When did city slickers start wearing jeans?

[Deleted member 16736]

I understand that jeans were popular with cowboys and workmen for a long time, but at what point did grown-ups (not teenagers) start wearing jeans as casual wear? I am putting together a 40's/early 50's wardrobe and wondering if jeans were commonly worn by men by this time. In all the clothing ads from this period, I only see them wearing trousers or chinos. Thank you.

 

[The Good]

I don't think jeans were commonly worn by anyone during the '40s and before, except blue collar workers that wore them, including those working on farms and ranches, but by the mid '50s they had become popularized with the youth, as someone else mentioned in another thread, by movies like The Wild One (1953), Rebel Without a Cause (1955), and the influence of the rockabilly and beatnik subcultures. I think some older men began to wear them casually sometimes, too; Desi Arnaz casually wore jeans at some point in the movie The Long, Long Trailer (1953).

 

[herringbonekid]

...but at what point did grown-ups (not teenagers) start wearing jeans as casual wear?

in the 50s and 60s jeans had rebel / counter culture significance among the youth (because of the garment's working class origins). it wasn't until the 70s that they went mainstream.

 

[Guttersnipe]

Jeans as we know them -- rivet reinforced denim pants -- were invented and first sold in the city big city. Jacob Davis, a San Francisco tailor, came up with the concept and Levi Strauss, a dry goods merchant, provided the financial backing to obtain a patent, and the distribution network which to sell the new pants. (At that time, Strauss already had a thriving, bi-coastal dry goods business, Levi Strauss & Co.).

Almost from the outset, jeans have been worn by those who would definitely fall under the "city slicker" category. For example, in addition various outdoorsy types like cowboys, farmers, and miners, seafront types like sailors and longshoremen (stevedores or dockers to the easterners and Brits, respectively) wore jeans a ton too. In San Francisco, a competing company, the Frisco Jean, Co., made black denim jeans that were almost ubiquitous among blue collar San Franciscans and teenagers as early as the late '20s and 30s.

 

[Deleted member 16736]

in the 50s and 60s jeans had rebel / counter culture significance among the youth (because of the garment's working class origins). it wasn't until the 70s that they went mainstream.

That makes sense: when the kids who wore them in the 50's grew up, they wore them as adults in the 70's.

 

[Guttersnipe]

in the 50s and 60s jeans had rebel / counter culture significance among the youth (because of the garment's working class origins). it wasn't until the 70s that they went mainstream.

Levis' marketing people certainly push this idea, and there is definitely an element of truth to it, but it'a always struck me as a little odd.

In the 40s and 50s, at least in U.S., preteen boys from all walks of life wore jeans a bunch; they were just utilitarian, hard-wearing garment that lots of parents dressed their grade school-aged kids in for practical reasons. For grade school aged boys in the U.S., they were almost as ubiquitous as those school uniform shorts that boy in the U.K. used to wear. I'm not sure there is anything particularly rebellious about that . . . although a grown man in a English school uniform might be oddly rebellious now that I think about it:

Here's a typically S.F. kid (my Dad) around 1948 or '49:

 

[Hal]

...by the mid '50s they had become popularized with the youth, as someone else mentioned in another thread, by movies like The Wild One (1953), Rebel Without a Cause (1955), and the influence of the rockabilly and beatnik subcultures.

in the 50s and 60s jeans had rebel / counter culture significance among the youth (because of the garment's working class origins). it wasn't until the 70s that they went mainstream.

In Britain and continental Europe they appeared in the mid 50s for the reasons given by The Good, but they really took off with the baby-boomer-hippie-student-radical cultural revolution of the later 60s and then as herringbonekid suggests, went mainstream because these people continued to wear them as they got older. Two definite stages, I think.

I can't, for the life of me, understand their attraction. Harsh material, soak up the rain, too hot in summer, not warm enough in winter...the list of disadvantages could go on and on...The invention of the devil, perhaps?

 

[Zombie_61]

...I can't, for the life of me, understand their attraction. Harsh matrerial, soak up the rain, too hot in summer, not warm enough in winter...the list of disadvantages could go on and on...The invention of the devil, perhaps?

It's a matter of opinion and personal preference. I've been wearing Levi's jeans most of my life. Yes, the material can be harsh if you don't launder them before wearing them, but each subsequent laundering and wearing makes them softer and softer. They do tend to soak up rain water, but a long raincoat minimizes that. Here in southern California the temperatures during summer months are more often than not in the high-90°F to low-100°F range, and I find them to be no warmer than any other trouser material. Our winters are mild by comparison so I can't really comment on whether or not they're warm enough for many parts of the world, but they're warm enough for this area. It is what it is; you either like them or you don't.

