Fall Asleep While Learning About Jeans

In this episode of the I Can't Sleep Podcast, fall asleep while learning about jeans. Who knew that jeans had such an interesting history? I sure didn't. Oh, and I bent you won't find out what that history is as you drift off tonight listening to this episode.

Happy sleeping!

Transcript

Welcome back,

Or welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast,

Where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice.

I'm your host,

Benjamin Boster.

Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article titled,

Jeans.

Jeans are a type of pants or trousers made from denim or dungaree cloth.

Often,

The term jeans refers to a particular style of trousers,

Called blue jeans,

With the addition of copper pocket rivets added by Jacob W.

Davis in 1871 and patented by Davis and Levi Strauss on May 20,

1873.

Prior to the patent,

The term blue jeans had been long in use for various garments,

Including trousers,

Overalls,

And coats,

Constructed from blue-colored denim.

Jean also references a historic type of sturdy cloth commonly made with a cotton warp and wool weft,

Also known as Virginia cloth.

Jean cloth can be entirely cotton as well,

Similar to denim.

Originally designed for minors,

Modern jeans were popularized as casual wear by Marlon Brando and James Dean in their 1950s film,

Particularly The Wild One and Rebel Without a Cause,

Leading to the fabric becoming a symbol of rebellion among teenagers,

Especially members of the greaser subculture.

From the 1960s onwards,

Jeans became common among various youth subcultures and subsequently young members of the general population.

Nowadays,

They are one of the most popular types of trousers in Western culture.

Historic brands include Levi's,

Lee,

And Wrangler.

Research on the trade of jean fabric shows that it emerged in the cities of Genoa,

Italy,

And Nîmes,

France.

Gen,

The French word for Genoa,

May be the origin of the word jeans.

In Nîmes,

Weavers tried to reproduce jean fabric,

But instead developed a similar twill fabric that became known as denim,

De nîmes meaning from nîmes.

Genoa's jean fabric was a fustian textile of medium quality and of reasonable cost,

Very similar to cotton corduroy,

For which Genoa was famous,

And was used for work clothes in general.

The Genoese navy equipped its sailors with jeans,

As they needed a fabric that could be worn wet or dry.

Nîmes denim was coarser,

Considered higher quality,

And was used for overgarments,

Such as smocks or overalls.

In 1576,

A quantity of jean fustians arrived into the port of Barnstable on a vessel from Bristol.

Nearly all indigo needed for dyeing came from indigo bush plantations in India until the late 19th century.

It was replaced by indigo synthesis methods developed in Germany.

By the 17th century,

Jean was a crucial textile for working-class people in northern Italy.

This is seen in a series of genre paintings from around the 17th century,

Attributed to an artist now referred to as the Master of the Blue Jeans.

The ten paintings depict impoverished scenes from lower-class figures wearing a fabric that looks like denim.

The fabric is a mixture of indigo and indigo fustia,

And the fabric would have been Genoese jean,

Which was cheaper.

Genre painting came to prominence in the late 16th century,

And the non-nobility subject matter in all ten paintings places them among others that portray similar scenes.

Tungury was mentioned for the first time in the 17th century when it was referred to as cheap,

Cotton cloth,

Often colored blue but sometimes white,

Worn by impoverished people in what was then a region of Bombay,

India,

A dockside village called Dungury.

This cloth was dungury in Hindi.

Dungury was exported to England,

Then used for manufacturing of cheap,

Robust working clothes.

In English,

The word dungury,

Spelled d-u-n-g-r-i,

Became pronounced as dungury,

D-u-n-g-a-r-e-e.

The term jeans appears first in 1795,

When a Swiss banker by the name of Jean-Gabriel Einard and his brother Jacques went to Genoa,

And both were soon heading a flourishing commercial concern.

In 1800,

Messina's troops entered the town and Jean-Gabriel was entrusted with her supply.

In particular,

He furnished them with uniforms cut from blue cloth,

Called bleu de jean,

Whence later derives the famous garment known worldwide as blue jeans.

Levi Strauss,

As a young man in 1851,

Went from Germany to New York to join his older brothers,

Who ran a goods store.

In 1853,

He moved to San Francisco to open his own dry goods business.

Jacob Davis was a tailor who often bought bolts of cloth from Levi Strauss and Company Wholesale House.

In 1872,

Davis wrote to Strauss asking to partner with him to patent and sell clothing reinforced with rivets.

