Join Lexi McKelvy on this multipart deep dive on how the blue jean took over American fashion. In Part 1, we will explore theearly history of jeans, from the origins of denim in the 17th century to the boom in Western wear in the 1930s and 40s.
Object Spotlight:
“A Sharecroppers Jeans.” (Re)Dressing American Fashion. Bard Graduate Center. Accessed September 18, 2026.
Further Reading for any Denim Heads out there:
“The Cotton Revolution.” The American Yawp. Accessed July23, 2026.
“The Story of Levi Strauss.” Levi Strauss & Co., March14, 2023.
(Re)Dressing American Fashion. Bard Graduate Center. Accessed July 24, 2026.
Copeland, Melvin Thomas. The cotton manufacturingindustry of the United States. Vol. 8. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard U. P, 1912.
Struthers Burt, Maxwell. “Boccaccio inChaps.” Vogue, May 15th, 1935. 72-73, 122-123.
