2018CLL003 / 01 – OVERALL, FABRIC: KAIHARA # 1834-328-2

History of the Overall

Although still worn in industry and agriculture, denim bib or dungaree overalls are now inextricably linked in the public imagination with the Great Depression era of the 1930s. This is largely because of the documentary photographic work of the likes of Dorothea Lange and Mike Disfarmer, but also through cinematic representations of the time, such as John Ford’s movie of John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath.

The bib-and-brace overall , overall , or dungaree was a type of garment usually used as protective clothing when working. [1] The term for this clothing was always the plural term overalls, as in “a pair of overalls” and was never the singular “overall.” Overalls were introduced about 1750 as a protective article of clothing intended to prevent work related wear and tear to breeches and stockings, which were the standard clothing items required by fashion at the time. The “trowsers” of the day were very loose, reached only to the upper calf, and were basically only worn by “sailormen.”

Overalls were originally made of denim, but since then they have also be made of corduroy or chino cloth.

Overalls were invented in the 1890s by Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis at Levi Strauss & Co., but they went through an evolution to reach their modern form.

The exact beginnings of the wearing of overalls are unclear, but they are mentioned in literature as early as 1776 as a protective working garment commonly worn by slaves.

The first evidence of overalls being mass-produced are those made by Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis in the 1890s. The first “jeans” they invented were actually overalls (“waist overalls” or “waist-high overalls”), consisting of suspenders attached to denim pants with buttons. There was no top part with a bib.

[2] From the beginning, denim overalls were popular workers’ garments due to their durability. In fact, Levi, Strauss & Co.’s slogan in the 1880s-1890s was “Never Rip, Never Tear.”[3]

In 1911, Harry David Lee made the first bib overalls, made of pants with pockets with a bib and straps over the shoulders. In 1927, Lee developed a “hookless fastener” and created “buttonless” overalls. Zippers replaced buttons. Soon after, Suspender buttons were traded in for belt loops to attach overthe-shoulder straps.

In the 1930s, the poorest segments of the American population wore overalls: farmers, miners, loggers, and railroad workers. [6] They were most commonly worn by men and boys in the Southern United States and the Midwestern United States. They can be seen in many of Walker Evans’s photographs.[5]

Lee and Levi, Strauss & Co. were not the only companies making overalls in the late 19th and 20th centuries.

One of the oldest brands of overalls, OshKosh B’gosh, founded in 1895 in Wisconsin, specialized in hickory stripe (blue and white stripe) bib overalls. The company produced bib overalls for children in the late 1960s.[1]

Larned, Carter & Co., a company from Detroit, called themselves the “World’s Greatest Overall Makers.” They marketed their products as uniforms for railroad workers.[2]

One of the biggest overall manufacturers was Blue Bell, which began in North Carolina in 1904. It was popular among railroad workers.[2]

Jellico Clothing Manufacturing Co., later renamed Big Ben, was a major competitor of Blue Bell. Big Ben bought Blue Bell in 1926 and continued under the name Blue Bell.[4] Blue Bell then bought the overalls company Casey Jones.[2]

Bib overalls (in different colors and textiles) have become a popular garment among American youth, from the 1960s onward.

REFERENCES:

[1] Vintage menswear : a collection from the Vintage Showroom (Douglas Gunn; Josh Sims; Roy Luckett; Vintage Showroom.) [2](Sullivan, James, 1965 November [2006]). Jeans : a cultural history of an American icon.

[3] Denim: fashion’s frontier. (McClendon, Emma,. New Haven)