Blue Jeans are reputed to have been invented way back in 1873 by Jacob Davis and Levi Straus. These were first designed to be ‘waist overalls’ and marketed as ‘work pants’. It wasn’t until the 1960s that the term ‘Jeans’ was adopted to refer to these increasingly popular trousers.

When I was growing up, in the 60s and 70s, there were just three main brands to choose from. Lee, Levis and Wrangler. These were available in dark indigo blue which would wash out and stain anything else that they were washed with. Levis even produced what they called ‘shrink to fit’ jeans which you’d wear in the bath in order to shrink them to your specific size.

It was back in the 1970s that it became fashionable to wear worn and faded jeans and this led to the development of a whole new industry selling second hand jeans. This trend really took off in the 1980s with a very popular Levis 501 advertising campaign.

People who loved the worn look no longer had to resort to a scrubbiing brush to get the worn and faded look. They could now buy genuinely old Levis 501s that had already been worn in. Fashion conscious shoppers were unaware that these Jeans had come from various American prisons where they were the standard issues clothing.

Jump forward to today and there must be hardly anyone between the ages of about 12 and 50 who doesn’t own at least one pair of blue jeans. It has been estimated that American teenagers own an average of about six pairs.

And they are not limited to only a few select brands. Every major clothing manufacturer now produces their own range of Jeans. My personal favourites are Fat Face Jeans from the popular Fat Face range of outdoor, surf and ski clothing. The outfit that I like to wear for any occasion is a pair of Fat Face Jeans teamed with a comfortable Fat Face Hoodie. A great outfit for almost any occasion but maybe not suitable for serious business meetings or funerals.