The fashion editor at COLLIER'S MAGAZINE could not have known the significance of this subject back in 1942, yet to many of us living in the digital age, these old columns seems like a sign post that pointed the way to the sportswear of the future. Verily, few are the Americans who tread the fruited plane today who do not see at least one pair of jeans every day. Blue jeans have become the symbol of the nation, just as much as the flag.
This 1940s article pointed out that more and more Americans were waking up to denim. They found that it suited them and deemed it a sensible fabric in light of the new agricultural and industrial toil that needed to be finished if the fascists were to be beaten. However, denim was not some newfangled wartime invention; denim has been on the American scene since 1853 - in the Western gold mines and barnyards, roundhouses and cattle ranges. Seven years before this article hit the newsstands American teenagers began wearing jeans, but it was W.W. II that created a market for women's jeans - for good or ill, the course of American sportswear was forever altered.
A more thorough history of blue jeans can be read here.
The morning after the Japanese attack, President Roosevelt stood before the microphones in the well of the U.S. Capitol asking Congress to declare war against Japan; CLICK HERE to hear about the reactions of the American public during his broadcast...
Click here to read about 1940s teen slang.
Read about another 1940s fashion innovation that
was wildly popular among women on the home front.
Click here to read articles about fashion during W.W. II
Click here to learn more about the American W.W. II home front...
