The Magnifique Podcast
Hi guys! Welcome to Magnifique, your favorite fashion lovers podcast.
My names Gabrielle and I’m a fashion industry newb, though I’ve loved playing dress up for as long as I can remember. The fashion industry is an intimidating space, filled with elitist know-it-alls, it's hard to feel invited to learn about the rich history behind modern-day fashion.
I started this podcast because time after time, I've tried to find podcasts to learn more about hmm: how Gilded Age fashion influences modern-day attire, or Marc Jacobs being the reason for Louis Vuittons ready-to-wear line, OR how Levi Strauss pioneered Western Denim…and I'm met with a graveyard of results. I can't find anything! So I guess if I want something in this niche, I must do it myself. I invite you to join me as I expand my knowledge of the fashion space. Together we'll kinda be geniuses of fashion.
The Magnifique Podcast
Episode 18 - Denim Dreams: A Deep Dive Into the History of Denim
From the historical roots of indigo dye to the eco-friendly innovations of 3D printed denim, this episode shines a spotlight on denim’s evolution and its cultural significance. Discover how brands like Wrangler, Primark, and Digidenim are leading the charge in sustainable fashion, and join me on my personal adventure to find the perfect pair of jeans.
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Hi everyone and welcome to Magnifique, your fave fashion deep dive podcast. I'm your host, gabrielle, and today we fall down the rabbit hole of denim and the history of denim. How it came to be really just yada yada. But first let's get into the pleasantries. How are we? How was our weekend? Did you do anything fun? I'm going to pause for like three seconds. You tell me exactly what you did, in every detail. Ever Go. That sounds so amazing. Thank you for sharing Me.
Speaker 1:Personally, I am bringing today's episode to you from my basement floor, snuggled up in a blankie, just how we do. Tiktok has been feeding me things I find incredibly elegant and you know, as I just told you, I'm sitting down on the basement floor. But besides that, every single time I see a video I'm like, oh, that's me, oh, I do that, oh, I think I might be elegant. And you know, thank you. Finally, I've been cosplaying elegant since eighth grade. Go ahead and roll the tapes. I do have outfit of the days from eighth grade and I am just serving. I'm serving, serving what, I don't know, but I think we might be entering my era and I'm super excited.
Speaker 1:My only qualm is that I think elegant and kind of the archetype of elegant might be stolen. It might be stolen, it might become not that it ever wasn't mainstream, but I think the TikTok girls are going to steal it from me and just kind of water it down into whatever it's not. And I don't think everybody needs to be elegant. I think everybody needs to do what feels right for them. Me personally, I feel most empowered when I'm cosplaying elegance and I wouldn't even call it elegance, to be completely honest, everything that they're listing in these videos just adult women things. They just want to be an adult and that's fine. I'm not yucking anybody's yum. This is my yum. It's just how I candidly feel.
Speaker 1:But but in the same breath I've been getting a little bit down on myself for not having my closet look exactly as I want it, and I know that the TikTok girls are going to beat me to have a fully elegant closet. So that's kind of getting me in the dumps. But so many buts today. Call me MC Hammer. Yeah, I'm a little bit down that my closet doesn't look exactly how I want it to. However, comma, I did have to take a step back and I'm like girl, you're literally 25. Take a breath. We're chilling. We're only a quarter way through life. Actually, I read a book the other day that said nevermind, nevermind. But to be honest, the whole COVID thing really ruined my perception of time. We don't talk enough about how the pandemic stole two years from us at least. So in reality I am 23,. And what the heck is a 23-year-old doing with a home and a mortgage and a fully elegant closet? She has no business doing that. So I think I'm on the right track. Thank you for indulging me in that. But also, speaking of turning back time, I have been if we could only turn back time for one more day.
Speaker 1:I've been in my One Direction era again lately and I'm in two boats. It's kind of freaking me out, but also I'm kind of living for it. I don't know if it's a good thing or maybe a cry for help how about you tell me but I simply cannot stop. And I forgot how many absolute bangers the Up All Night album have. I am just bumpin'. It's truly liberating. I feel free. Thank you for asking.
Speaker 1:My favorite album from One Direction is Take Me Home, just due to the memories. It was the first album that I experienced in the fandom and you know that special feeling. You have a special place in your heart, and I watched all the teasers, I watched the music videos, I followed all the discourse. I had fan accounts. I was in the trenches. Here we are. I've been in the trenches since, um, like February of 2012. So it's been a while, been 12 years, and you know I keep cycling through my phases, and that's okay.
