when he emigrated from Bavaria to New York in 1847.