Denim Dream

If the passing of fashion time can be measured in the hours and minutes of trends, the length of hemlines and column inches, a pair of jeans tells the story instantly. Flared and high waisted? Seventies excess. Low-slung boot cut? Nineties grunge. Skinnies? Noughties – and seemingly forevermore. Denim history marches ever onwards. Foretelling the fashion future, the pre-fall collections offer wearable clothes for a seamless transition into the coming season and, this time, denim was the fabric of choice. An indigo trench coat at McQueen, saturated-wash structured culottes at Derek Lam and refined, trouser-cut jeans at Fendi have us graduating from the sweet bohemia of spring/summer 2015. Yves Saint Laurent once said that he wished he had invented blue jeans, ‘the most spectacular, the most practical, the most relaxed and nonchalant. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity – all I hope for in my clothes.’ Deeply embedded in popular culture, denim invokes iconic images that seem as ingrained in us as our own memories. Sixties bombshell Brigitte Bardot in slim fitting angle-grazers in A Very Private Affair, or Farrah Fawcett, a decade later, in denim flares and Nikes navigating a speeding skateboard in Charlie’s Angels. A tomboyish Lauren Hutton in high-waisters in her supermodel days, Marlon Brando as an outlaw biker in The Wild Ones, James Dean in everything. Denim bridges time, culture and class. Entire photo shoots have been created around the splendour of a single cotton fabric. ‘Blue jeans are the most beautiful things since the gondola,’ Diana Vreeland mused. We think she was probably right.

There’s a piece of denim to define each era since the creation of the first pair of humble blue jeans by Latvian tailor Jacob Davis in 1871. Ever since, denim has extended its reach far beyond jeans but has always continued to do double duty – combining functional durability with our endless need for of-the-moment pieces executed in the sturdy twill that never, ever goes out of style. ‘I think versatility is the main reason denim is so beloved,’ says California-based stylist Jennifer Choy. ‘It may have started out as just a utilitarian piece of clothing for workers but it didn't take long for people to discover denim's fashion potential. I can't think of another type of fabric that suits the construction yard and the runways of New York and Paris fashion week equally.’ 

It’s a denim democracy and we’re all in charge. Jean sizes start at newborn and there’s no longer an age at which wearing them becomes inappropriate.  Relentlessly fashionable Iris Apfel continues to rock pencil slim blue jeans at the age of 93, although still refuses to pay more than $15 for them. ‘In the old days, you could go to Tunisia and get jeans directly from the people who were making them for Pierre Cardin,’ she recollected in an interview in 2010. We can all recall a favourite denim memory. What’s peering out at you from a faded photograph in a shoebox long forgotten? Acid-wash tapered jeans during an eighties Madonna phase? Patchwork baggy boyfriend jeans with flannel shirts as a nineties’ teenager? Printed capri jeans or a boxy Levi’s denim jacket (badges optional but style guaranteed)? There can be no other genre of clothing that invites such sweet nostalgia. 

Claire Lampert and Stacy Daily of denim label B Sides appreciate the circular history of jeans, creating unconventional limited run designs that are re-purposed from vintage denim found in America. The mix and match styles, from patchwork jeans to broken-in denim Bermudas and baggy dungarees, are irreverent and carefree. ‘Denim gets better with age,’ says Claire. ‘It's effortlessly classic. There's a pair of jeans for everyone and once you feel the fit you're hooked.’ Vintage denim works, because although denim trends date at lightning speed they do so in a familiar, unthreatening way – we’ve all worn jeans for so long that we can smile fondly at our style missteps along the way. Embracing the latest reincarnation of the ‘mom’ jean in all its frumpiness, for example, empowers rather than diminishes the wearer.

Denim encapsulates a host of cultural codes that require no explanation when they reemerge in an updated design. That is what makes denim so powerful. Whether it’s a masculine all-American pair of jeans or a denim jacket that toughens up a sweetly feminine sundress, denim’s codes are undeniable. James Dean famously donned a pair of Lee 101 Riders as Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause in 1955. Eye catchingly blue – the denim was dip-dyed to make it stand out onscreen – Stark’s leather jacket, white t-shirt and blue jeans created a uniform for a new kind of American rebel. Likewise, conjure a picture in a moment: Marilyn Monroe lounging on the set of The Misfits in 1961 in Levi’s 501s complete with denim Lee Storm Rider jacket, Jane Birkin in the creative’s uniform of high-waisted jeans and Breton top or Catherine Bach as the original Daisy Duke of the Dukes of Hazzard, who kick-started the trend for daringly micro cutoffs, her legs insured for a cool $1million. The genesis of denim as a fashion item arrived rapidly and with a resonance that stands the test of time. 

Take any Calvin Klein Jeans campaign. Instantly evocative, the black and white images have barely changed for decades – the only thing on rotation is the young, hot model, actor or icon of the day smouldering out at us. ‘You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins?’ a 15-year-old Brooke Shields asked the world, ‘Nothing.’ Kate Moss took up the mantle alongside a muscular Mark Wahlberg, a look since recreated by a new crop of Californian Insta-ready models sporting low-slung jeans to reveal a CK waistband. The brand has eternally linked its denim with youth, vitality and sex appeal.

