Traveling Pants: A Jean-eology

Rumor has it the average woman has seven pairs of blue jeans in her closet, says Tara Stewart, market editor of More magazine. “I think that’s probably low-balling it,” she says, adding that she probably owns at least 50 pairs herself!

How did we get this obsessed? Take a trip back in time with MainStreet to see how the road to Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 is paved with denim.

1600s and 1700s
Contrary to popular belief, denim maker Levi Strauss did not invent blue jeans, says James Sullivan, author of Jeans: A Cultural History of An American Icon. Denim workpants and overalls were actually worn in the 17th and 18th century by peasants in Europe and in the American colonies, he says.

1800s
Levi Strauss and Co. established in 1853 and Lee Mercantile Company (VFC) established in 1889, both manufacture blue jeans on a mass scale -- mostly for miners and other hard laborers, Sullivan says.

1920s-1930s
When California and other points west became suburbanized in the 1920s and 1930s, ranches began marketing themselves as vacation spots, says Sullivan. Suburbanites arrived for a week of horseback riding and hiking and went home with a new appreciation for a cowboy way of life: blue jeans. (Lee’s also made the first overalls in 1920.)

1930s
A campaign for “Lady Levis” – blue jeans for women – never quite takes off in post-World War I America, because it just was not (yet) common for women to dress so casually, says Sullivan.

1940s
Jeans finally hit the mainstream! Teenagers made blue jeans popular as an “anti-fashion statement,” wearing pants mostly worn by workers as “leisure clothes,” Sullivan says. Jeans were particularly popular at that time worn with the cuffs rolled up.

1950s
Mass market blue jeans made the ‘rents nervous. Denim may have been eking its way onto the legs of teens throughout the 1940s and 1950s, but the fabric had trouble gaining social acceptance amongst adults. “Jeans in general were discouraged by school administrators and parents because there was this idea ‘the bad kids’ wore blue jeans,” says Sullivan. Young women in particular were definitely discouraged from wearing boy-ish pants during this time, he says.

1955
When teen girls swooned for James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause, both Levi’s and Lee’s claimed he wore their jeans in the film, says Sullivan. The truth? Dean wore Lees in the film but was often photographed for publicity in Levis.

1960
Consumers thought it was outrageous to pay $10 for blue jeans, says Sullivan.

1970s
Denim’s not just for your legs! Back in hippie-ier times, Volkswagen made a “Jeans Beetle”, which was a cute little bug furnished with denim on the inside. Meanwhile, consumers though it was outrageous when Calvin Klein charged $45 for blue jeans.

1990s
Consumers thought it was outrageous when Diesel charged $100 for blue jeans, says Sullivan.

2000s
Consumers think it’s outrageous to pay over $200 for blue jeans. When 7 For All Mankind (VFC) VFC sells $245 jeans at Neiman Marcus, Sullivan wasn’t surprised. “People made that (the $200+ jeans craze) out to be totally unprecedented but in fact, the blue jeans industry has been going through waves for decades,” says Sullivan. So what makes a pair of jeans cost over $200 today? What are consumers really getting in return? “Individual attention,” says Sullivan. Upscale companies use denim that’s of a higher quality to begin with, but then hand-sand and hand-wash their jeans.

Want to learn more about the jeans-loving gals in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2? Check out MainStreet's sister site, ReelZ, for special movie trailers, webisodes, and more!