Blue Jeans of ‘waist overallys’ were invented back in 1873 by Levi Straus and Jacob Davis. These were first designed to be ‘waist overalls’ and marketed as ‘work pants’. It wasn’t until the 1960s that the term ‘Jeans’ was adopted to refer to these increasingly popular trousers.
When I was growing up, in the 60s and 70s, there were just three main brands to choose from. Lee, Levis and Wrangler. These tended to be available in one coloure, dark indigo blue, which would wash out and stain other clothes. Levis even produced a range of jeans called ’shrink to fit’ which you had to wear in the bath in order to shrink them to your size.
Back in the 1970s faded, patched and worn jeans were fashionable and demand for this look gave rise to a whole new industry selling second hand denim. This really took off in the 1980s with the Levis 501 advertising campaign.
People who loved the worn look no longer had to resort to a scrubbiing brush to get the worn and faded look. People could now buy pre-worn and faded Levi 501 jeans that looked the way they wanted them too. Many shoppers were completely oblivious to the fact that all these old 501s had come from American prisons where they were the standard clothing.
Today there must be hardly a single person below the age of 55 who doesn’t own at least one pair of jeans. The average American teenager is thought to have about six pairs of jeans.
And they are not limited to only a few select brands. Most major clothing brands today have their own range of Jeans and denim. My personal favourites are Fat Face Jeans from the popular Fat Face range of outdoor, surf and ski clothing. The outfit that I like to wear for any occasion is a pair of Fat Face Jeans teamed with a comfortable Fat Face Hoodie. A great outfit for almost any occasion but maybe not suitable for serious business meetings or funerals.
