When did city slickers start wearing jeans?

[scottyrocks]

The first time I remember grown men wearing jeans as everyday casual wear was in the early to mid-'70s, as I saw my Dad and his friends wearing them. My friends and I began to wear them regularly shortly after that to play outside after school. No jeans in grade school, though (through 1971). Middle school changed that, as it coincided for me, and jeans became my all-day-every-day wear.

When designer jeans hit it big as a result of the disco explosion of '77 (Saturday Night Fever), everyone and their mother wore jeans as dress wear and that, as they say, was the end of that.

I rode motorcycles for over 30 years, so Levis and Wranglers were my everyday wear. I stopped riding in 2009, and jeans dropped out of my regular everyday wear very quickly.

 

[Zombie_61]

I was born in the 1950's, and the dress code at my high school prohibited jeans.
From this I assume that in the early 70's, jeans must have been considered somewhat "subversive" - at least in the Midwest.

When my wife and I first started dating in 1979 we went to a semi-local roller skating rink that was inside of a building meant to look like someone's idea of a "classic" red barn. At the main entrance they had a hand-painted sign that stated, among other things, that jeans were not allowed and that boys and men whose hair touched the collar of their shirt would not be admitted. This sign was clearly an artifact of bygone days, as I was in violation of both "rules" and no one working there seemed to care.

 

[Tomasso]

To this day you can not walk though the front door of the New York Athletic Club wearing jeans. You have to use the service entrance just as you do when wearing workout gear. I once had a 'moment' with JFK jr when we found ourselves riding up to the men's locker room in the back service elevator. As we were going up, crammed in along with a huge bin of towels, we looked at each other wearing sportcoat and jeans and both smiled sheepishly and shrugged.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Strangely, I don't ever recall seeing my Dad (he was born in 1928) wearing jeans but I remember my grandmother (born in 1910) wearing them. She was also one of the first women I had ever seen who wore jeans. This was in the early '70s.

 

[Sloan1874]

MY dad is in his early 80s, and I can say without a shadow a doubt that he has never worn jeans. [huh]

 

[Stearmen]

My father, who was born in 1923, never wore blue jeans tell the day he died either. I know I wore them back, at least to 1968, when I started to ride motorcycles. I do like them, but I have never worn them with a blazer!

 

[frussell]

Growing up, I had two very different grandfathers, one a Houston businessman, and one a California dyed-in-the-wool cowboy. The businessman didn't own a pair of jeans, and would often be seen working on the tractor at our farm in the country during his days off in a pair of suit pants and white shirt. His idea of casual wear was to remove his tie and jacket to do chores. The cowboy grandfather wore jeans most of his life, since he rode daily, and was cremated in a pair of favorite jeans. He wore dress slacks to more formal affairs, but they were always cut for wearing with boots. I do remember Houston being more formal when I was much younger, and seeing jeans only on children, but that shifted during the late 1960s, probably due to the counterculture movement going on in the U.S. then. I myself just barely hit the end of the time frame when small boys wore shorts, and you looked forward to being old enough to get some "big boy" long pants. For my friends and I, jeans had no social meaning, they just meant you were old enough to wear them. I think it's probably more a regional thing than nationwide, as far as when jeans became acceptable daily wear for non-cowboys or laborers. Frank.

 

[gtdean48]

My dad was born in 1930 & seldom wore jeans. He had some but wore khaki pants when doing yard work.
I was born in 1960 & lived in jeans, both long & cut-offs.
For me, the transition happened between those 2 generations...

 

[1961MJS]

Hi

The comments on wearing dress pants and shirt while doing yard work always cracks me up. We were at one of the better restaurants in a nice neighborhood for an early nice dinner for our anniversary (say 5:30 PM). A fifty year old guy was drinking his post yard mowing single malt Scotch wearing threadbare, paint and grass stained, Polo Brand (with the little polo guy) khaki pants and white dress shirt. I loved it.

Later

 

[Deleted member 16736]

To this day you can not walk though the front door of the New York Athletic Club wearing jeans. You have to use the service entrance just as you do when wearing workout gear. I once had a 'moment' with JFK jr when we found ourselves riding up to the men's locker room in the back service elevator. As we were going up, crammed in along with a huge bin of towels, we looked at each other wearing sportcoat and jeans and both smiled sheepishly and shrugged.

A similar thing happened to me.

 

[Zombie_61]

My dad was born in 1930 & seldom wore jeans. He had some but wore khaki pants when doing yard work.
I was born in 1960 & lived in jeans, both long & cut-offs.
For me, the transition happened between those 2 generations...

This is similar to my experience while growing up, and I concur about the transition happening between the two generations.

My dad was born in 1913. His parents were killed in a car accident when he was in his early teen years, after which he lived on a Nebraska farm with an aunt who already had 13 children of her own. I don't know much about his work history prior to me entering the picture in 1961, but I do know he and Mom met while they both worked for Anthony "The Admiral" Cornero where he most surely must have dressed appropriately; dad was a sharp dresser when the occasion called for it. But while I was growing up his daily workwear (and non-workwear, for that matter) consisted of a tee shirt, cotton workpants, and a pair of work boots. Not long after dad retired at the age of 72, my brother convinced mom and dad to take a week-long vacation with him and his wife. At some point during the trip it had apparently become necessary for dad to purchase a pair of pants, because when they returned he was wearing a pair of jeans--possibly for the first time in his life. I don't think he applied any significance to this other than the facts that he needed a pair of pants and they were available, but he found them comfortable enough to wear daily (not the same pair, of course; he bought more) until he died at the age of 74.

 

[Stearmen]

Funny you should mention the comfort quotation. In the final days of my Dads life, he was suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which made it imposable for him to tie his shoes. My mother found some velcro tennis shoes, which he loved and wore right up to the end. Naturally, when I see a pair of velcro shoes in the store, I do not turn my nose up at the sight, I think of all the people that can still put on shoes without help.

 

[Tomasso]

when I see a pair of velcro shoes in the store, I do not turn my nose up at the sight, I think of all the people that can still put on shoes without help.

I think that's how most people view those shoes.

 

[scotrace]

Agreed. I dig the wife beater, jeans, and two-tone shoe look!

The shoes are a surprise!