The Blue Jean Bonanza

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November 23rd, 2009

Blue Jeans of ‘waist overallys’ were invented back in 1873 by Levi Straus and Jacob Davis. They were first designed and marketed as ‘work pants’ or ‘waist overall’. The term ‘Jeans’ wasn’t really used until the 1960s to refer to these overall trousers.

When I was growing up there were only thress major brands of jeans to choose from. Wranglers, Lee and Levis. These were available in dark indigo blue which would wash out and stain anything else that they were washed with. Levis even produced what they called ’shrink to fit’ jeans which you’d wear in the bath in order to shrink them to your specific 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. It was in the 1980s that this trend really took off, fuelled by an immensely popular advertising campaign.

Fashion conscious jeans lovers no longer had to wash and rewash their jeans in order to attain that well worn look. People could now buy pre-worn and faded Levi 501 jeans that looked the way they wanted them too. Fashion conscious shoppers were unaware that these Jeans had come from various American prisons where they were the standard issues clothing.

Today there must be hardly a soul who doesn’t own at least one pair of blue jeans. It has been estimated that American teenagers own an average of about six pairs.

And they are no longer restricted to only a few brands. Most of todays major clothing brands now offer their own range of Jeans. 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. Not really appropriate for serious business meetings but immensely comfortable, practical and very affordable.