Jeans and cowboy boots continue to be authentic American cultural costumes.
In the 1860s, high boots morphed into cowboy style with high heels and fancy tooled leather as the cowboys drove the Texas cattle up the trails to the railroad outlets in Kansas. Boots up until then were a combination of British Wellington boots and variations of U.S. Cavalry boots.
It is not so surprising to see jeans and cowboy boots all over Manhattan, America's fashion capital.
James Sullivan reports in his book Jeans: A Cultural History of
an American Icon,
(published in August) the oldest known pair of Levi’s in existence, a
miner’s pair of buckle-back waist overalls from the 1880’s (when Levis
started production of indigo-colored heavy cotton sail-cloth grade
clothing), sold for
$46,532 on eBay in 2001.
Although teenagers now want designer jeans, a trend that perhaps started with Calvin Kelin's chic blue jeans, modelled by Brooke Shields ("Give Me My Calvins) in the late 70s, it was the faded and worn Levis that could command enough money in overseas trade that college students were known to travel Europe financed by selling their worn and broken-in used Levis. The choice of jeans available now (try Old Navy or Gap and you can easily spend HOURS trying to find just the right pair) is a far cry from the way that one used to buy jeans: bought in a larger size and washed hot so that they would shrink-to-fit. Jeans were bought in stores that sold work boots.
The New York Times writes in the review of Sullivan's book: "The story of what’s happened to jeans post-1960’s is a perfect metaphor for the commodification of the counterculture that has occurred in the last four decades, and Mr. Sullivan, who was a pop culture critic at The San Francisco Chronicle for seven years, dutifully chronicles how this came about, just as he dutifully chronicles the early history of jeans as working men’s garments worn by miners, manual laborers and cowboys."
My jeans have always been my comfort clothes. And you should see how they wear their cowboy boots in Manhattan. A real cowboy would have a good laugh. Maybe New Yorkers will have the last laugh as they morph the American statement into something completely new.
MotherPie related posts:
How to Put a Crease in Jeans
Stetson Silver Belly Cowboy Hat
Marlboro: Going Gold
The Marlboro Man: An American Icon
Jeans are Not Just for Cowboys
MotherPie's category: Out West
Two years ago, the "fashion experts" predicted that jeans were going to bite the dust permanately. HA!
That's about all my kids will wear. The hubs rushes to change from his chinos into jeans and I thought it was just Texas...
Posted by: Laundry Woman | August 21, 2006 at 10:02 AM