In the 50s and 60s my mom and her friends used to fight over Jack Jolly’s old jeans. Jack Jolly was married to one of my mama’s life long friends Ada Beth, he was a cowboy without the cows, he worked with horses and wore the shit out of his Levi’s. You would only wear them around the neighborhood though, not to work or even the movies. “Besides” my mom said mischievously, “Jack Jolly’s jeans were always really worn out at the unit”. lol.

Regarding the evolution of jeans as a style staple, the fancy jeans of the 70s weren’t the first jeans to be worn as a stylish wardrobe piece. But, the 70s IS when jeans became fuckin tight and a status symbol. The1970s saw the explosion of DESIGNER JEANS.

It seems like 1976 was the year that many brands came out with their designer jeans and everybody says they were the first - If your version came out after 1976 you weren’t the first (sorry Jordache). Ok but what are designer jeans? By 1977 I think the question was “Can you get into Studio 54 wearing those jeans? Yes? Then they’re designer jeans. No but really, how were they defined? In 1976 it was the wash (dark dark dark), the cut (tight tight tight) and the price tag (expensive). When Gloria Vanderbelt came out with her jeans in 1976 they were $55 which converted to today’s $$ that’s $263!! It was almost unheard of to pay that kind of price for denim at that time. Well, unheard of except maybe for Roy Keens, which when they were launched in 1970, cost a whopping $65 which today would be $450!!!!!!

Starting in the 1960s, tight jeans were popularized by European, especially French brands. The French brand Mac Keen launched their super tight expensive jeans in 1970. They were worn by all the Charlie’s Angels, especially Farrah Fawcett (see pic of Farrah Fawcett on skateboard). Jerry Hall did her first photo shoot with Mac Keen, which she later said was her first and best shoot. You could get a pair of Mac Keen jeans in the French Jean Store on 60th Street. Perhaps The French Jean Store in NYC, made tight ass jeans popular in America (see pic of s shop kids helping a lady laying down to zip up jeans)? Personally this has been the sort of tight jeans that I prescribe to - lay down on the bed to zip ‘em up tight.

If The French Jean Store made tight jeans popular, then Fiorucci made jeans chic!

Fiorucci was an Italian brand, but the Fiorucci shop that opened in 1976 on East 59th Street, was quintessentially NYC. “You come to NYC to see the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty and Fiorucci” - Joey Arias, former lead salesperson at Fiorucci.

Folks danced at Studio 54 at night and danced and hung out at Fiorucci during the day. It was a hotbed of cool. Madonna hung out there with her friend Maripol who was the style director. Joey Arias, the aforementioned lead sales person, was friends with everybody. He set up Ken Scharf’s first solo show at the shop with Klaus Nomi performing. It was called Fiorucci does New Wave (please check out this video of David Bowie on Saturday Night Live with Klaus Nomi and Joey Arias singing backup).

Andy Warhol and Truman Capote did an autograph session at Fiorucci. You could run into the likes of Cher, Lauren Becall or even Jackie Onassis, the King and Queen of Spain, Sylvester, Divine……the list goes on.

It’s rumored that Marc Jacobs, who partly grew up in the city, skipped summer camp and just hung out at Fiorucci all Summer.

When Fiorucci decided to start their own line of jeans it was pure sex. Spend time googling Fiorucci ads from this time (boing!) (include Fiorucci jeans ads here) I’ll leave some examples here to get you started.

When Fiorucci decided to create their own jeans they did so with The “Safety Jeans”. Elio Fiorucci discusses his inspiration in a 2015 interview for i-D Magazine. “One day I was driving in my car with my wife in Ibiza, and between the scattered cottages we saw some beautiful topless girls wearing their jeans diving into the water—their jeans completely stuck to them, resulting in such beautiful legs and bums,”. “They were not just women, but indigo blue statues” - ok dude settle down. Borderline gross.

Ok, so if Mac Keen made jeans expensive and Fiorucci made jeans chic then Gloria Vanderbilt brought designer jeans to the masses. The combination of her good girl vibe and the glamour the Vanderbilt name invoked, put Gloria Vanderbilt Jeans were on everyone’s lips AND hips. Designer jeans in general got so popular in fact that the Washington Post declared 1978 the “year of the status jean”.

As a member of the Vanderbilt family, Gloria Vanderbilt was born RICH, she is a classic example of the idea of the poor little rich girl as her upbringing was not idyllic in the least. She was the subject of a huge custody battle between her paternal aunt and her mom which the press called “the trial of the century”. The country was riveted with this battle. Perhaps because of this, she became one of America’s earliest “sweethearts”. Through the years Gloria was a socialite, an author, an artist, a model and an actress. As a matter of fact, the swan embroidered on her famous jeans is from a play that she was in in the 1950s called The Swan. In the 1970s Murjani Corporation approached her about putting her name on a pair of jeans that would be made from a newish fabric, stretch denim. Her line of tight designer jeans was popular from the absolute get go. She did a series of commercials that she “acted” in personally that really resonated with folks. Her tagline “gives you the hug but not the squeeze” was just the thing people across America wanted to hear. Normal people could now wear those designer jeans that got you into Studio 54, BUTT were made with stretch denim so they were….comfortable.

This commercial of models dancing around Gloria talking about how comfortable her jeans were is awkward af. The model's comment at the end sounds like it was dreamed up in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre PR firm - “fits just like a skin on a grape” or is that just me?

All the mom’s loved “The hug without the squeeze”. But the kids wanted to know what came between Brooke Shields and her Calvins.

Calvin Klein also did a line of designer jeans but his PR machine was masterful. Making a commercial with 15 year old Brooke Shields asking the world to imagine what comes between her and her Calvin Klein jeans is questionable at best and was a huge controversy for the company. But the world was tittelated and sales skyrocketed.

In response to the initial controversy, Klein said, “Jeans are sex…the tighter they are, the better they sell.” and he wasn’t wrong.

It should be mentioned here that Calvin Klein did so well with their new junior sizes and selling to the teens that Gloria Venderbilt and Murjani jumped on the juniors band wagon. Their attempt to speak to the teens was pretty f*ckn’ cool, at least looking back from my vantage point. Please watch the Murjani commercial with Queen Debra Harry. You’ll also notice Lounge Lizard John Lurie on saxophone. She sashays past a SAMO tag which belonged to Jean-Michel Basquiat. Also included in the club scene are Anya Phillips, co-founder of the Mudd Club and James Chance from James Chance and the Contortions.

Designer jeans were such a run away success that even celebrities tried their hand at it. See below a pic of Joan Collins in her version (these were a flop - which I supposed we could have guessed were doomed from the start since she was notorious in her disdain for denim).

Even the talented and handsome Teddy Pendegrass created his Celebrity Jeans. I read that in the early 80s anybody who was anybody in Philly had a pair of his jeans.