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Focus Study: Denim

Colin Bateman, Smiths Hill High School

Outcomes

The creation of a popular culture

Consumption: the interactive process

Outcomes

H3: accounts for cultural diversity and commonality within societies and cultures

H4: evaluates continuity and change, and assesses social futures and strategies for change and the implications for societies and cultures

H5: evaluates the influence of power, authority, gender and technology on decision-making and participation in society

H7: applies appropriate language and concepts associated with society and culture

Focus

Genoans, Waist Overalls, Dungarees or just plain Blue Jeans? Call them what you will. Denim jeans have become a powerful form of popular culture, especially over the past 50 years. They have progressed from a local, to a national, to a global form of popular culture in a period spanning more than one and a half centuries.

The creation of a popular culture

Loeb (later Levi) Strauss arrived in San Francisco in the 1850s during the time of the Californian gold rushes with a load of calico that he intended to use to produce tents for the miners. What he found was a surplus of tents but a shortage of quality material for the production of durable trousers. Teaming up with Jacob Davis in 1873, he managed to acquire a quantity of serge de Nimes, a material whose name was quickly abbreviated to denim.

The five pocket look, together with sturdy copper rivets, quickly became the working clothes of miners and farmers and persisted until the 1930s. Around the turn of the century Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickock took their travelling Wild West Shows to the eastern states and introduced blue jeans to city dwellers.

The Great Depression in the late 1920s and early 1930s saw many farmers in the United States hard pressed to survive. The creation of dude ranches to attract people from the Eastern states to the farming areas gave blue jeans a new popularity. Following on from this, the production of Westerns saw the cowboy look establish itself as a fashion item throughout the United States and from there to a global market. Gene Autrey (a popular film star at the time) introduced his own brand of jeans.

During the Second World War, jeans became essential apparel for mechanics and industrial workers and travelled with soldiers and marines to many corners of the globe. Rosie the Riveter gave jeans respectability for many women working in factories in the United States during the war years. Blue Bell Jeanies quickly became the fashion accessory for women.

In the 1950s jeans re-emerged as a symbol of rebelliousness and the conflict of youth in the films The Wild One featuring Marlon Brando and Giant starring James Dean. Elvis Presley in Jailhouse Rock featured the wearing of blue jeans and jacket. The mythology associated with the wearing of jeans developed even further during this period.

While styles changed dramatically in the 1960s and 1970s, jeans showed remarkable resilience to continue to be the preferred attire of the new adolescents. Flares, painted, stone-washed and marbled jeans became the rage in the hippy era. By the 1980s, stretch jeans, skin-tight jeans and later designer jeans were fashionable. Recycled 501s began to command exorbitant prices and ripped jeans were sold in many Jeans only stores throughout the world.

During the 1990s a backlash against jeans began with lycra, teflon, nylon and corduroy the preferred materials of fashion houses. In 1998 Cargo pants provided the greatest challenge to the dominance of denim that has persisted for more than half a century.

The 21^st century has been heralded by the Dirty Denim of Calvin Klein and the Engineered Jeans of Levi Strauss which will attempt to wrest lost market share from the newcomers. Established jeans companies are now adopting more aggressive strategies in an effort to win back lost markets.

Consumption: the interactive process

Consumers

Originally working gear for miners and farmers, the wearing of denim found local popularity, then national and later global consumption with people of all classes, gender and walks of life. As American soldiers took their jeans with them to many developing countries in the period from 1941-1950, jeans became more associated with leisure than with work.

The baby boomers of the 1960s and 1970s adopted jeans as the preferred fashion item and many can still be seen wearing 501s today. Levi Strauss, Calvin Klein, Lee and other leading designers and manufacturers target the 15-24 age group.

New styles regularly emerge under the banners of G-Star, Diesel, Guess, Psycho-Cowboy, etc.

Andy Warhol: "I wish I could invent something like 'blue jeans'. Something to be remembered for. Something mass."

Processes

Originally made out of serge de Nimes, jeans have created a strong demand for cotton fabric. This has meant the enormous increase in the use of pesticides, fungicides and herbicides and in Australia, particularly in northern NSW and southern Queensland, irrigation has created enormous problems of leaching into river systems as well as the control of the river. The blue dye used in the production of jeans is a synthetically produced indigo. The darker the dye, the more toxic it is.

New Internationalist's Miriam Ching Louie (June 1998) claims that the production of jeans involves the exploitation of women in developing countries throughout the world, (including Costa Rica, Mexico, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, the Philippines, Hong Kong, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Macao, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Indonesia). With the closing of 58 production plants in the US between 1981 and 1990, more than 10 400 workers were put out of work as more than half the production moved overseas where labour costs were about a tenth of those in the US.

