Denimism

Denim blue jeans are one of the most worn garments in the world. Jeans developed in the twentieth century from a workers garment, through a uniform of non-conformity, to an item of fashion design. This development reflected underlying social changes in American society. One of these changes was the aim for equal rights. Noticeable is the fact that as women were aiming for equal rights, they also started to adopt the male pants, especially blue jeans. This thesis will seek for the connection between the different developments in equal rights, fashion, of which especially blue jeans, and mass media. This work moves chronologically from World War I to half-way the 1970s. These years mark the first success of equal rights to vote and be voted to the situation were a majority of the American society was pro-equal rights and partly equal rights were ruled by new legislation and Supreme Court ruling. Fashion developed in these years from a clearly distinguished male and female wardrobe to women’s fashion becoming insufficiently distinctive from male fashion during the seventies. Mass communication revolutionized due to the application of various technological inventions like photography, radio, moving pictures and television. By connection these various developments the study will argue how fashion reflects social issues in American society, through the eyes of the American mass media in the period between 1915 and 1975.