The copper rivets were to reinforce the points of stress.

Such as pocket corners and at the bottom of the button fly.

Strauss accepted Davis's offer,

And the two men received U.

S.

Patent number 139-121 for an improvement in fastening pocket openings on May 20,

1873.

Davis and Strauss experimented with different fabrics.

An early attempt was brown cotton duck,

A bottom weight fabric.

Finding denim a more suitable material for work pants,

They began using it to manufacture their riveted pants.

The denim used was produced by an American manufacturer.

Popular legend incorrectly states that it was imported from Neame.

A popular myth is that Strauss initially sold brown canvas pants to miners,

Later dyed them blue,

Turned to use denim,

And only after Davis wrote to him added rivets.

Initially,

Strauss' jeans were simply sturdy trousers worn by factory workers,

Miners,

Farmers,

And cattlemen throughout the North American West.

During this period,

Men's jeans had the fly down the front,

Whereas women's jeans had the fly down the left side.

When Levi Strauss and Company patented the modern mass-produced prototype in 1873,

There were two pockets in the front and a patch pocket on the back right reinforced with copper rivets.

The small riveted watch pocket was first added by Levi Strauss to their jeans in the late 1870s.

In 1901,

Levi Strauss added the back left pocket to their 501 model.

This created the now familiar and industry standard five pocket configuration,

With two large pockets and small watch pocket in front with two pockets on the rear.

The popularity of waist overalls,

As jeans were sometimes called,

Expanded during World War II.

By the 1960s,

Both men's and women's jeans had the zipper down the front.

Historic photographs indicate that in the decades before they became a staple of fashion,

Jeans generally fit quite loosely,

Much like a pair of bib overalls without the bib.

Indeed,

Until 1960,

Levi Strauss called its flagship product waist overalls rather than jeans.

After James Dean popularized them in the movie Rebel Without a Cause,

Wearing jeans became a symbol of youth rebellion during the 1950s.

During the 1960s,

The wearing of jeans became more acceptable,

And by the 1970s it had become general fashion in the United States for casual wear.

In Japan in 1977,

A professor of Osaka University,

Philip Carl Pera,

Chastised a female student wearing jeans in the classroom.

Then he was protested by the students,

And a controversy arose in the country.

Examples of intentional denim distressing strictly to make them more fashionable can be seen as early as 1935 in Vogue's June issue.

Michael Beluomo,

Editor of Sportswear International magazine,

October to November 1987,

Page 45,

Wrote that in 1965,

Limbo,

A boutique in the New York East Village,

Was the first retailer to wash a new pair of jeans to get a used,

Worn effect,

And the idea became a hit.

He continued,

Limbo hired East Village artists to embellish the jeans with patches,

Decals,

And other touches,

And sold them for $200.

In the early 1980s,

The denim industry introduced the stone washing technique developed by GWG,

Also known as Great Western Garment Company.

Donald Freeland of Edmonton,

Alberta pioneered the method,

Which helped to bring denim to a larger and more versatile market.

Acceptance of jeans continued through the 1980s and 1990s.

Originally a utilitarian garment,

Jeans became a common fashion choice in the second half of the 20th century.

Traditionally,

Jeans were dyed to a blue colour using natural indigo dye.

Most denim is now dyed using synthetic indigo.

Approximately 20,

000 tons of indigo are produced annually for this purpose,

Though only a few grams of the dye are required for each pair.

For other colours of denim,

Other dyes must be used.

Currently,

Jeans are produced in any colour that can be achieved with cotton.

In 1962,

Levi Strauss introduced their own pre-shrunk jeans.

Lee and Wrangler jeans had already long been pre-shrunk.

These did not shrink further after purchase,

Allowing the consumer to purchase a correctly fitting size.

Pre-shrink is most common in jeans nowadays.

These jeans were most common in jeans nowadays.

These jeans were known as the 505 regular fit jeans.

The 505s are almost identical to the 501s with the exception of the button fly.

The Levi's Corporation also introduced a slim bootcut fit known as 517 and 527.

The difference between the two is that the 517s sit at the waistline and the 527s sit below the waistline.

Later,

Levi's would develop other styles and fits such as the loose,

Slim,

Comfort,

Relaxed,

Skinny,

And a regular fit with a tapered leg.

A significant amount of the aesthetic treatment of jeans may occur after the denim has been cut and sewn into the final garment.

