There’s Nothing Like a Pair of Blue Jeans

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’. The term ‘Jeans’ wasn’t really used until the 1960s to refer to these overall trousers.

When I was growing up, in the 60s and 70s, there were just three main brands to choose from. Wranglers, Lee and Levis. These tended to be available in one coloure, dark indigo blue, which would wash out and stain other clothes. Levis were famous for introducing their ‘shrink to fit’ jeans which you would 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. It was in the 1980s that this trend really took off, fuelled by an immensely popular advertising campaign.

People who loved the worn look no longer had to resort to a scrubbiing brush to get the worn and faded look. They could now buy genuinely old Levis 501s that had already been worn in. 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. It has been estimated that American teenagers own an average of about six pairs.

And they are not limited to only a few select brands. Every major clothing manufacturer now produces 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. A great outfit for almost any occasion but maybe not suitable for serious business meetings or funerals.

Blue Dress