Continuity and change

Despite the many changes in fashion over the years and especially in styles of jeans, blue jeans still feature in the wardrobes of young and older people alike throughout the world. They present a fairly relaxed and egalitarian fashion item for people of all classes. In fact they are a readily re-saleable item at Op-shops and other second hand clothing outlets in many countries. Specialty shops, such as Just Jeans promote both the traditional and the post-modernist style of denim attire. A recent advertisement in The Sun Herald prior to the Olympic games featured a young girl dressed in a denim skirt and jacket. Recommended attire for games-goers. A Levi's store in London now offers customisation services. You go in, pick your preferred design from the catalogues and you can have anything from sequinned to logos to embroidered jeans.

Media

Denim jeans have featured in films since the 1930s. John Wayne, Gene Autrey, Gary Cooper, Hopalong Cassidy, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Elvis Presley, Brigitte Bardot and many others have been used to promote the sale of jeans. Bing Crosby appeared in a tailor-made denim tuxedo. Advertisements abound which feature the wearing of jeans to promote a variety of products, including the famous Marlboro man. In fact the print and televised media are the greatest promoters of jeans as a popular culture.

Paraphernalia

First it was pants, then jackets which used denim. By the 1960s this had expanded so that denim was used for pencil cases, lunch boxes, skirts, shirts, vests, ties, bandanas, cummerbunds, shoes, belts, caps, etc. They featured embroidery, flower power images, rips, stone wash and dirty effects. They were personalised, buckled, bib-and-braced, painted, shrunk, stretched and finally collected in museums for later generations to marvel at. They became the symbol of the identity that owned them. Customisation is now the way to go.

Technology

The most significant technological issues with regard to jeans as a popular culture are those related to the production of jeans and provision of access to consumers. Pesticides, insecticides and herbicides are essential for cotton production and the manufacture of the dye is an environmentally costly process. The Internet, film and print media all are used extensively to promote the sale of jeans. It is essential that we recognize the various strategies used to promote the product.

Marketing

So much of the popularity of jeans is related to successful marketing strategies. Whether it be the brand names of Levi Strauss, or Lee, Calvin Klein and Guess or even Gene Autrey, the success of jeans as a popular culture has focussed on myths, legends and icons related to Westerns and Rock 'n’ Roll. More recently, jeans have been marketed through Street groups and fashion models.

Activities

Find advertisements for jeans. What marketing strategy is being used in different countries to increase the popularity of the product?
Prepare a collage of other products that feature the use of denim?
Discuss the role that jeans have played in breaking down social barriers.
How have jeans been incorporated into people's lifestyles? What has been the impact on their social life?

Control

Stakeholders

The producers, the consumers and the media all hold significant shares in jeans as a popular culture and its long-term survival. The governments of many third world countries too, have a major part to play as they are affected by the establishment of sweat-shops which benefit from low wages and poor working conditions. The controversial matter of attempts by governments to regulate these companies warrants careful consideration.

Ownership

This is an issue that will continue to be debated for many years to come. Do the consumers drive the producers and thence the media? Or is it rather that the producers use the media to drive the consumers to purchase the new products? Calvin Klein and other fashion designers promote both new street bands and their own products in state of the art advertising designed to appeal to the next generation of cash or credit buyers.

Access

Who doesn't own a pair of Levis or Lees regularly dragged out for that wet weekend or an afternoon at the football? Who hasn't got some denim stashed carefully in the corner of the room just waiting for the right moment to display a little bit of individuality? Jeans are a symbol of egalitarianism. They encapsulate the dreams of many who want to be seen as another Elvis, or even perhaps a Claudia? They are no longer the symbol of rebelliousness, they are now just a way of life for persons of all ages, all walks of life and all classes of society.

Censorship

Government departments, schools, churches, banks, clubs and recent generations of parents have at some time imposed restrictions on the wearing of jeans at particular times. While the wearing of jeans in the 60s and early 70s would have been unheard of at weddings and twenty-firsts , today the whole situation has changed. Some offices encourage jeans on Fridays and Mufti days and Jeans for Genes Days are common in many schools in the 21^st century.

Power and Authority

The most important issues here are related to access and control. Do consumers have the power to change styles? What authority, for example, do the various agents of socialisation have in allowing or preventing the wearing of jeans?

Perceptions

Resistance

Schools, churches, banks, business houses, leading shops such as David Jones and Grace Bros and clubs for a long time have opposed the wearing of jeans. This is gradually changing of course, as jeans acquire fashion status. Business suits and formal attire are still prerequisites for attendance at certain functions.

