Jazz gets her denim blues

The phrase 'denim jeans' is known all over the world but who amongst you know the origins of these words? The original fabric was called 'serge' and it was manufactured in the south of France in a town called Nimes. An English mispronunciation of de Nimes (of Nimes) resulted in the word denim. Jeans was the word meant to be representative of the style of the Italian sailors of Genoa (Genoese) who wore a blue fustian uniform.
In the 1850's, a man called Levi Strauss thought it would be a great idea to put rivets on the denim clothes stress points since these were mainly working mans clothes. He also put his name to them and business was good. One hundred years later in the 1950's and 1960's, stars like Marlon Brando, James Dean and Elvis Presley wore them on the big screen and denim jeans moved quite literally out of the factories and became a desired street wear. Rival companies sensing a good thing are always ready to jump on the 'bandwagon' and names like 'Wrangler' and 'Lee' made their versions of Levi Strauss ideas and the industry was born.
Here on my side of the Pacific I am pleased to say that our denim manufacture is still very traditional and it still carries that feel for the 60's and 70's hey-day of the jeans explosion. Brand names such as 'Nudie' of Sweden and the 'Diesel premier' jeans only uses Japanese denim. Home brand names here like 'Edwin', which are sometimes called Japanese Levi's with their cool faded and frayed look and also the heavy look of 'Evisu', which were mainly created on the original looms of Levi Strauss because they were bought by Hidehiko Yamane, the founder of Evisu brand, shows our respect to the original Levi's brand.
The world is in a recession and clothes are still bought by people so why shouldn't they have something that is reasonably priced and keep with a sense of fashion too. Denim is not just jeans, its also hats and jackets, shoes and bags. This year's trend is the skinny cut, the deep fade or distressed wash style and as always, the continual embellishments of elaborate embroidery and the hanging loose chains. Not much of a change there!

The denim promotion's heavy emphasis on our traditional technique and style and the theme was a 'back to basics' revival with music and art and style reproducing the ambiance and flavor of the 50's to the early 70's, I decided, after chatting with a friend of mine, to make my own fashion statement and wear my hair in the 'mod' style of the bouffant, or my attempt at it. Of course with me being 'me' you all know damn well that I didn't pack any jeans in my travel bag. I was too conservative in my limited choices of what to bring so I just stepped down to the factory shop and bought a cute little 45rpm denim jacket which was a snug fit and looked pretty smooth on me and pretty retro with my 'groovy baby' dress. I know damn well that I got talked about in my meeting during the afternoon and I was even complimented by one of the production organizers so I'm happy that my efforts were appreciated by others.

This evening I phoned Hitomi only to find that she was on her way to Shimonoseki for a promotion venue at the eiraku! I almost fainted and once more think of what strange games the fates will play with us. I said in my last post that I was here in Yamaguchi and this was the end of the Earth! (Laughs) If that statement was true then Shimonoseki is over the edge and desperately clinging on to the sides! I have one single appointment in the morning and after that I was going to make my way home but instead will now take the 40 minutes slow train ride down to meet her.
I better not throw any more curses up to fates now and I'd better smile my thanks instead. I adore moments like these. My music choice for this post is back to the 70's and a Jeans Genie!
I have something magical in my jeans too, (laughs) and my genes. (Laughs more)