Jeans : a cultural history of an American icon / James Sullivan.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [269]-277) and index.

The perfect fit -- The sans-culottes: before the blue jean -- Tug-of-war: "those pants of Levi's," and the competition -- Dudes: selling the western frontier -- Modern pioneers: at work and play -- "A Hollywood-style tough": the 1950s and the fabrication f the teenager -- Classlessness: the politics of fashion -- After the gold rush: stylizing denim -- The diffusion of glamour: designers in the mass market -- "Thought abhors tights": sex in advertising -- Hand-me-downs: vintage and reproduction -- Wrapped in the flag: "America's gift" in the global era -- Bottoms up: blue jeans at a premium -- The process.

Beskrivelse: Since their appearance nearly 150 years ago, jeans have been worn by every facet of American society and exported around the world as an icon of our civilization. In Jeans, James Sullivan traces their evolution from a simple utilitarian garment into the very embodiment of the American ethos. Beginning with the adoption of front-buckled pants as a style of dress in nineteenth-century America (supposedly derided as fornication pants by Mormon leader Brigham Young), Sullivan documents how jeans took their place in our culture todayas worn by rappers, hipsters, and discount shoppersbecoming the standard dress in America and embodying the ideals of vastly different segments of society. Touching on the rise and fall of indigo, the mythos of the cowboy, American cultural imperialism, sex, advertising, and countless other topics wrapped in denim, Jeans is a history of popular American culture as told through its pants