Great Jeans

I've always loved fashion but in the past 12 years I developed a keen interest in fabrics when my mom would take me with her to shop for fabric for clothing she would make me for special occasions.

In the fabric shop I get a lot of fashion inspo as outfit ideas come to mind as I view and touch fabric.

In 2020 I decided I would teach myself more about fabric and on 30 December 2020 I wrote the following post which I haven't published yet.

In light of that whole Sydney Sweeney's great genes/jeans play on words I thought it would be a good time to share this post.

History of Jeans

Long before denim boots walked the runways, Jacob Davis and Levi Strauss invented the blue jean in 1873. Historyofjeans.com further explains how blue jeans traversed the ages designed first as working clothes then became a symbol of youth rebellion popularized by James Dean, to becoming accepted as fashion by the 1970’s.

From 1965, retailers made them look used and worn out to make them fashionable, decorating them with patches and decals (historyofjeans.com) and today, jeans are known for never going out of style and are worn by people of all genders and ages.

What I Like About Denim Texture and Appearance 

According to historyofjeans.com, denim is tough and does not stretch making it durable which is the first obvious thing you will notice about its texture and appearance, and its durability is experienced in how long it lasts upon the using.

Stretch denim is a new type of denim and is a blend of cotton and polyester and a small amount of other fabric that makes it stretch.

When compared to the dungaree, you can observe the difference in quality between denim and dungaree because dungaree is a cheap, coarse, thick cotton cloth, designed for the poor, yet it is comfortable and easy to wear and practical (historyofjeans.com).

Denim is usually colored blue with indigo dye but other colors are used through sulfur dyeing (historyofjeans.com). I prefer the classic blue denim look because of the history of jeans and you can easily dress it up or down with most colors and accessories.

Types of Denim

Naihian Shaikat posted the following table in an article of the different types of denim:

My Denim Story

All my life I’ve been overweight or obese yet fashion was an intense interest. As a kid, I would style myself and change clothes many times a day. As a teenager, I experimented with fashion, hair and accessories, even adjusting my clothes to stand out from the rest. 

I’m not saying it always looked good, but I was happy in my own little creative fashion world.

At some point in my yo-yo weight, I was slim enough to fit into these awesome blue bell-bottom denim jeans that my mom bought me years before and that my sister got paint on. They were tight but fit and I was so excited to wear them each time. I felt like a working woman proud of the paint stains on her jeans, never removing them because they were a mark of achievement.

I used to see myself in high fashion denim if ever I lost weight but now I am content with my eating habits and contemplating working on my discipline in exercise so I'm just a Business Analyst with food stains for now.

References:

1. History of Jeans (n.d.) Blue Jean History - Who Invented Jeans [online] Available at: http://www.historyofjeans.com/jeans-history/who-invented-jeans/ [Accessed on 15 September 2020]

2. History of Jeans (n.d.) Denim History - Origin of Denim [online] Available at: http://www.historyofjeans.com/jeans-history/history-of-denim/ [Accessed on 15 September 2020]

3. History of Jeans (n.d.) History of Dungaree Fabric [online] Available at: http://www.historyofjeans.com/jeans-history/history-of-dungaree-fabric/ [Accessed on 15 September 2020]

4. Denimology (2014) Denim Advice: All About Stretch Jeans [online] Available at: https://denimology.com/2014/12/all-about-stretch-jeans#:~:text=Stretch%20jeans%20are%20a%20style,or%20Lycra%2C%20into%20the%20fabric. [Accessed on 15 September 2020]

5. Shaikat, N.M. (n.d.) Denim Manufacturing Process, Types and Uses [Update] [online] Available at: https://ordnur.com/jeans/what-is-denim/ [Accessed on 15 September 2020]