New Documentary Explores Complex History of Jeans in America – WWD
TRUE BLUE: For many, jeans are synonymous with American fashion, and an upcoming PBS documentary will explore the evolution of the well-dressed staple.
American Experience’s “Riveted: The History of Jeans” opens February 7, marking the first documentary to focus on fashion. Tracing the evolution of the apparel industry, the show will highlight how jeans have traces of slavery, the Wild West, the Civil Rights movement, hippies, hip-hop, high fashion and more again.
The hour-long documentary is written, directed, and produced by Anna Lee Strachan and Michael Bicks. Cameo George served as executive producer.
Previous document about the program referenced Levi Strauss made a lot of money selling jeans to the Forty-Niners during the California Gold Rush and noted how people who were enslaved 50 years earlier in the American South wore a coarser fabric than previously known as denim. is “slave cloth”. The show will also explore how Elizabeth Lucas, the daughter of an 18th-century colonial governor, revived the economy in the South with indigo production. According to the program’s notes, “The Neglected Slaves of West Africa,” who have the know-how to grow indigo, as well as process and dye with it, according to the program’s notes.
While Strauss is often credited with inventing the blue jeans, “Riveted” highlights how Jacob Davis reinforced the pants with copper studs, making them durable for the majority of American workers. The ranch culture and the youth movement of the ’50s (including the way Marlon Brando 501 wore it in “The Wild One”) also mingled.
Woman wearing western cowboy outfit including blue jeans in mid-1900s.
Alamy Stock Photo / Courtesy of AMEX Riveted
Collectively, there are dozens of companies appearing in documentaries spanning from the late 1890s such as Can’t Bust’em, Can’t Rip’em, as well as Blackbear, Dubbleware, Duz Fit and more, according to PBS spokesman.
More familiar brands such as Wrangler, Lee, Gloria Vanderbilt, Calvin Klein, Sergio Valente and Tommy Hilfiger will also get some airtime. Hilfiger’s eponymous founder will be introduced, a PBS spokesperson said. “Riveted” will also launch on the PBS website and app on February 7.
https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-scoops/the-complicated-history-of-jeans-to-be-explored-in-upcoming-pbs-documentary-1235026212/ New Documentary Explores Complex History of Jeans in America – WWD
