A TAKE ON THE EVOLUTION OF WHAT BEGAN AS AN ADMIRED WORKWEAR INTO A FASHION MOVEMENT WHICH IS TODAY IDOLISED ACROSS BORDERS, AND NOT JUST BY THE YOUTH – DENIM.
When I was in school in the 1970s, we all had Lawis, which is what we informally called Levi’s. They were something you had to wear in your clique, because if you didn’t have jeans, you were inevitably part of the establishment. Our parents and teachers thought the riveted blue jeans were just awful. There wasn’t much choice back then. If we wanted to buy some jeans, we would head over to the small narrow jeans shop, where there would be stacks of dark- blue unwashed Levi’s, Mustangs, Lees or Wranglers. The mustachioed shop owner would coach us as we tried on a pair, saying: “Pull your tummy in, tighten your butt, pull up the zipper!” The first few weeks wearing the unbelievably tight, rock-hard jeans were torturous, but true love for jeans leaves no room for mercy. To get the right washed-out look, we would wear our jeans in the bathtub or crawl and wriggle in the sand by the North Sea. How we would have rejoiced if we had a pair of soft, used-looking jeans back then. Then it was rebellion; today it is passion. The jeans phenomenon has enthralled millions of people for decades. Whole generations have grown up with blue jeans, and all jeans lovers have their own jeans story to tell when they think back wistfully to their first pair of blue jeans. A cult product, jeans have not lost their fascination, then or now.
Let’s start at the beginning. The real story of the working pants began much earlier, in 1847, when the 17-year-old Levi Strauss emigrated to New York from his native village in Franconia, Germany. After the California Gold rush began in 1848, he eventually followed the call of the West with the famous bolts of canvas in his baggage. He used this fabric to sew sturdy work-pants for gold miners. History took its course; the originally brown cloth was replaced by a blue, hard-wearing cotton fabric. Because the workers’ pant pockets were constantly tearing open from carrying gold, Latvian immigrant Jacob W.Davisadded metal rivets to the jeans in 1873. Until the 1830s, jeans continued to be purely work clothes and were worn only by people living outside cities. That changed overnight when the upper class from the East Coast vacationed in the Wild West and were fascinated by the riveted pants. With this development, the earliest signs of a leisure society were also becoming evident.
Jeans were on their way to conquering the world. After World War II, American Gls built the jeans bridge to Europe, where the durable pants rapidly emerged as one of the most popular US products. Demand increased rapidly in the 1950s, when Hollywood actors and teenage idols such as Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean performed in jeans. Whereas until then teenagers had been considered an annoyance, suddenly the equation changed and the adolescent years came to be accepted as an independent life phase with unique values and sit-on-your-hip jeans.
However, back then it was not all that easy to get a pair of jeans outside of the US. Officially importing American products was extremely difficult. With an unstable European economy, trade was limited. Among the pioneers of the jeans industry were established work clothes manufacturers such as Morris Cooper Overalls in London (renamed Lee Cooper in 1951), L. Hermann Kleiderfabrik (under Sefranek it became Mustang Bekleidungswerke) and Rica-Lewis in France. The times were adventurous: In the post-war period, the German founder of Mustang, Albert Sefranek, swapped six bottles of schnapps with a Glin Frankfurt for six pairs of American jeans in various sizes so that he could copy the patterns.
The major US jeans makers, Levi’s, Lee and Wrangler, opened their first European sales offices at the beginning of the 1960s. Later, brands such as Falmer in England, Lois in Spain, Carrera in Italy and Chipie in France entered the scene. In the meantime, jeans were regarded as popular, but in the clothing industry, they were associated with the low- price market. This attitude changed overnight when, alongside established brands, a new jeans generation stirred up the European market. Typical for this time was Maurizio Vitale’s jeans label Jesus Jeans, launched in 1971. Its advertising campaign featured a firm, shapely woman’s bottom in denim hot pants and the slogan ‘If you love me, follow me’, which caused an outrage. Innovative Italian names stirred up what had been an exclusively American domain. The trendsetting brand Fiorucci started as early as 1970. In 1974, Adriano Goldschmied added Daily Blue to the jeans space and a few years later, Francois Girbaud was experimenting with jeans washed at Close. Also in Europe, Big Star, Polo Jeans, Gapstar, Pepe, Diesel and Buffalo broke into the market at the same time. At the end of the 1970s, the first designer jeans appeared in the USA, with Calvin Klein leading the way.
The established fashion industry was forced to grit its teeth and accept the rise of the denim slacks. There was no stopping to their growth. Jeans outlets catering to young shoppers – back then they were called ‘Western Store’ or ‘Jeans House’ – mushroomed. In 1977, the Cologne men’s fashion week set up a separate exhibition hall for jeans suppliers for the first time, and in 1980, it added the official title ‘Inter-Jeans’. Jeans continued on their trajectory, and additional international blue jeans trade fairs followed.
