Blue Size

Blue Jeans Forever

Blue Jeans are reputed to have been invented way back in 1873 by Jacob Davis and Levi Straus. They were first designed and marketed as 'work pants' or 'waist overall'. It wasn't until the 1960s that the term 'Jeans' was adopted to refer to these increasingly popular trousers.

During my youth there were actually only three major brands to choose from. Levis, Wranglers and Lee. These were only available in a few colours, dark indigo blue being the most common. Levis were famous for introducing their 'shrink to fit' jeans which you would wear in the bath in order to shrink them to your size.

It was back in the 1970s that it became fashionable to wear worn and faded jeans and this led to the development of a whole new industry selling second hand jeans. This really took off in the 1980s with the Levis 501 advertising campaign.

Fashion conscious jeans lovers no longer had to wash and rewash their jeans in order to attain that well worn look. They could now buy genuinely old Levis 501s that had already been worn in. Many shoppers were completely oblivious to the fact that all these old 501s had come from American prisons where they were the standard clothing.

Jump forward to today and there must be hardly anyone between the ages of about 12 and 50 who doesn't own at least one pair of blue jeans. It has been estimated that American teenagers own an average of about six pairs.

And they are not limited to only a few select brands. Every major clothing manufacturer now produces their own range of Jeans. My personal favourites are Fat Face Jeans from the popular Fat Face range of outdoor, surf and ski clothing. The outfit that I like to wear for any occasion is a pair of Fat Face Jeans teamed with a comfortable Fat Face Hoodie. Not really appropriate for serious business meetings but immensely comfortable, practical and very  affordable.