Blue Jeans were invented back in 1873 by Jacob Davis and Levi Straus. They were first designed and marketed as 'work pants' or 'waist overall'. The term 'Jeans' wasn't really used until the 1960s to refer to these overall trousers.

When I was growing up, in the 60s and 70s, there were just three main brands to choose from. Wranglers, Lee and Levis. These tended to be available in one coloure, dark indigo blue, which would wash out and stain other clothes. Levis were famous for introducing their 'shrink to fit' jeans which you would wear in the bath in order to shrink them to your size.

It was back in the 1970s that it became fashionable to wear worn and faded jeans and this led to the development of a whole new industry selling second hand jeans. It was in the 1980s that this trend really took off, fuelled by an immensely popular advertising campaign.

Fashion conscious jeans lovers no longer had to wash and rewash their jeans in order to attain that well worn look. They could now buy genuinely old Levis 501s that had already been worn in. Fashion conscious shoppers were unaware that these Jeans had come from various American prisons where they were the standard issues clothing.

Today there must be hardly a soul who doesn't own at least one pair of blue jeans. Some have estimated that the average american teenager owns about siz pairs of jeans.

And they are not limited to only a few select brands. Every major clothing manufacturer now produces their own range of Jeans. My personal favourites are Fat Face Jeans from the popular Fat Face range of outdoor, surf and ski clothing. The outfit that I like to wear for any occasion is a pair of Fat Face Jeans teamed with a comfortable Fat Face Hoodie. Not really appropriate for serious business meetings but immensely comfortable, practical and very affordable.