Everything You Need to Know About Jeans

In the latest episode of Everything You Need to Know About series, host Hamish Bowles charts the history of jeans in fashion. Though a humble fabric, denim is a complicated one, particularly as it relates to the exploitative American cotton industry. And the story of jeans is one of ever changing ideas about labor, leisure, and status. 

The elevation of this workwear staple to leisure wear, with the launch of Lady Levi’s and the popularity of dude ranches in the 1930s, marked jeans’ entry into the fashion system. This set in motion a rhythm based on ideological and design contrasts. Adopted by rebels and teens in the 1950s, jeans became synonymous with a new, anti-establishment generation; in the late 1960s customized denim vibed with hippies’ belief in individualism and nonconformism. Stretch allowed sexy ’70s jeans to fit like a second skin, a look that was countered by the trend-setting baggy jeans of the ’80s. When she was at Chloé, Phoebe Philo just said no to the low-as-they-can-go-rises of the early ’00s and replaced them with high-waisted mom jeans. You get the idea: Press play to get in the groove.

Director: Xander Opiyo
Editor: Alex Pilkington
Writer: Laird Borelli-Persson
Supervising Producer, Vogue: Jordin Rocchi
Associate Producers, Vogue: Kristen Engelson, Qieara Lesesne
Associate Director, Creative Development, Vogue: Billie JD Porter
Manager, Creative Development, Vogue: Alexandra Gurvitch
Director, Creative Development, Vogue: Anna Page Nadin
Post Production Coordinator: Andrea Farr
Post Production Manager: Marco Glinbizzi
Production Coordinator: Kit Fogarty
Production Manager: Edith Pauccar
Senior Director, Production Management: Tina Magnusson
VP, Digital Video Programming and Development,Vogue: Joe Pickard
Director of Content, Vogue: Rahel Gebreyes