How jeans become popular
Jeans are very popular nowadays.
Created in the 18th century for miners due to the durable nature of the fabric, denim didn't become popular until the 1930s. It acted kind of like a souvenir for Americans who visited "dude ranches" (obviously they hadn't heard of postcards), and they brought home waist overalls. Then came the 1950s, teenage rebellion, and a young stunner named James Dean. Denim was the quintessential item for revolt, and some schools even banned them.
The popularity of denim grew during the next few decades, finally becoming "high fashion" in the 1980s (along with puffy pants, puffy shoulder pads, and puffy hair...). Remember the Calvin Klein ads? Nothing really did come between Brooke Shields and her Calvin's, and sales for the brand and others soared. The economic recession of the early 90s slowed down sales, but it struck back with a vengeance: the new millennium finds denim in just about every home worldwide.
And do you how jeans become popular?
The 1930's: Westerns
In the 1930's, Hollywood made lots of western movies. Cowboys - who often wore fashion jeans in the movies-became very popular. Many Americans who lived in the eastern states went for vacations on 'dude ranches' and took pairs of denim 'waist overalls' back east with them when they went home.
The 1940's: War
Fewer jeans were made during the time of World War 2, but 'waist overalls' were introduced to the world by American soldiers, who sometimes wore them when they were off duty. After the war, Levi began to sell their clothes outside the American West. Rival companies, like Wrangler and Lee, began to compete with Levi for a share of this new market.
The 1950's: Rebels
In the 1950's, denim became popular with young people. It was the symbol of the teenage rebel in TV programmes and movies (like James Dean in the 1955 movie Rebel Without a Cause). Some schools in the USA banned students from wearing denim. Teenagers called the waist overalls 'jean pants' - and the name stayed.
The 1960's: Hippies & the Cold War
In the 1960's many, many university and college students wore jeans. Different styles of jeans were made, to match the 60's fashions: embroidered jeans, painted jeans, psychedelic jeans...
In many non-western countries, latest jeans became a symbol of 'Western decadence' and were very hard to get. US companies said that they often received letters from people all around the world asking them to send the writer a pair of jeans
The 1970's: Sweatshops
As regulations on world trade became more relaxed in the late 1970's, jeans started to be made more and more in sweatshops in countries in the South. Because the workers were paid very little, jeans became cheaper. More people in the countries of the South started wearing jeans
The 1980's: Designer Jeans
In the 1980's jeans finally became high fashion clothing, when famous designers started making their own styles of jeans, with their own labels on them. Sales of jeans went up and up.
The 1990's: Recession
In the worldwide recession of the 1990's, the sale of jeans has stopped growing.
