As seen in the August 2026 ‘Creative America at 250’ issue of Wallpaper*, we pay homage to seminal American graphics.
Few brands encapsulate notions of American freedom quite like Levi’s, the denimwear label which began in San Francisco in the mid-1850s during the height of the Californian gold rush.
It was originally founded as a wholesale dry goods company by Levi Strauss – an immigrant from Bavaria, Germany – and the entrepreneur soon identified a need for hard-wearing workwear for miners carving out the American frontier as the young country spread across the continent. In 1873, he invented the ‘waist overall’ alongside tailor Jacob Davis: crafted from indigo selvedge denim with metal rivets – placed at the ‘points of strain’ – they are what we now know as the ‘original blue jean’.
Anatomy of a Logo: Levi’s Two Horse Patch
An advertisement for Levi Strauss & Co's copper-riveted overalls, circa 1875
The year 1873, when Strauss patented the design, appears stamped onto a leather patch on every pair of Levi’s jeans – part of an emblem first introduced in 1886. It is known as the ‘Two Horse Patch’ in reference to its protagonists: a duo of horses which are depicted pulling a pair of jeans in opposite two different directions without destroying them – a nod to Levi’s claims of hardiness and indestructibility (the pictorial design was used because of high levels of illiteracy in the American West; the idea was that people could go into stores and ask for ‘those pants with the two horses’).
And, though the brand’s logo has evolved – currently, a red ‘batwing’ with white typography, its shape reminiscent of the ‘Original Riveted’ banner on the 1886 logo – the ‘Two Horse Patch’ has endured, a symbol of what remains the United States’ definitive fashion export.
This article appears in the August 2026 Issue of Wallpaper*, available now in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today