THE TIMES WERE ADVENTUROUS: IN THE POST- WAR PERIOD, THE GERMAN FOUNDER OF MUSTANG, ALBERT SEFRANEK, SWAPPED SIX BOTTLES OF SCHNAPPS WITH A GLIN FRANKFURT FOR SIX PAIRS OF AMERICAN JEANS IN VARIOUS SIZES SO THAT HE COULD COPY THE PATTERNS
Jeans were not pre-treated all the way into the 1980s. Without so-called ‘washing’, they were stiff and hard and only had the fit you wanted after spending hours squatting in your own bathtub. This changed when in 1982, the Japanese jeans brand Edwin introduced the stonewashed look and by doing so gave the industry washing and outfitting options undreamt of before. In the 1980s, anti-fit, carrot jeans and stovepipes, secondhand jeans from the flea market, stretch denim, coloured jeans and the distressed punk denim designed by Katharine Hamnett added to the mix. The campaign by market leader Levi’s started the cult of 501 and brought about a blue jeans revival.
In the 1990s, the newly free Eastern Europe discovered denim as a cult product and the creativity of jeans designers was endless. This was the time of the Italians. Diesel introduced the yuppie model, Saddle jeans. Replay and Miss Sixty produced a never-ending stream of trends in the ’90s. The washes and finishes were becoming more and more striking. G-Star gained cachet with its Raw Denim. New materials were being used. Baggy jeans were the new rage. Workwear, vintage jeans from the US and turn-ups were introduced. Hipsters and bell- bottoms made a brilliant comeback.
For girls, the jeans now had to be destroyed, bleached, coloured, washed and feature sequins, rhinestones and rivets and, most of all, fit really tight. At the turn of the millennium there were no taboos left as far as treatment is concerned. Jeans were unrivalled in their fashion ascendancy. The whole world was revelling in jeans fever. Only jeans could make an outfit complete and sexy.
JEANS WERE NOT PRE- TREATED ALL THE WAY INTO THE 1980S. WITHOUT SO-CALLED ‘WASHING’,THEY WERE STIFF AND HARD AND ONLY HAD THE FIT YOU WANTED AFTER SPENDING HOURS SQUATTING IN YOUR OWN BATHTUB
Coinciding with the demise of the Inter-Jeans trade shows, another jeans avalanche was set off when former Cologne sneaker and jeans retailer Karl-Heinz Müller staged the Bread & Butter jeans and sportswear trade show in an old industrial hall. With selected brands and vintage lines, the trade shows in Berlin and Barcelona set the course for the new jeans revolution. Parallel to this, Americans, mostly from the West Coast, started a new boom with luxury jeans for EUR 200 or more. Brands such as Earl Jean, Paper Denim & Cloth and 7 for All Mankind conquered the luxury jeans salons with new cuts that supposedly concealed a few pounds and flattered one’s bottom. Today, celebrities from the show business have discovered their passion for ligion. This demand has created a flood of brands from California, causing the denim miracle to light up the sky again. Celebrities such as Victoria Beckham and Justin Timberlake have created their own denim lines. And, Europe is not left on the sidelines. Southern European labels still catch the eye with exquisite feminine fits. Turkish manufacturers such as Cross, Mavi or LTB have emerged as global players and continue to conquer markets with their innovative finishing processes. As far as coolness is concerned, the Swedes are in the forefront with brands such as Acne jeans, Cheap Monday, Nudie and Dr. Denim Jeansmakers appearing on the shelves of trendy fashion stores and premium shops.
Jeans have long conquered the rest of the world, from Uzbekistan to Pakistan, from India to Africa, along the Pacific Rim from China, to South America and Australia, and all across Russia and eastern Europe. Show me your jeans and I will tell you who you are. Jeans are multicultural, fly in the face of all racial discrimination and are proof-positive of how globalisation can work without pressure from politics. Jeans are idolised across the borders – and not just among the youth. The latest trends are announced by the minute around the world on websites, blogs and e-commerce sites. Denim heads get together in chat rooms. Trends come and go. The market dominance of the major brands has long passed since vertically integrated brands have come to dominate the retail world and peddle the coveted blue articles for EUR 40 to EUR 50. There is an old piece of jeans wisdom: ‘Seven lean years are followed by seven years of plenty.’ The ones who began the jeans revolution have been right all along. The perpetually youthful classics, traditional labels such as Wrangler, Levi’s, Lee, Mustang and many others know this all too well. Over and over again, they breathe new life into the vintage lines and make sure that there is no end to the fabric that feeds the blue legend.
