Denims is not just a staple textile of the modern world, is a way of life for many. A pair of jeans is by far the most popular pieces of clothing to have been ever made. It’s mass appeal has transcended nations, religions, ethnicities and gender. And one wonders why? For most of the planet is either too hot or too cold to wear jeans for a good part of the year. Despite, it remains the most popular outfit in India and abroad.
Correct me if I’m wrong, jeans are the most subtle yet all-pervasive symbol of American dominance in the last century and a half. Reliable sources make us believe that the cowboys of America were the first to wear a pair of jeans, riding horses while herding cattle on a vast landscape. They, to the best of my knowledge, which is fairly limited, wore straight fit jeans with flee buttons instead of a zip.
Reportedly, by the beginning of the last decade of 19th century, Levi’s 501 (Levi Strauss & Co) had become popular. It’s the straight fit (straight is nothing to do with the sexuality, but some fits became synonymous with sexual fluidity, iconoclasts, hippies to name a few. More on it later). It’s still very popular and is sold as the ‘original design’, also happens to be my favourite fit.
Jeans is clothing that people ‘live in’. A dwelling that they carry with them hanging by their waist, is an interface between self and the rest of the world. Apart from the cowboys of America—who are an endangered group in this day and age—no other set of people consider jeans as their traditional outfit. Jeans, since, in its various manifestations, became a potent symbol of change.
In that sense, jeans are an invasion of the outside world—the West, is the change we wear, attitude we demonstrate, conventions we break, the break from the past. Iconoclasts abhorring the mainstream have wear jeans either too loose or very tight. Bohemians wear distressed jeans; musicians wear skinny jeans, sometimes oversized and call it baggy. Despite it being co-opted by people of a specific identity—in its varied cuts and fits, there are contradictions galore—jeans represent a globalised world, yet in a fragmented way.
Jeans have diversified into so many fits and cuts. It’s almost akin to the diversification dogs, typically descending from a few founders to about 360 breeds, to the extent that some of them don’t even look like a dog—Bedlington Terrier is a good example. The same is true for jeans. For instance, the elaborate boho-style jeans looks like a wall handing tied around the waist.
This brings me to the point that jeans can be worn at various levels, as high as above the belly button almost around the rib cage to hanging precariously low on hips revealing a good part of the derrière and is, aptly, called ‘low crotch’. Not to forget bell-bottoms, and a milder version is sold as bootcut. The latest sensation is the pee-stain jeans after denims featuring a horizontal zipper became trendy.
Jeans could vary from skinny like a pair of socks to loose like harem pants. It could be distressed, with patches, paint, artwork, torn with gaping holes showing tattoos, tattered, or multi-coloured. Given these points of variance, there can be an infinite amount of permutation and combinations. There’s something for everyone’s liking. No surprise, the market value for denim fabric is estimated to be worth 27. 1 billion US dollars in 2022, and is expected to increase to over 35 billion by 2027.
Blue denims have a cult following for varied reasons. This was not always the case. Ironically, Indigo, the pigment, was outlawed by the European monarchs. First shipped from India and Java in the 16th century, to many Europeans indigo was unpleasant. “The fermenting process yielded a putrid stench not unlike that of a decaying body,” James Sullivan notes in his book Jeans.
Jeans can be worn at various levels, as high as above the belly button almost around the rib cage to hanging precariously low on hips revealing a good part of the derrière and is, aptly, called ‘low crotch’. Not to forget bell-bottoms, and a milder version is sold as bootcut. The latest sensation is the pee-stain jeans after denims featuring a horizontal zipper became trendy.
Jeans as work clothes came to be associated with the African Americans during slavery. Famously, the blue denim became the ‘uniform’ of the civil rights movement. As historian Tanisha C. Ford pointed out, and I agree, jeans are best suited for “the realities of activism.” On a different note, Yves Saint Laurent wished he had invented blue jeans, “the most spectacular, the most practical, the most relaxed and nonchalant. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity - all I hope for in my clothes.” Lately, Japanese denim, like whiskey, has gained the reputation to be the best in the world.
Jeans symbolise gender parity for it’s meant for all and sundry. It took a while before that happened—in 1934, after half a century, “Lady Levi’s” were launched. Lot 701 was the world’s first pair of jeans made exclusively for women and became very popular with working-class women in America. While Marlon Brando and James Dean personified hunks in jeans, Marilyn Monroe is credited for making jeans in vogue for women. This makes her movie River Of No Return iconic.
With time, jeans came to symbolise solidarity among people who were seeking change from the status quo, a power shift. And then there are these associations that have found mention in literature, like: “He was dressed like a tourist, his T-shirt tucked into belted jeans like a sociopath,” wrote Deanna Raybourn in Killers of a Certain Age. Some have linked jeans to the larger existential question: “The holes in my jeans and the holes in my boots make me whole” wrote Avijeet Das, a poet and a writer of repute.
Jeans could also be the basis of moral judgement. “I don't trust people who can fall asleep with jeans on,” wrote Nitya Prakash. Fits came to be associated with a nationality. “His tightly fitting jeans were unmistakably French,” wrote Francine Pascal in Spring Break. There are political overtones too. “For once a band of thieves in ripped up jeans got to rule the world” wishes Taylor Swift.
On a personal note, I have no specific preference, and am open to experimentation when it comes to jeans, and other things in life. It’s a matter of mood, for I could be everything in some measure, and, for sure, nothing in particular. Collecting jeans from all over the world is one of the obsessions I harbour. In the last 20 years, I would have purchased some 250 jeans, some very expensive ones, some dirt cheap, and at the moment would have some 80 stashed in a wooden wardrobe, and the rest was distributed to friends and jeans lovers.
Everyone seems to have a theory on jeans. They are absolutely unique, just like everyone else. And denim is the everyday symbol of style.