Speaker 1:I am needing a One Direction dance party immediately, if not sooner. I think it would fix all my ailments. And I had a dream the other night that I had a birthday party that was One Direction themed and I'll be honest, that was probably the best birthday party I've ever had, even if it wasn't a dream. So, yeah, that's how I'm feeling. Um, a little bit of housekeeping, housekeeping I don't know what the fuck I'm on today. Um, make sure you follow the link in the show notes to my sub stack. I'm putting out really cutesy little articles about fall fashion and perfume recommendations. It really means nothing in the grand scheme of the universe, but I kind of like it. I like to think of it as a cutesy little magazine. It's really fun.
Speaker 1:The reason for this episode is due to me just trying to find my most perfect pair of denim jeans, and I'm looking for something that's high quality, looks great and feels better. But I'm having trouble with the fact that jeans will take time to mold to your body in order to feel the most comfortable. So that's a struggle, but we will prevail, I believe it. And just one note before we do our little deep dive Bear in mind that throughout most of this episode, jean and denim are different things, but they end up meaning the same thing by about 1950. Up meaning the same thing by about 1950. So until then, jean and denim, two different things. Don't get it twisted, let's get into it.
Speaker 1:So kind of the denim's conception is that the jean dates back to genesis, or gene g-e-n-e. Like your body, the gene material is a tough twill trouser used by italian coastal workers in the city of genoa genoa, I've heard it in luca, and that's about it. And denim throws us back to 17th century france. It's created by accident in nimes, france nims. They were trying to replicate the jean material but ended up creating a sturdier material made from cotton twill cloth, and it was dubbed surge to nims, later shortened to denim. So that's how it came to be. But how did it come to the US? Thank you for asking.
Speaker 1:Levi Strauss. Levi Strauss is a German immigrant who moved to New York in 1851 with his mother and brother to start a dry goods business with his brother in the Big Apple. In the Big Apple, levi then moved to San Francisco in 1853, during the Gold Rush, to start a western branch of his family's dry good business. And just jumping a few years ahead, denim, as we know it, originated in 1860 by Levi Strauss Co. At the time he already was known for merchandising stiff and durable canvas pants. But due to customer requests of wanting a product that is as durable, just a little softer and more comfortable to wear, levi added Serge Denims to his product line. Product line.
Speaker 1:Levi Strauss and Co really started to pop off in 1873 when he partnered with Jacob Davis to patent their riveted work pant. Riveting helps to reinforce the pockets and the seams on work pants to keep them from ripping While doing heavy labor. It is, if you're wearing jeans right now, it's the little metal parts around your pockets. Jacob Davis was a tailor from Reno, nevada, and he frequently purchased Levi's materials to produce goods such as tents, horse blankets and wagon covers. But he was in San Fran on a commission trip. He was commissioned by a gold mining company to create a durable, heavy-duty workwear pant that I guess the mining company couldn't find from Levi Strauss. Davis drew up a plan for the riveted denim overall and proposed a plan to form a partnership with Strauss, as he provided the denim material to Davis. So they officially became partners on May 20, 1873, and ran the denim jean game until the 20th century when Wrangler and Lee entered the scene.
Speaker 1:So that takes us to the 1900s. Let's talk about her. So during the 1900s, denim was the heart of industrial and farm workers through the 19th and 20th century. I would move forward to argue that it still is. I'm not entirely sure about the rest of the company, but the blue-collar boys of the Midwest will live and die in their denim work pants. Blue-collar boys of the Midwest will live and die in their denim work pants Before leaving the working man pant archetype.
Speaker 1:Denim found a diehard fan club in the Western boy scene. What Western cowboy scene being introduced to the rest of the country, particularly to the East, during the dude ranch craze of the 1930s. Dude ranches were romanticizations, the wild west, a sense of nostalgia surrounding the olden days. East coasters would visit the dude ranches to go on western adventures and learn about famous Wild West figures at the dude ranches. According to Hawthorne Intel, these dude ranches were pretty lifelike, with many of the visitors either loving the authenticity and how authentic the feel and odors smelled, or they were severely displeased, hating those prior. Two points During the 1930s and World War II, american soldiers brought their denim overseas and would wear them off-duty, though, one would argue, there wasn't very much time to be off-duty.