 

[herringbonekid]

In the 40s and 50s, at least in U.S., preteen boys from all walks of life wore jeans a bunch; they were just utilitarian, hard-wearing garment that lots of parents dressed their grade school-aged kids in for practical reasons.

true, but the initial question was 'when did grown ups start wearing jeans as casual wear'.

it seems that pre 1970s you'll only see adults in jeans in very specific places, and in those places the jeans are worn as a utilitarian work garment.
you can find many shots of older men walking down a small town street wearing jeans and a short wool jacket or similar on sites like Shorpy, but those men aren't wearing jeans as a conscious fashion statement. they're working men. or they're just poor. or 'rural'.

the 'rebellious' aspect is really the teenage rock n roll connection. and later the hippy connection. both, ironically, broke the door down for the later mainstream popularity of jeans.

Almost from the outset, jeans have been worn by those who would definitely fall under the "city slicker" category.

really ? example please.

 

[Rudie]

Looks like Bogart is wearing jeans in this picture. 1944.

 

[herringbonekid]

yes, on the set of 'To Have and Have Not'; part of the character's wardrobe.

 

[Deleted member 16736]

yes, on the set of 'To Have and Have Not'; part of the character's wardrobe.

Very underrated movie. Reminds me a lot of Casablanca. William Faulkner wrote the script. I believe Bogey played a fishing boat captain, which would explain the working man's uniform.

 

[Deleted member 16736]

Looks like Bogart is wearing jeans in this picture. 1944.

Is the guy on the left Hogey Carmichael?

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

Yes. He had a small part as a, wait for it, a piano player.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The jeans-teens connection pre-dates rock-n-roll by a full decade. During the mid-forties, baggy, rolled-cuff "dungarees" were the standard after-school/weekend uniform of teenage girls from coast to coast, usually worn with a men's shirt appropriated from the closet of a father or brother who was away to war, topped with a woolen jacket or sweater, and accompanied by bobby socks and either penny loafers or saddle shoes. Such outfits weren't allowed at school, but just about every self-respecting girl between the ages of fourteen and seventeen changed into such an outfit as soon as she got home.

Bearing in mind that I grew up in a part of the country which tended to run years behind the trends, I never saw an adult male wear jeans on the street until the late seventies. All the men in our family were lifelong blue-collar, working-class types born between 1890 and 1940, and I never saw any of them wear jeans at any time. They wore heavy cotton twill "work pants" both at home and on the job, either as part of a uniform or worn with a heavy flannel shirt. If the job was particularly greasy, they'd wear heavy overalls, but under no circumstances would they wear them on the street.

 

[DamianM]

true that
Never would a respectable man were jeans out in the street until about the 70s.
It was and is a working man garment. worn till the last thread.

 

[1961MJS]

Hi

My father (born 1919, died 2011) NEVER owned a pair of jeans. He said he used to wear denim overalls in grade school though. I remember starting school in 1966, no jeans, girls had to wear dresses (with pants underneath in cold weather). By 1972 (sixth grade), the girls were wearing hip huggers and you NEVER saw a dress again until high school. I don't remember exactly when boys were allowed blue jeans, but I was wearing them by sixth grade.

Later

 

[Guttersnipe]

really ? example please.

Like I said before seafront types like sailors and longshoremen work denim work pants as early as the beginning of the 20s century. In San Francisco, black denim jeans were so ubiquitous along the waterfront that Frisco Jeans, which were union made, became the semi-official "uniform" for members of the International Longshoremen's Association, later the International Longshoremen and Warehousemen's Union.

Here is famed San Francisco labor leader Harry Bridges leading the ILA contingent during the 1934 Labor Day parade along Market Street:

Here is Bridges on board ship, around 1917, wearing jeans:

Here are San Francisco waterfront workers on strike in 1934 (this combo of jeans and sport coats looks hardly "business causal" ):

Here are picketers during the 1946 west coast warehouse strike. Note the I.L.W.U., Local 6 encompass workers only in Oakland and San Francisco:

 

[Stanley Doble]

There was a fad for square dancing in the forties and into the early fifties. Square dancing clubs around the country especially in the west. This may be the first time men wore blue jeans to go out, other than to go out and work in the garden lol.

 

[Deleted member 16736]

[/QUOTE]


Boy, protestors in the old days were a lot better dressed.