Many denim articles are washed to make them softer and to reduce or minimize shrinkage,

Even beyond what sanferization prevents.

Significantly washed denim can resemble dry denim,

Which has faded naturally over extended use.

Such distressing may be supplemented by chemical treatments or physical techniques such as stone washing.

The used or acid wash look is created by means of abrading the jeans or treating them with chemicals such as acryl resin,

Phenol,

A hypochlorite,

Potassium,

And antioxidants.

Ripping or distressing of jeans,

Though also arising naturally as a result of wear and tear,

Is sometimes deliberately performed by suppliers,

With distressed clothing sometimes selling for more than a non-distressed pair.

For example,

Pucci sold embellished mid-rise boyfriend jeans for £600 or $860.

Over time,

Dry denim will fade,

Which is considered fashionable in some circumstances.

During the process of wear,

Fading will usually occur on those parts of the article that receive the most stress.

On a pair of jeans,

This includes the upper thighs,

The ankles,

And the areas behind the knees.

Patterns of fading in jeans caused by prolonged periods of wear include honeycombs,

Meshes of faded line segments that form behind the knees,

Stacks,

Irregular bands of fading above the ankle caused by accordion of the fabric due to contact with the foot or shoe,

Train tracks fading along the outside seams due to abrasion.

Distressed denim emerged from the cultural punk movement in the 1970s.

Early punks tore apart consumer goods as an expression of their anger towards capitalism and corporate greed.

Punks deliberately used safety pins in garments to encourage the youth to not buy endless meaningless fashion and so fund corporations.

Corporate bosses gentrified the notion by selling clothes with safety pins already in them to the next generation,

So the original meaning of punk was lost.

Denim became a key target of this politically-fueled deconstruction,

With both men and women donning torn pants and jackets,

Accessorized with safety pins and slogans.

The trend became popular again in the 1990s with the emergence of grunge fashion.

The grunge youth wore loose-fitting ripped jeans,

Flannel shirts,

Or woolen pendants layered over t-shirts.

Their anti-conformist approach to fashion led to the popularization of the casual chic look,

A trend which continued into the 2000s.

Despite most jeans being pre-shrunk,

They are still sensitive to slight further shrinkage and loss of color from being washed.

The Levi Strauss company recommends avoiding washing jeans as much as possible.

Carl Chiara,

Levi Strauss director of brand and special projects,

Has a credo,

The less you wash your jeans,

The better your jeans become.

These and other suggestions to avoid washing jeans where possible have encountered criticism.

Corey Warren,

Editor of LS & Co Unzipped,

Clarifies in a response to such a criticism,

Our advice is to wash less often,

But clearly you have to judge for yourself what's appropriate.

Hot day,

Dirty job?

Wash your jeans,

Please.

Cold day,

Office job?

Maybe you can wear them twice or more before they go back to the washing machine.

Personally,

If I wear a pair of jeans to work on Friday,

Cool climate,

Office job,

I tend to wear them on Saturday.

And if Saturday is spent indoors and I'm not spilling food all over myself,

I might even wear them on Sunday.

For those who prefer to refrain from washing their jeans,

There have been suggestions to freeze them in order to kill the germs that cause odor.

However,

This advice has been proven ineffective.

North America accounts for 39% of global purchases for jeans,

Followed by Western Europe at 20%,

Japan and Korea at 10%,

And the rest of the world at 31%.

U.

S.

Consumers spent more than $14 billion on jeans in 2004 and $15 billion in 2005.

U.

S.

Consumers bought $13.

8 billion of men's and women's jeans in the year that ended April 30,

2011,

Approximately $18.

4 billion in 2023,

According to market research firm NBD Group.

In 2014,

Teens were buying more fashion and athleisure clothing from brands such as Nike and Lululemon over denim classics from brands like Abercrombie & Fitch.

Activewear in 2014 comprised 28% of teens' apparel purchases,

Up from 6% in 2008.

In 2014,

Teens were buying Nike,

Lululemon,

Under Armour,

And Adidas were the most popular brands for athletic apparel among teen consumers.

Fashion retailers have begun to adjust their offerings accordingly.

Bloomberg reports that Levi's stuck to its core product,

Denim,

Instead of adapting to consumer trends.

As a result,

Levi's sales decreased from over $7 billion to $4.

8 billion in 2015.

In February 2021,

It was found that sales for athleisure had risen by 84% since March 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 lockdowns.

VARIATIONS ON THE BASIC TYPE Cigarette.

