Ripped Jeans to Patched Jeans—A Lesson on Denim Abuse and Denim Love

Ripped jeans have been worn as a fashion statement since the 1970’s. Many chose to deform their jeans in an effort to separate themselves from mainstream culture. Ironically, the mainstream eventually embraced ripped jeans.Today ripped jeans and patched jeans have become part of the fabric of American culture. Both styles are now welcome in places that range from the dorm room to the board room, the art studio to the art opening, and the vegetable garden to the garden gala.

The truth is, we just love to abuse our jeans. Since their invention, jeans have been ripped, bleached, shrunk, permanent pressed, cut off, torn, shredded, distressed, sanded, stone washed, and acid washed. On the other hand, they’ve been lovingly embroidered, beaded, patched, painted and sequined. We definitely have an intriguing relationship with our favorite article of clothing. Through the good times, and the bad ones, our loyal jeans still love us. And we still love them.

Which reminds us, in the 1970’s, during the height of the free love movement, the US also saw an outpouring of denim love. Americans were using their jeans to visually express their hopes, political views, and religious beliefs. In 1974, Levi’s held a denim art contest and received thousands of entries.

The worst part (or best part!) is that people actually wore these jeans. That’s right, take a look at these bad boys below . . .

images from: Levi’s Denim Art Contest Catalogue of Winners by Richard M. Owens, Baron Wolman, John Burks

posted by: danielle on June 23, 2009 at 3:33 pm
filed under: Denim 101 | comments (3)
TAGS: history of jeans, ripped jeans, patched jeans

Back to blog home

On 06-23-2009, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) said

I remember that! People wore jeans with large, intricate hand-embroidered designs. I was always amazed that someone would work that hard on their clothes and then expose them to the world where they might get damaged. My own jeans were plain or patched. Although it took far less time to patch than to embroider, it still took some skill to get a patch onto a pant-leg with my old treadle machine. Now I wish I had saved them! They could be a piece of history!

On 11-13-2009, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) said

I have a denim jacket I started embroidering decades ago. To this day, I still pull it out from time to time and add stitches as the mood strikes me. My goal is to eventually cover every inch of it.
I love denim and all the shades of blues to be found - anytime I see a worn denim shirt or jacket - it’s like a blank canvas just calling to be decorated.I’m 54 and will keep on wearing embroidered denim until I die!

On 12-24-2009, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) said

UMM I WANNA GET RIPPED JEANS