Introducing Black and Blue Jeans

When did your love for jeans start? Mine started my junior year in high school, because up until that year in 1971 we were not allowed to wear jeans in school. In fact, my sophomore year we were permitted to wear “dress” pants, but up until then it was dresses and skirts. During the late ‘60’s we had rules with hemlines then, because mini skirts were fashionable. You had to put your arm to your side and your hem could not be above your finger tips. Did I try to get away with wearing something shorter...well, I wore a pair of gold “hot” pants with red and purple trim and purple tights to school one day. I don’t know if it was the length or the colors that tipped off the principal’s office, but I was told to go home and change. Mother was not happy, as she was a kindergarten teacher in the same school system.

I think my junior year became so lax in the school dress code was due to the fact that it was the principals last year. Because we wore our low waistline bell bottoms with crop tops and t-shirt dress that were way above your finger tips. We were smoking in the bathrooms, having sit-ins during school hours to either protest the Vietnam war or just to get out of class, drugs were being passed around in the hallways and skipping class and sneaking out of school was a regular thing. What happened to my grades with all this unstructured free-for-all? If mom wouldn’t have stepped in I probably would have repeated.

Whats this have to do with jeans. Well in my almost 50 years of wearing them, I’ve seen many styles of jeans from the ‘70’s bell bottoms to today’s skinny jeans (I think they are trying to bring back the bedazzled jeans). First, I want to know why we loved our bell bottom jeans to drag on the ground. They become dirty and torn, I mean we could wear our platform shoes and they still would drag.  We loved the way they made our waistline look smaller, especially if we wanted to wear crop tops. This brings me to just the other day, I went Christmas shopping at a mall, it’s just above freezing and pouring rain. But, what to my wondering eyes should appear, a miniature top and a bearing belly, oh dear. It’s December people!

This bring me to the 80’s and jeans have changed. High waisted and baggy fitting, not at all flattering, but comfortable. Was this what they called the “boyfriend jeans”, cause they looked like we were wearing them. (I think today we refer to them as “Mom” jeans) I remember the “boyfriend sweater” that would be a tad too big so it would fall off our shoulders, so we would look sexy. The marketers started using words like stone or acid washed to get our attention. Jeans I thought in the 80’s and 90’s were made of a heavy denim material. Not at all like the lighter softer denim they use today.

Now in November of 1980 a very wise advertising agency for Calvin Klein posed a 15 year old Brooke Shields in a pair of tight jeans with the slogan “Nothing comes between me and my Calvins” and the skinny jean was born.

So now we are shopping for high waisted, acid-washed skinny jeans.

Ah, the 90’s I’m getting older 35-44, getting a divorce, raising a child on my own, getting remarried and losing three important people in my life, one being my husband. So while all this is going on what are they doing to jeans???? They are selling jeans ripped and with holes in them. Have they gone mad? So it all started with a little rip at the knee or a place where it looks like it’s worn down to the threads (distressed, they call it) and today sometimes you might as well call them shorts with so much material cut out of them.

Another jean fad in the late ‘90’s was the baggy jeans, which luckily didn’t last long. But, unfortunately this lead to the, I don’t see the point, of having the top of your designer underwear to show. Why???

I think, if I recall as my memory fades on which fads became popular that bedazzled jeans and jeans of every color showed up in the 2000’s. Also, the idea of wearing all denim and of course the low-rise (which now at 45, I hated) I’m not a fan of the “mom” high-waisted jean either, but when I sit down I don’t want my butt sticking out. I think they became popular so the back tattoo would show...is that bad?  I did buy a very tasteful bedazzled pair, which I think are still around somewhere. They had rhinestones and pearls up one leg. And of course, I had to buy as many colors as I could, especially black jeans which were now as popular as blue jeans (and I could get away with wearing them at work..shhhhh🤫 and still do today😀)

2010’s the trend in denim fashion is toward variety, although skinnier styles for women remain the most popular by a margin, and are a fashion mainstay for most women, because of their versatility as a casual or dressier pant.

Straight leg jeans are another popular denim trend for women that has risen in the past few years, thanks to the influence of style bloggers and fashion bloggers. Today's straight leg jeans tend to be slimmer in their proportions than the roomy flares and boot cut jean styles of previous decades, and are designed to hug the wearer's bottom, hips, and thighs, for figure flattery.

High waisted jeans are another popular, throwback denim trend of recent years that women are loving. This style is especially flattering to curvy figures, and has been adopted by street style bloggers and celebrities alike — check out supermodel Gigi Hadid, seen here sporting the trend. 
Other vintage-inspired jean trends — including denim overalls, jumpsuits and rompers — became must-have fashion items in the past decade, and a popular choice for wearing to concerts and music festivals. Distressed denim is still showing up as a jeans trend among women of all ages too, from lightly abraded knees on sophisticated dark wash jeans, to ultra-shredded denim styles for younger denim lovers.

Personally, I  love the dark wash jeans (without holes) and also the new plaid jeans that have been out in stores the last couple years. For the younger gals like my 15 year old granddaughter she is definitely into distressed jeans, but be on the lookout the retailers are bring back the bedazzled jeans for teens as well as young adults.  I wonder what 2020’s will bring??