Designed to fit quite closely,

But not tightly,

To the thigh area with a less close fit to the calf.

Cropped.

Where the leg is cut to a lesser length to somewhere above the angle.

Skinny.

Worn to flatter the figure in the fashion of tight or close fitting.

Wide-leg.

Or with cropped variant.

The waistline rides up past the wearer's actual waist.

Material below the knee is altogether away from the leg.

Descends as a straight line.

Standard type descends down to the ankle.

Cropped variant.

The leg ceases at the lower leg midway down,

Or stops further down toward the ankle.

Mom or mum.

Jeans which have a high waist above the belly button and are loose around the thighs with a somewhat tapered fit.

Straight-leg.

Jeans which are the same width at the leg opening as they are at the bottom of the leg,

Making for a slightly baggy fit.

Boyfriend.

Often with a mid-low waist,

Boyfriend jeans are the most popular type of jeans.

Boyfriend.

Often with a mid-low waist,

Boyfriend jeans have a baggy,

Borrowed-from-the-boys fit.

Flared or bell-bottomed.

Often fitted around the thigh area,

Then become wider from the knee down.

High-waisted jeans were first popularized in the 1970s,

But they have seen a resurgence in popularity in recent years.

High-waisted jeans are characterized by a high rise that sits above the belly button.

They can be fitted,

Relaxed,

Or loose-fitting,

And they come in a variety of washes and colors.

Media reported in 2017 that the trend of low-rise jeans,

Famous in the 1990s and 2000s,

Was coming back into fashion due to a spark by an interest in Y2K style.

In the early 2000s,

Low-rise jeans were commonly seen on celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez,

Paris Hilton,

Gwen Stefani,

And Christina Aguilera,

Attributing to the Y2K style.

In 2021,

Online searches for Y2K fashion had risen by 193%,

Showing that the fashion style was making a comeback,

And low-rise jeans were becoming a common clothing item for teenagers and young adults.

Low-rise jeans usually come 2 to 3 inches or more below the navel.

Manufactured low-rise jeans have a shorter rise distance between the waistband and crotch seam.

Manufactured low-rise jeans have a shorter rise.

The low-rise look can also be accomplished by letting jeans with longer rises fall lower than they are meant to.

This is a less extreme version of sagging,

Which was popularized by male hip-hop artists in the 1990s.

A denim jacket,

Also called a jean jacket,

Jeans jacket,

Or trucker jacket,

Is a jacket made from denim.

Introduced in the United States in the late 19th century,

It has been a popular type of casual apparel with both men and women,

And has been described as an iconic element of American fashion.

Though a staple of Western wear,

The denim jacket has also enjoyed a more general appeal.

The first recorded denim jacket is part of the collection of the German Historical Commission of the Rhineland,

And dates back to 1805 or 1810.

In the United States,

The first recorded denim jacket is from about 1880,

Which was from the German businessman Levi Strauss,

Approximately 10 years after he had invented jeans as a new type of work apparel,

Intended for use by cowboys,

Miners,

And railroad workers.

The Type III denim jacket,

Introduced by Levi Strauss and company in 1962,

Has been described as the denim jacket to rule them all.

Also known as the trucker jacket,

Design elements of the Type III include a tapered style,

Welt hand pockets,

And bar tags which hold down chest pocket and sleeve openings.

In 2014,

Google collaborated with Levi Strauss and company to develop a connected denim jacket,

Described by Wired as the denim jacket of the future.

The underlying technology,

Named jacquard,

Encompassed a processor,

A built-in battery,

And a special yarn that gave the bottom of the arm a pseudo-touchscreen functionality.

The same year,

New York Fashion Week featured several denim jackets,

With The Guardian predicting that the denim jacket would be everywhere in 2018.

A second version of the jacquard jacket,

Featuring an appearance closer to jackets without the technology as well as a lower price,

Was released in late 2019.

In addition to Levi Strauss and company,

Companies designing denim jackets have included Wrangler,

Calvin Klein,

Tom Ford,

Gucci,

And Dior,

Among others.

According to GQ,

There are few things more iconic,

More innately American,

Than a denim jacket,

And the magazine has called it a staple for stylish men.

Jeans jackets have also been popular with women.

Jeans jackets,

Like jeans,

Are a major element of Western wear.

However,

Like jeans themselves,

They have also enjoyed a lot of attention.

However,

Like jeans themselves,

They have also enjoyed a more general appeal.

