Jeans are one of the most popular casual wear items today. Go anywhere on campus and it”s likely you”ll find people wearing denim in one form or another. Denim isn”t the most comfortable material, so where does this appeal to wear jeans come from?
Nicole Moeckli | Rawr
For starters, they”re socially accepted, and also they tend to be warm for the cold weather since denim usually runs thick. Normally, what people don”t think about is the fact that jeans were originally invented for cowboys and farmers. They were invented as work pants, to make it easier to move around but with a durable fabric, that wouldn”t tear easily.
During the Gold Rush, prospectors would wear jeans for both protection and comfort. Back then, jeans weren”t as socially accepted as they are now, only when manual labor was involved. Unlike today, kids weren”t allowed to go to school wearing jeans as casual pants. After the Gold Rush, however, jeans became more of a casual pant to wear in every-day situations, but was still considered too informal for most occasions.
Today, there are a number of different types of jeans. The pants come in a variety of cuts, like straight leg, skinny and boot cut. They can also come pre-distressed or in patterns. It”s no longer a surprise to see everyone from college students to even some businesspeople wearing jeans, as certain cuts and colors of jeans are considered business casual now.
Claire Kennell
Rawr
It”s incredibly interesting how within just 100 years, fashion can change so rapidly. Yes, jeans became more of a casual wear item after the Gold Rush, but it really wasn”t until the “80s when jeans were seen everywhere all of a sudden. The denim-on-denim look became a huge fashion trend, and suddenly people were wearing jeans everywhere. Not just in the work place, but to school, shopping and church.
This is just one example of how fast fashion can change within centuries. The fashion trends of the 2000s, such as belly shirts and pink-streaked hair, just like Britney and Christina are prime examples too. It”s exciting to see what fashion will do within the next 10 years. In the meantime, at least we can be thankful that for now, the latest fashion trend doesn”t involve aluminum or chrome.
Claire Kennell can be reached at [email protected]