Check the time. At this very moment, about half the world is wearing jeans. Hard to believe, right? The jean, since its inception in the 19th century as a garment of utility, has played many roles in fashion. From James Dean’s “jeans and a white tee” look in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) to Princess Diana’s popularization of the high-rise mom jeans paired with a blazer, denim has time and time again proved its versatility. This duality of excelling in both fashion and function makes people wonder: where do jeans come from, and why do we love them so much?

Many of the modern origin stories of jeans told today tell tales of cowboys racing across the Wild West on horseback as the sun sets dramatically behind them. In reality, however, the history of denim goes back much farther than that. Before “American” denim as we know it today developed, there were numerous denim-like garments being produced and worn across the world. In the 17th century, dungaree, a thick, durable cloth, was developed by individuals in Dungri, India. This cloth was often worn by workers overtop their normal clothes. Around the same time, a similar cloth developed in Nimes, France. This cloth was called “Serge de Nimes,” or twill of Nimes. Shortened, it was called “de Nimes,” or as we Americans pronounce it, denim. Indigo leaves, expensive and rare at the time, were often used to dye the cloth blue, creating the signature blue jean we know today.

Indigo, however, not only had a high financial cost, but also a high human cost. Due to the complex, labor-intensive process of cultivating indigo, 18th century American farmers turned to their slaves to produce the dye. White farmers quickly recognized the economic possibilities of farming indigo in the US and took advantage of slave labor to do so, thus leading to a strong tie between US slavery and denim. Not only was the dye used for denim produced by American slaves, but the cotton was as well. For each pair of jeans that was produced, two pounds of cotton were needed, perpetuating the enslavement of black individuals across the United States. However, as time went on and denim became a staple garment in America, the same slaves that were producing the indigo and cotton used for denim were being dressed in it. As such, the wearing of denim became stigmatized, and was often identified as a garment of an inferior group. By the turn of the twentieth century, people of “all races, ages, and genders” were wearing jeans, as said by Emma McClendon, a fashion historian. However, as the prevalence of denim among black sharecroppers of the south and Chinese immigrants on the Transcontinental Railroad waxed, the wearing of the garment among the white population waned. Numerous denim companies tried to cater to their white customers by promoting products with the label, “Made with white labor only.” This racial division soon became an economic division as extra money and time became scarce during the Great Depression. 

The Great Depression was a time of despair and tragedy, but it was also a period of rapid evolution in fashion. Although the majority of Americans struggled through the ‘30s and early ‘40s, the elite classes of America still had leisure time and money. They used this time and money to pursue leisure activities, such as traveling to the ranches of western America. It was at these “dude ranches” where the rich and powerful were reintroduced to the jean. Soon enough, the jean was not only the symbol of the working class, but also the upper class. Denim was officially the fashion symbol of the United States.

As if jeans had not had a tumultuous enough journey already, the ‘60s had even more in store for the beloved garment. With the rise of hippie culture and the Civil Rights Movement throughout the late 20th century, the jean became the symbol of a youthful rebellion against injustice. Hippies wore jeans as an expression of freedom, often embroidering their bellbottoms with emotional and incisive messages and images. College students involved with the Civil Rights movements of the 60s often wore jeans while protesting, contrasting the “Sunday Best” dressing standard of older leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. Hip hop, also emerging in the ‘70s and becoming popular in the 80s, as well as its presence on MTV later on, popularized baggy jeans. Deals between designer brands, such as Tommy Hilfiger, and hip hop stars like Snoop Dogg, catapulted jeans from being solely the garment of the working class, to an article of clothing with designer value. The jeans became the clothing of America: unique and expressive, yet universal. 

Denim jeans are not just a versatile pair of pants sitting in your closet. They are not just part of a multi-billion dollar global economy. Jeans show us America’s irremovable ties with slavery and racism. They share with us America’s wars and fights for freedom. They represent for us American culture. The denim jean tells a story. America’s story. And that is why we love them so much.

Information retrieved from Riveted: The History of Jeans, ONSKA, CNN, Hawthorn, and Grandview Research.