Key Pages
- |Changes [Feb 26, 2009]
The camera
LevisNiceTry.mp4
Remember, they're my jeans!
levi_ad.mp4
(sorry for the lack of audio)
Why is it that this guy is more upset at the thought of giving up his favorite pair of jeans than leaving his girlfriend? He proceeds to create a duplicate pair just for her, but it isn't the original. What emotional ties does someone create with their jeans?
Today in Branner dining hall I began researching another aspect of jeans—their ubiquity. After taking a survey of a sample size of freshman living in Branner, I came to the conclusion that on this given day: 35.6% of my dorm is not wearing jeans, and 64.4% are wearing them. Of the 1/3 population that refrained from wearing jeans on this day, most were wearing some form of pajamas/sweatpants. They had either just woken up or planned on staying in and studying. When asked whether they would change if they decided to leave Branner, an overwhelming response was “of course!” I asked what they would change into, and most responded with, “some jeans.” Only an abysmally low amount of students were wearing khakis/shorts/or some other variation. Of these individuals, most claimed that they either didn’t like jeans, didn’t own jeans, or they were washing their jeans.
It’s hard to find a pair of jeans that fit, because I’m so tall, but I usually go for the carpenter style when I work with my dad over the summer. We paint houses and do a lot of repair work, so the extra pockets help as well as the durability. These are the only jeans that I own though. Male, 18
I have at least 6 pairs of jeans, I wear them all for different occasions, it depends on my mood too. My dark wash jeans are tighter and sexier, I usually wear those to go out to a party. My lighter distressed jeans are a bit more loose and comfortable, I wear those when I feel like just hanging out and being casual. Female, 19
As these testimonies demonstrate, individuals wear jeans to express an aspect of their character. Whether they’re worn for comfort, sex appeal, utility, jeans express some aspect of their owner. As Kanner noted, “Rarely do the characters in Levi’s ads just wear the jeans: they interact with them. They put them on, take them off, tie them to cars, pawn them, freeze them—even swim in them. The jeans are active and rugged, just like the gods and goddesses who wear them” (104). People, like Professor Shanks said, want their jeans to be an extension of themselves. Jeans are not simply inanimate objects; they serve a purpose. Without jeans, people would probably have to find another way to say what their jeans already do—“this is who I am.”
Jeans come in an insane amount of variety. There are hundreds of shades, cuts, styles, and ways in which to personalize your jeans. If you want to go as far and order your own specific jeans to be made with custom silver, gold, platinum, and diamond buttons and rivets, that can also be accomplished. As A.P.O. Jeans claims, their goal is to “deliver their clients with Personalized-Designer Jeans that are exclusively made for their client’s individual fit. Our goal is to target . . . individuals who are looking for elegant ‘perfect fit’ jeans” (http://www.apojeans.net/index.htm). This company is attempting to personalize the process of buying jeans. They want the jeans to be a direct reflection of the owner’s style. A.P.O Jeans wants to “deliver a fit and exclusiveness that’s ‘all your own.’”
Why would people go to this measure? Why not buy Khakis?
Khakis are boring! I mean I have pair that I like and wear, but usually only to church or to interviews. When I want to simply be myself I wear my jeans. Female, 18
I find khakis restricting. The only pair I have is because my mom bought them for me. I feel like when I put them on I’m going to have to work at a monotonous 9-to-5 office job. Khakis should only really be for older people. Male, 18
I just find them plain, boring, and ugly. I could never look at myself in the mirror, and say that I look good wearing khakis. Jeans just have a different look and feel behind them. Female, 18
This is where jeans take a different approach than khakis. Whereas khakis are meant for one to look professional and presentable, jeans take a distinctive approach. Their message lies in the belief that “our product will make you sexy” (Kanner 97). Individuals want more flare than the simple khakis can provide. How many ads for khakis actually manage to attract an audience? As Maurizio Marchiore, Diesel’s ad director, noted, “‘Consumers don’t buy jeans, they buy the image, what surrounds the jeans.’ People who think an ad is cool think the company is cool—and that buying their product makes them cool” (Kanner 164). Nowadays, not many people, especially of the younger generations, would consider khakis “cool.”
I mean c’mon, just look at my jeans . . . they’re a hell of a lot cooler than most pants out there. Male, 19
What about those Low-Rise Jeans?
This pair of jeans is the oldest pair that I own and my favorite. I own 6 pairs of jeans, all of different styles and brands, and yet this pair has a special significance.
I bought this pair about 3 years ago at a Perry Ellis outlet. I was browsing to see if anything caught my eye and I came upon this pair. The reason why I liked them so much was because of the faded look that they had, without looking like Edward Scissorhands decided to modify them. The idea of buying destroyed jeans has always seemed rather pointless to me. You could just get a cheaper pair and then rip them up yourself. Anyways, I bought them and was pretty happy. They still needed to be broken in so I decided to wear them for about a week nonstop. They soon started to feel like my jeans.
Time went on and I bought new pairs and got rid of older ones, but for some inexplicable reason I kept this pair. I continued to wear them, and slowly I noticed that they began to become distressed. As you can see in the pictures, the ends began to get frayed. It didn’t really bother me that much, so I went on. Pretty quickly more and more things started happening to them. The material around the knee ripped across as well as the denim around the crotch area. I thought about getting rid of them at that point, but I decided to get the holes mended, I left the knee area how it was. My logic was: “well people would probably pay 3 times as much for them now than when I first bought them.”
That was always my reason, but after taking this class and doing this project I started to think about it more. What connections do I have with my jeans? The answer is, as Professor Shanks said, because “our consumer goods are an extension of ourselves.” When people say that they like my jeans, I gladly accept the compliment. And when people ask me how they ripped, it forces me to recall my own memories. A certain party, a certain bike ride, a certain disastrous lesson in washing clothes, all of these events are imbued in my jeans. As Shanks pointed out, “when looking at products it is important to consider their lifespan.” How long will a pair of jeans stay trendy before it is discarded? I don’t know, but what I do know is that it will be a while until I get rid of this particular pair.