Speaker 1:But this became a way for American soldiers to tell each other apart and because of this and due to the shortage of raw material needed to make the denim, it became less known for workwear and more appealing as leisure wear. Greaser types, you know, like Ponyboy, greaser types really rebranded denim in the 1950s, moving forward with successfully renaming them blue jeans. It was also during this decade that the denim pants saw the redesign and favoring the use of zippers rather than overalls. Up until then they would use like suspenders and overalls to hold their pants up, you know, like old people do, due to the likeness of James Dean and Elvis jean. Sales exploded the industry in the us, taking the item from being sold exclusively as work and utility fabric to capturing the interest of just regular degular fashion conscious people. Leave it to the baby boomers to popularize denim. Thanks, thanks, thanks I guess trickle down economics denim style. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Denim was everywhere and eventually got banned from being worn in school due to its rebellious persona that it adopted. During this time, protesters of the Vietnam War, civil rights activists and general rebels all wore denim pants to signify their rebellion. The American troops continued to wear their denim off-duty internationally, which sparks natives to grow an interest in denim. Japan now, in the 21st century, is the top quality denim producer in the world. If you're looking for good denim, I would highly suggest finding a Japanese-based site. They have the best quality denim that I found during this research. I have not actually purchased a pair of Japanese denim, but based off of what I've been reading, yeah, I would go with Japanese denim.
Speaker 1:During the 60s and 70s, we continued to see denim used in acts of protest, ie the sexual liberation movement playing with silhouettes and customizations to reflect their free spirits. So we saw bell-bottoms. We saw denim move more into like shirts. We saw Daisy Dukes. We saw painted pants and bedazzled pants. Denim really started to become like customizable in the 60s and 70s. However, comma. I'm really having fun with. However, comma today. Huh.
Speaker 1:During the 1980s, luxury designers saw the appeal of denim and jumped on the craze. Citing that, calvin Klein led the charge with Young Brooke Shields hosting the first my Calvin's Denim campaign, and he was also the first designer to showcase denim in a runway show. This was also the decade of grunge punk core. So lots of acid wash, lots of ripped jeans, lots of skinny fit, really experimenting with chemicals and materialization. And then we have the 90s. The 90s played around with fits and lengths of denim tremendously. I feel like every other decade left their little ode to denim with the bell-bottoms and the bejeweling. But the 90s said so, overcorrecting for the brief stint of skinny jeans and the 80s. But then we get into the 2000s and present-day denim.
Speaker 1:The early 2000s saw denim in a new way. We saw low-rise painted denim, ie galaxy shorts. I painted my very own pair of galaxy shorts. Loose jeans turned into ultra skinny jeans. In the 2010s, constricting blood flow like no other. Low rise turned to ultra high rise. The early 2000s and 2010s were just one big overcorrection. For the 90s, those skinny jeans were really no joke. I remember starting to adopt them in middle school. Yeah, they were very skinny and I needed them in every color. I think at one point I had an electric blue pair that was also cheetah print, that I got from Wardmans and I do fear I wore them more than I should have.
Speaker 1:I do fear that Luxury denim continues to innovate and find new ways to uphold the denim name. Although Levi's, wrangler and Lee's still dominate the game, we have premium denim like Paige Jeans, citizens of Humanity and Hudson's are leading the pack of the luxury denim game. When I think of luxury jeans, I only exclusively think of Paige Jeans. Purely because Jet and Pookie Puckett on TikTok love Paige jeans. I feel like whenever they do an outfit of the night, jet is wearing Paige jeans and you know that right there means I will not be affording them in the near future, as he is what like um, I don't know. But private wealth, no, he, he does acquisitions of insurance, so he's pretty rich, I fear. So no page jeans for me right now, but we'll see. I actually haven't looked up the price.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about current denim trends. Current denim trends we see kind of that barrel leg. It kind of looks like straight leg jeans on the inseam, but on the outer seam it kind of balloons out toward the end and tapers back in. They look funky, but I do fear that that is the next silhouette that's going to be trending for the youngins. As far as like fall denim, I've said it once and I said it again I think cowboy core is going to be in for the fall. So get your denim ready, get your tassels ready on your denim jackets. I think denim is going to have a moment this fall and we might see some revolutionized ways of thinking in terms of denim. But what's the future of denim? Thanks so much for asking.
Speaker 1:With growing concerns of sustainability, brands are now adopting efforts to combat climate change. Wrangler's Icon Collection is made with 20% recycled denim. Primark, a fast fashion brand in the UK, has since launched jeans made from 100% sustainably sourced cotton, and it's incredibly strenuous on natural resources to produce cotton at the level required to run a denim empire. One pair of jeans takes about 20,000 liters of water just to produce from start to finish. Denim heavily relies on numerous washing cycles pre-customer purchase, so there's a lot, a lot of water waste that goes into creating a good pair of denim.
