Powdered wigs. Top hats. Bell bottoms. Hoop dresses. The
list goes on.
What seems like a popular fashion today may only be a short
note in the history books tomorrow. Fashions change with the time, and they
have been doing so for centuries. But you don’t have to go back to colonial
times to find how clothing choices have evolved. Just consider the “big hair”
of the 1980s, which nowadays is reserved for Halloween parties.
Like always, the fashions of the 21st century
vary depending on the situation. In a casual setting, it seems that most young
men and women prefer to settle for blue jeans and a T-Shirt. But wait a
second—blue jeans? They’ve been around for over 150 years. In fact,
they are about the only fashion statement that hasn’t faded with the times.
Let’s take a look at how it happened, and try to get a little “historical
perspective.”
In 1850, Levi Strauss was just one of thousands who ended up
in California as a result of the recently discovered gold. Strauss had grown
up in Germany, but had moved to New York City just a few years earlier. He
moved to California, not so much to find gold for himself, but because it was a
great opportunity to sell his dry goods to the surplus of new settlers.
When he got there, Strauss quickly learned that the miners
were in dire need of a good pair of pants to work in. He took the hint, and
used some fabric to put together some work jeans. They were a big hit, but
didn’t score high in the comfortable department. That problem was fixed,
however, when Strauss came up with a new fabric—denim. Thus, blue jeans were
invented.
Everyone who was doing serious labor soon found out that
blue jeans were durable and maneuverable. They were perfect for the farmer who
was working in the fields, or the cowboy who was riding a horse.
Even if there wasn’t work to be done, wearing blue jeans was
just downright comfortable. They began to become a part of daily attire. In
the 1940s, during the midst of World War II, soldiers would take blue jeans to
wear when they were off-duty. All of a sudden, they became an international
hit, and other companies besides Levi began to take advantage of the worldwide
trend.
In the 1950s, not only were blue jeans useful and
comfortable—they were “cool.” Actor James Dean, who starred in the 1955 movie Rebel
Without a Cause, turned blue jeans into the mark of the rebel. With little
exception, they became a standard piece of clothing for all teenagers.
The jeans continued to be the clothing of choice during the
1960s when rebellious young, “hippies” and Vietnam War protesters started to paint or embroider their blue jeans. At the same time, the pants became a
mark of Western Culture, and were in heavy demand in the isolated communist
nations of Russia and Eastern Europe (where they were very hard to come by).
Who says that fashions change with the times? Today, blue
jeans are still a common item of clothing in the United States and beyond. But
they are not the same jeans that were being worn during the Gold Rush.
Clothing companies spend millions of dollars making sure that they keep up with
the changing styles of blue jean wearers (loose or tight fit, dark or faded,
shorts or pants, etc.).