Notable wearers of jean jackets have included Western entertainers James Dean and John Lennon,

As well as Polish anti-communist dissident Jacek Kuron.

In 2017,

GQ opined that Kanye West seemed to own an alarming number of jean jackets,

Remarking that he doesn't seem to go a few days without wearing one.

According to Levi Strauss and company,

The jean jacket has traditionally appealed to non-conformists,

Has a knock to the suits of the world,

Its informal yet edgy heritage making it the ideal item to stick it to the man.

While jean jackets are predominantly found in blue,

Denim can be dyed any color,

Achievable with cotton,

So jackets in colors such as white and violet also exist.

As with jeans themselves,

It is possible to buy raw or dry denim jean jackets which have not been washed or distressed at the factory and instead fade and break in naturally over time with wear.

Jean jackets with sherpa lining for warmth are also available.

A Canadian tuxedo,

Also known as double denim,

Is a colloquial term for wearing a jean shirt or denim jacket with jeans.

The term reportedly originated in 1951 after Bing Crosby was refused entry to a hotel in Vancouver,

British Columbia because he was wearing a denim top and denim bottoms.

After learning of the incident,

Levi Strauss and company designed a tuxedo made entirely of denim for Crosby as a publicity stunt.

Despite its name,

The Canadian tuxedo is not a specifically Canadian style,

But is also closely correlated with images in American pop culture,

Such as the Marlboro Man.

The Crosby incident has been credited with helping to spur the evolution of denim from blue-collar workwear into a fashion staple.

However,

The popularity of the full Canadian Canadian tuxedo look has varied,

Being accepted as stylish and on-trend at some times and as a fashion faux pas at others.

Some fashion stylists have asserted that the look works better if the jeans and the jacket are different colors than it does if they're the same shade.

The Canadian tuxedo has also sometimes been interpreted as including a flannel shirt under the jacket,

Although this is not a universal definition.

The Canadian tuxedo achieved a pop culture peak in 2001,

When Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake wore the combination to that year's American Music Awards.

In 2016,

Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau wore a Canadian tuxedo to a concert by The Tragically Hip.

Lady Gaga has also worn a Canadian tuxedo in public.

In 2014,

Levi Strauss produced a limited run of 200 replicas of the original Crosby tuxedo jacket as part of that year's line.

Various fashion design houses have also produced couture interpretations of the Canadian tuxedo.

Jeggings are leggings that are made to look like skin-tied denim jeans.

The word is a portmanteau of the words jeans and leggings.

Jeggings were brought on by the resurgence in style of skinny jeans in the late 2000s,

When a higher demand for a tighter style of pants came about.

Since jeggings are typically made of a cotton-spandex blend,

Cotton being the primary fiber in most denim,

A kind of serge,

They are often worn on their own as opposed to under a skirt or dress.

Some jeggings have front-fastening facilities while others just have an elastic waistband and no pockets.

With respect to material,

Jeggings fall into two main categories.

1.

Jeggings that are legging material,

I.

E.

A knit made to look like denim with fake pockets and belt loops.

2.

Jeggings that are a true cross between denim and legging material.

Denim jeggings are essentially a denim fabric with the elasticity of a legging due to a higher proportion of spandex in the fiber content.

The latter are more similar to skinny jeans than the former.

Some designers call denim jeggings holon jeans rather than jeggings.

Jeggings entered the fitness world by early 2010s and were among the most popular clothing items of 2010,

According to Business Reporting.

Many opt to wear jeggings in order to give the legging feel as well as the jean appearance.

In 2011,

Jeggings was entered into the 12th edition of Concise Oxford English Dictionary.

Conan O'Brien wore a pair during the taping of Conan on the 2nd of December,

2010,

The night after admitting his tongue-in-cheek love for jeggings to Project Runway's Tim Gunn.

Reviews

Didn’t fall asleep and in fact this one made me more alert learning some fascinating facts about jeans. Slowly getting through every track but don’t comment on all of them. Some do make me drop off quite quickly and others I find are really interesting and I enjoy learning about things I wouldn’t ordinarily research.

Hey Benjamin boster I was wondering if you could make one of these be about motorcycles it is my birthday on the 16 August and I was wondering if you could do that for me????? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE 🥺

PS I listen to everyone of your podcast episodes and love them ❤️

You know, that was kind of interesting! I’m not sure what that says about me though….🙄😂😂😂