A Look Back: The History of Women’s Denim…#8 in denim series

The story of women wearing denim begins with the earliest pair of Levi’s®. First created in 1873 by Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis, these original blue jeans were made to handle rugged ranch life, and it wasn't long before the women of the West started wearing them.

1930s- Levis Strauss & Co. created the first pair of women’s jeans, Lady Levi’s, in 1934. Women needed a tough pair of pants too, and the preshrunk style of Lady Levi’s helped women feel feminine while working on the farm.
1940s- As dude ranches and the Western film genre produced an emerging cowboy culture, the demand for women’s jeans surged. Rosie the Riveter was the female icon, representing the migration of women into the workforce during WWII. In 1944, students on Wesley College’s all-female campus began to wear denim, a move likely inspired by actresses like Katharine Hepburn and Marlene Dietrich.
1950s- Jeans began to symbolize the rebellious postwar social landscape thanks to James Dean and Marlon Brando, and notable women were making their own waves. In Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954), Grace Kelly made a powerful statement as she relaxed on a sofa in her jeans, reading an issue of Harper’s BAZAAR magazine. A few years prior, Marilyn Monroe was famously photographed wearing a pair of Levi’s jeans while lifting weights.
1960s-The cultural revolution of free love helped usher denim into a permanent spot in both men’s and women’s wardrobes, even though women were still looked down upon if they wore their jeans in public. As baby boomers began to wear denim on a daily basis, however, it became clear that men and women were vying for the right to wear jeans whenever and wherever they pleased.
1970s-Taking a cue from Charlie’s Angels and its lead actress Farah Fawcett, blue jeans permeated the cultural terrain in the seventies. It became more common for girls to wear their favorite pairs to school and out on the town, and thanks to Gloria Vanderbilt, denim got stretchy to better fit the many female body types, further propelling society’s sexual revolution.
1980s- The eighties marked a designer-denim craze, making jeans more popular than ever among women. Calvin Klein featured 15-year-old Brooke Shields in a tantalizing ad campaign with the famous line: “You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.” Slim-fitting Jordache jeans were popular with disco-goers, and Debbie Harry championed the double-denim look for punk girls.
1990s- Trendsetters cemented denim’s role as the most versatile piece of clothing, with jeans even starting to appear on the red carpet. From the grunge scene to hip-hop-inspired baggy denim, the nineties invited personal expression.
2000s & onward-For the last decade or so, denim has been a designer’s playground, with everyone aiming to make the It jean. Fashion-savvy women grabbed at newly launched fits in 2000, and women hit the streets in their boyfriends’ blues eight years later, reviving a baggier female fit. With endless denim styles, customizable made-to-measure jeans, and boutique labels, there are more options than ever to express your individuality.