Black Jeans for When You Need a Break from Blue Ones
Did you overdo it on the blue denim? Try black.
Editor's Note, August 31, 2021: A denim historian at Levi's offered further insights into the origins of black denim, and the jeans Elvis wore in JailHouse Rock. "Since the turn of the century, black denim jeans have been available for Levi’s customers. As early as 1903, black denim (overalls) appeared in Levi’s catalog. Retail customers could get 8 oz. or 9 oz. copper-riveted black denim overalls, Lot 531 or Lot 225, for as low as $7.00 per dozen. We can’t confirm Elvis’s jeans from JailHouse Rock are Levi’s but they inspired our Type 1 jeans that launched in 2003."
Levi's (allegedly) launched a line of black jeans — a departure from the black overalls the brand had been selling since 1903 — in 1957 in part because of Elvis Presley's new movie, Jailhouse Rock, wherein he wears... you guessed it... black jeans. They called them the Elvis Presley Jeans. Oh, wow, what a creative title, corporate marketers. Simplicity aside, they marked a pivotal moment for denim. In the years prior, rebellious youths began coopting the workwear aesthetic, slowly transforming jeans from the functional, working-class pant of choice to something more fashion-forward — and informal.
Partly due to Elvis' magnetism, partly because they were a dark stark departure from blue denim, black jeans were an instant hit. “Black jeans became the rage of the season," style historian James Sullivan wrote in his book, Jeans: A Cultural History of an American Icon. They moved fast through the fashionable circles, appearing on everyone from James Dean and Marlon Brando, and moved on to the masses; every troubled teen, high-school bully, and rock band loved black jeans, pairing them with leather jackets and loafers or white tees and Chuck Taylors.
For denim brands, uniforming hardworking American men was a far cry from outfitting greasers — especially when the jeans of choice amongst the latter crowd were typically ultra-dark or heavily distressed. As such, all of the major denim manufacturers banded together against, well, teens, who they felt were tarnishing the garment's image.
"In 1956, the nation’s top blue jeans manufacturers formed the national Denim Council 'to put schoolchildren back in blue jeans through a concerted national public relations, advertising, and promotional effort.' First the council targeted teens, but its promotional efforts were unsuccessful. The manufacturers soon realized that the problem was not with the teens but with the parents, administrators, teachers, and school boards. It was the adults who felt threatened by a fashion trend that seemed to promote disrespect through casualness," Penn State University's Business of Mass Media Department details in Public Relations and Framing the Message.
Narcs! Adults worried about what kids were wearing tried to kill off jeans — specifically the kinds the cool kids were wearing (aka black ones). But clearly they failed. Be like the cool kids and buy a pair of black jeans.
