Adrienne Rose Bitar is a historian at Cornell University and author of "Romancing the Dude Ranch, 1926-1947.".Daina Berry is a Professor and Chair of the History Department at UT Austin. Stephen Aron is President and CEO of the Autry Museum of the American West and Professor Emeritus of History at UCLA. Everyone has their favorite style and their favorite pair.Ĭourtesy of Official White House Photo / Pete Souza But look at me: I am.’”īoot cut, flare, ripped and faded. Because it is saying, ‘I'm not supposed to be wearing this. To get your hands on that clothing and wear it is subversive in a way. Baggier cuts and subversive takes on preppy, high-end brands such as Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger reflected anti-establishment and rebellious notions.Īs Kim Jenkins, professor in Fashion Studies at Ryerson University and principal researcher for The Fashion and Race Database, notes, “Not only do we see hip-hop artists able to remix sounds, like in music, but they're also able to take clothing and remix it for their own means. The emergence of hip-hop in the 1980s and 90s pushed jeans into a new realm. Sales skyrocketed, and high fashion, previously reserved for the elite, began merging with mass culture. The rise of “designer jeans” and labels such as Jordache, Calvin Klein and Gloria Vanderbilt made jeans a designer item many could now afford. The rise of dude ranch culture would change the perception of blue jeans as working-class attire.īy the 1970s, jeans had evolved into a billion-dollar industry, finding a home in nearly every closet in America. This innovation created a garment so strong that it came to clothe nearly all American laborers by the 1930s. Though Levi Strauss is typically credited with the “invention” of blue jeans, “Riveted” reveals the story of Jacob Davis, who added reinforcing copper rivets to the pants. Left out of this narrative are the West African enslaved people, whose invaluable expertise for growing, processing and dyeing the plant had been brought with them. Eliza Lucas, the daughter of an 18th-century colonial governor, has long been credited as the savvy entrepreneur who jump-started the southern economy with indigo production. The blue hue of jeans resulted from an arduous dyeing process using the indigo plant. But half a century before Strauss, enslaved people in the American South were wearing a precursor of denim made from a coarse textile known as “slave cloth.” The story of jeans usually begins with Levi Strauss, a Bavarian immigrant looking to make his fortune selling garments to the 49ers during the California Gold Rush.
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