Speaker 1:Digidenim is working around the clock to produce the first 3D printed denim collection. Digidenim is working around the clock to produce the first 3D printed denim collection, though it's taking much more effort than originally thought. From creating the seams perfectly getting the texture just right, you need to create various effects of each washing cycle in the 3D model While they're still in the development stages. Digidenim hopes to be the first waterless denim on the market, eliminating thousands of gallons of water used in the denim making process. This would also reduce costs all around and create faster production. It would allow designers to unlock new avenues of creativity when designing and connecting with the customers, sort of a come into our shop and watch your jeans come to life before your very eyes type of deal.
Speaker 1:Me personally, I think it's a little bit gimmicky, but I think it could find its target demographic. It's just not me. I'll be opting for recycled or thrifted denim. Now we talked a lot about denim. What makes good denim? How do I know if the denim that I'm purchasing is the best quality that I can find? I'll be honest with you it's going to be hard.
Speaker 1:Denim is a unique material that the components that make the denim include yarn, indigo dye, weaving and designs, washes and finishes. Denim needs to be dyed, washed down, chemically finished and or mechanically finished. Now, chemically finished means a durable press. Some softeners, some stain repellents, water repellents, mechanical finishes include brushing, sanding, laser etching, ripping to give a ripped effect. These treatments can improve the lasting power of the indigo dye.
Speaker 1:A large part of the denim's final product comes from the yarn process. The yarn is probably the most important part, other than, of course, the indigo dye. But the yarn is really the foundation. So the yarn is weaved together. It's two strings of yarn weaved together to make the denim effect. It's one white piece of yarn and one denim dyed, indigo dyed piece of yarn that's woven together. The firmness of the weaves, the strength of the weaves, the twists of the weaves all impact the final product. The evenness of which the yarn is twisted can affect the saturation of the indigo, as can varying thickness of the spun yarn. The firmness of the twisted yarn can affect the stiffness and the strength of the material. So you want it pretty firm to get a good quality pair of denim. You want it evenly twisted. You want to make sure there's no discrepancies in the pant. If you're looking at the pant just head-on, you want to make sure that the weaving looks good. Honestly, you're going to have to really get to know denim to find a good pair of denim. Let's talk about the indigo dye, though.
Speaker 1:Indigo is amongst the oldest dyes to be used in terms of textile dyeing. It can be dated back to at least 2500 BC, egypt, where an indigo robe was uncovered. The indigo dye was seen as sacred, as blue dye was very rare. The indigo dye is essential to denim due to its unique ability to fade in color after repeated laundering. So the point of denim is that it not only molds to your shape better, it's durable, but it also has a worn effect as you love it. It was originally a vegetable dye from the indigo fara plant from India and Africa, but thank you to colonization and just being found in Europe and the Americas, it became so widespread that you know it became a depleting source. Most of the indigo used in denim is synthetic. As 95% of the natural resources were depleted, let's go capitalism and exploitation. In 1878, adolf van Beyer invented synthetic indigo dye, which accounts for nearly 100% of all indigo dye products.
Speaker 1:Today, the use of indigo dye also improves the lasting power of the denim pant color. So present day, you may notice that your indigo dyed denim pants don't bleed as much as like you would expect them to. That is because synthetic dyes have a better lasting power in cotton than regular denim. So I would argue that today's denim is not like past denim, which kind of sucks. But I think finding high quality denim is all you really need. I saw on TikTok that there was kind of a craze of people trying to exclusively find raw denim and while I think that's great, I think that's only probably necessary for, like, people who use it for work. I don't think the average everyday wearer needs to find raw denim, unless that's your thing. But in closing, jeans transcend gender, age and class. Their appeal will be timeless, with fresh designs and technology forever evolving the material to cement its place in American traditional fashion.
Speaker 1:If this episode has taught me one thing, it's that denim rules everything and it's so interwoven in American culture. I love denim and I'm still looking for my most perfect pair of denim, so if you have any suggestions, send them my way. But that's denim. Thank you, levi Strauss, for bringing it and popularizing it. Really appreciate you there. If you want to keep up with us and my journey to find my most perfect pair of jeans, follow our links it's in the episode notes or you can follow me on Insta at Gabrielle Forshee, follow the pod at MagnifiquePod. That's kind of all I got for you today. Bye y'all and long live One Direction.
