Just set the className
attribute of the real DOM element to ''
(nothing).
$('#item')[0].className = ''; // the real DOM element is at [0]
Edit: Other people have said that just calling removeClass
works - I tested this with the Google JQuery Playground: http://savedbythegoog.appspot.com/?id=ag5zYXZlZGJ5dGhlZ29vZ3ISCxIJU2F2ZWRDb2RlGIS61gEM ... and it works. So you can also do it this way:
$("#item").removeClass();