Strange, isn’t it, how far denim has come? If my grandfather knew that a $600 pair of jeans even existed… let alone that human beings were actually willing to pay that kind of money for them… he would, as my mother would say, roll over in his grave.
When I learned of this week’s theme, it was actually my grandfather who first came to mind – a hard working mechanic who, in the 1930’s, repaired trains in the belly of Grand Central Station. He essentially lived in ‘dungarees’ and durable blue denim overalls back when denim was considered “work clothes”. I can’t remember if it was from my Grandfather or a school assignment that I first learned of denim’s tie in with the San Francisco gold rush, but that’s another image that came to mind with this assignment… again, denim as sturdy work wear.
So, as is typical when I ponder anything relating to fashion, I’m left scratching my head over that NY Times article on jeans [http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/fashion/29JEANS.html?emc=eta1]. Possibly BECAUSE I’m no fashionista, I kind of “get” denim, I really do. Or at least I thought I did. I mean, I practically live in my Levis. So I’m perplexed here… HUNDREDS of dollars for a single pair of jeans?! Am I the only one that finds this slightly insane? Sure you can acid wash ‘em, embellish ‘em, sandblast ‘em… you can even give ‘em whiskers, but at the end of the day, they’re still ‘dungarees’.
In a piece by Levi Strauss & Co. about the history of denim, I read, “If we were to use a human term to describe a textile, we might say that denim is an honest fabric – substantial, forthright, and unpretentious.” Boy, does THAT conflict with the current image of denim as high-end designer commodity!
Perhaps, in the long run, the impact of our current economic downturn on the designer jeans industry is a good thing. While I find spending even $100 on a pair of jeans excessive, at least prices have come down substantially from those of 5 or 10 years ago. Maybe denim will even return to its roots and again become the clothing of the hard working, industrious American… I’m thinkin’ this country could use a little more “substantial, forthright and unpretentious”!
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