Denim has a realism and authenticity that comes from its roots as work wear: Cowboys and farmers meet artists, editors and models in their quest for the perfect denim clothing. Alexa Chung has taken matters into her own hands by designing a 21-piece collection for AG Jeans, heavily infused with nineties teen spirit. The pieces have an innocent simplicity about them in referencing the past and connect with the tongue-in-cheek grandma chic currently dominating the runways. ‘A lot of it is stuff from my childhood, like the button-up skirt and overalls,’ Chung told Style.com. ‘They’re all quite childish things. I was looking at motorbike gangs, worn-in denim, the type of denim that men manage to attain.’ Even crooning along to Stevie Nicks’ Blue Denim in a Gia Coppola-directed video to promote the collaboration, Alexa hits a witty, indie note that eschews cool in favour of kitsch.

Denim Dudes by Amy Leverton suggests that around 50 percent of the world is wearing a pair of jeans at any one time and estimates the denim market to be worth more than $75billion. The luxury market has embraced denim as a means of tapping into and hastening the casualisation of high fashion. The consumer wants, no, needs, clothes that can take her from breakfast to board meeting to cocktails, and versatile items like denim, which can be elevated or downplayed on a whim, are high on her list. Nostalgia and denim collided in a big way for SS15, manifesting primarily in the rise of the seventies flared jean. Louis Vuitton’s indigo skinny kick jeans, navy blazer and tan boots create a bourgeois look that is office wear 2.0. ‘My favourite denim look right now is so classic and easy to make work,’ says Jennifer Choy. ‘I always feel stylish when I'm wearing a pair of wide leg denim trousers paired with a crisp white button up shirt and black pumps with a little texture like horsehair or suede.’ 

Gucci, Prada and Stella McCartney also turned the familiar into something new, with pinafore dresses, buttoned A-line skirts (a universally loved look that has spawned a thousand high street copies), duster coats and head-to-toe denim tailoring making a luxe case for the unassuming fabric. Dolce & Gabbana liberally sprinkled rolled-up boyfriend jeans with its signature baroque crystals while at the opposite end of the spectrum Kenzo worked pale blue chambray into swaggering palazzo pants and masculine extra-large shirts in a play on proportions that took denim into a more experimental arena. Christophe Lemaire joined the denim deluxe party, a belted strapless top with dramatic volume cascading over a matching midi-skirt with confident elegance. 

This avant-garde approach to denim isn’t new but is always greeted with excitement as the next stage in denim’s journey. Jean Paul Gaultier worked with denim as if it were silk in his spring 2010 couture collection, draping it and embellishing it with abandon in an Aztec-inspired whirlwind. Maison Margiela elevated denim to couture status too, in an upcycled collection of metallic wrappers and Deco-era embroideries in which a pair of faded blue jeans subverted couture norms from underneath a delicate sheath dress. Even Chanel dallied with the softest of couture denim skinnies for spring 2011, layered under chiffon sashes and hand-worked tunics. There are no longer any limits to denim’s range. More recently, patchwork madness reigned during SS14, when Junya Watanabe’s quilted floral print jeans, complete with black tassel trim, adorned every fashion forward street styler and editor from Taylor Tomasi Hill onwards. Playful or serious, the rest of an outfit can remain muted when the denim is doing all the talking. ‘Always style with a shirt tucked in. At least a side-tuck,’ advises Claire. The pre-fall collections continue the reinvention with a ladylike sojourn into denim tea dresses and trouser suits in the hands of Carolina Herrera and Monique Lhuillier and via shearling-lined denim jackets at Valentino (styled with the season’s inevitable culottes). The evolution continues.

Whether luxury, high street or cult Japanese denim label, fit is everything. Some denim is easy – a boyish shirt, a neat jacket or form-skimming babydoll dress. But finding a pair of jeans that contours perfectly to your body in a sea of endless choice is a flash of fashion nirvana. Famously tricky to shop for, particularly as the available cuts, washes and styles continue to expand, the hours spent in changing rooms trying on every conceivable style create a familiar ritual that could never be replaced by the easy click of an online purchase. The time invested is always proportional to the joy of finding a jean for life. ‘Every time I find a pair of jeans that fits me perfectly, it's like a life altering moment for me,’ notes Jennifer. ‘There's nothing like trying on a pair of jeans that perfectly hug your butt, elongate your legs and hit your waist in the most flattering spot.’

Denim is here to stay, from the vintage market to the luxury runway. It can be reinvented any which way, to mean whatever you want it to: edgy biker chick, femme fatale, rock siren, Upper East Side girl about town, off-duty model. You are what you wear. With collections past and present bringing a novelty to the genre that encapsulates the spirit of the fabric, denim will always represent much more than an attitude. As Claire Lampert attests, denim continues to get better with age. ‘It’s like no other piece of clothing you've ever worn.’