Buttenheim, Germany  - Blue jeans have maintained their popularity, gracing bodies around the world for more than 100 years.

They initially served as work pants for Californian gold miners, but now they dominate fashion in schools, discos and even offices.

To mark the 180th birthday of Levi Strauss, who created blue jeans, the Levi Strauss Museum in his home town of Buttenheim, Germany is showing an exhibition about the development of blue jeans. It explains the socio-cultural transformation of the colour blue. Once an almost exclusive colour of royal robes, it progressed to a colour of the working class in the form of blue jeans.

In June, German stage actor and comedian Klaus Karl-Krauw will present the world's largest pair of blue jeans at the museum. The museum has also scheduled five well-known bands to connect with the style icon by playing the blues. (dpa)