Acceptance

In Australia, Jeans for Genes Day gains strong support and media coverage. Everyone owns a pair of jeans. From 'bikkies' to office workers, jeans hold pride of place in the average wardrobe. Big name fashion designers such as Calvin Klein and Armani now feature denim in their latest presentations. Jeans have gained universal acceptance as durable, stylish and affordable fashion items.

Tensions

Because jeans in the 1950s and 1960s were associated with the bad boy, the juvenile delinquent or rebellious teenager, tensions between authorities and wearers of jeans were obvious. Attendance at church dances in the 1960s for example, mandated the wearing of respectable attire. Jeans were not permitted. Parents insisted that proper trousers be worn to family functions. This created considerable tensions between parents and their children.

Social Change

The key issue to be decided here is whether society has changed the popular culture or popular culture has changed society? There is no doubt that any discussion of this issue will require an investigation into changes in attitudes and values; in access by individuals of different classes in society; and in the role of institutions within society in either promoting or censoring jeans as a popular culture. It has to be admitted, though, that the wearing of jeans has brought about a change in the class differences that appear in society. It assumes an air of egalitarianism, provided individuals have the means, they can acquire a pair of long-lasting jeans. Levis, suffering from a slump in sales in the late 1980s, introduced their “I heard it through the Grapevine” campaign. The result was an 800% increase in sales in Europe.

The Future

Wherein lies the future of denim jeans? Is it in the approach presently being adopted by the major fashion houses of Armani, Calvin Klein, and Guess, who target the 15-24 age group, identify the latest trends and release their new outfits with remarkable speed and efficiency? Is it in the strategies of long term suppliers such as Levis who still hang desperately to their time-worn image of reliability, durability and tradition and hold on to a good percentage of the market? Perhaps it is in the personalising of jeans when the consumer dictates to the manufacture just what custom-made pants they want to wear. In London, an artist named Claire Griffiths is doing a roaring trade in customised jeans. She once presented a one-off pair of Levis for an exhibition. You can now design your own jeans and Levis will make them for you.

Activities

What employment regulations exist in Australia that relate to the manufacture and sale of clothing?
How have multi-nationals been able to get around these regulations?
What has been the impact of grunge and cargo pants on the marketing of jeans?
How and why have attitudes to the wearing of jeans changed in the period from 1950-2000?
What impact have major historical events had on the consumption of blue jeans from 1850-2000?

New Internationalist, June 1998
An excellent collection of articles related specifically to the environmental, economic and social impact that the manufacture of cotton and indigo is having on third world countries.
Sydney Morning Herald, January 8, 2000
George Epaminondas argues in Got The Denim Blues that Levis has lost its cool but that new strategies are being used to woo back young fashion conscious buyers.
Sydney Morning Herald, May 8 1999
This Good Weekend article by Hal Aspen is titled Faded Glory, and it discusses the denim blues and Levis fight back plan.
The Bulletin, January 23 1996
Jean Genius is a fascinating article by Keith Dunstan about Craig and Roger Kimberley who established Just Jeans shops throughout Australia.
Sydney Morning Herald, Good Weekend, August 28, 1999
In her article, Dishing the Dirt on Denim, Lee Tulloch discusses the waning interest in Calvin Klein's Dirty Denim.
The Sun Herald, Tempo, April 4 1999
Christine Hogan looks at the challenges to denim in this article Cargo Pant Mentality
Sydney Morning Herald, May 8 1999
Hugh Mackay discusses the changing fortunes of fashion in his article Why jeans makers are getting the blues.
Blue Jean, Estate Films, NBD Television 1995
This video gives a detailed and interesting account of the development of Blue Jeans as a popular culture, from its earliest beginnings on the gold fields of San Francisco in the 1850s to Neil Diamond's very popular hit “Forever in Blue Jeans" in 1978, to the fashion catwalks of the 1990s.
“Forever in Blue Jeans” Neil Diamond and Richard Bennett, 1978
From the Album, You Don't Bring Me Flowers (Columbia CK 35625)
Polemus, Ted, Streetstyle, CS Graphics, Singapore 1994
Vogue, April 1994
Illustrates latest trends in jean couture.
Howitt, B. Understanding Popular Culture, 1998
This is an extremely useful document in understanding the nature of popular culture. Available through the Society and Culture Association web site.
The Face Magazine, September 2000
More useful illustrations of current trends in jean design and promotion.
I-D Magazine, August 1998
Some more useful advertisements illustrating contemporary fashion.