Photo courtesy of Go Texas Money
The massive amount of interest in jeans sparked the American economy, even in times of poverty. Wearing jeans originally drew a line between upper and middle/lower class (32). Thes pants started out as a working man’s pants that was either an engineer, farmer, miner or railroad employee. These were not the types of jobs the rich were doing, so the jeans became a staple for the poor/middle class (33). This was around the same time James Dean and Marlon Brando were making a statement with their jeans by wearing them because they wanted to, not because they were using them for work (34). In this time, the entertainment industry was booming with popular culture impacts on Americans through magazines, movies and rock ‘n’ roll music, Hollywood was selling the “bad boy” image and it was becoming popular. With the popularization of jeans through Hollywood stars, jeans came to be a sex symbol as well (35). Tight jeans became a symbol of youth in revolt against the traditional American values. By the 1960s, jeans became more accepted by other generations with the changing ideals of jeans. Jeans changed from a type of youthful revolution against tradition. The 60s introduced jeans as less stiff than and softer than the 50s style jeans. Parents were softening and lightning the jeans to make it more “socially acceptable” (36). Also people wanted to reject the “artficial” so they wore denim in browns, soft blues and greens (37).
In the 1970s, music and pop culture were influenced by bell-bottom jeans. This is also the decade we see the rise isn designer jeans with prices skyrocketing to $100 per pair (38). Jeans became a status symbol during the 70s by the invention of designer jeans. At this point, there didn’t seem to be any clothing need a pair of jeans didn’t solve.
Jeans succeeded because they were able to change through the years with the demands of popular culture. When people needed a a ”bad boy” appeal, the jeans got tighter. When people needed a way to reject arificiality, they dyed their denim earth tones. Jeans succeeded because they were able to change with the times (39). Even today, whatever denim need a consumer has, there’s a jeans out there that covers that need. Since the Great Depression, today jeans are the most worn type of pants with almost no competition from various other styles and types (40). The economy has depended upon denim sales to be a constant even through times of hardship. It seems everyone from almost any economic sector wears jeans, because of the same reasons as the earlier times in history because they are: 1) durable 2) cheap and 3) workable (41).
Jeans turned from a type of clothing intended for manual laboring, white men into a staple for many different kinds of people (42). In a sense, jeans helped bring times of American differences into a more integrated society and culture. Both the rich and poor, black and white, male and female, etc. wears denim without any prejudice. Blue jeans are a unifier of the different and a commonground for people of all different types to recognize(43). The generations of the Civil Rights era used jeans as a resistant statement to old American traditions, and the youth of denim made these American traditions, with the help of denim, into something totally different (44).
