Denim Works
There was a long period when denim was genuinely uncool. The sleazy guys in Mantas wore it. Worn-out guys with herpes halfway down their thighs. Your supposedly cool physics teacher with the mustache. Those were denim’s associations. Then something shifted and now it’s fashionable again.
What’s funny is how complete the turnaround is. A fabric doesn’t change. The context around it does. One year denim is dead weight carrying decades of bad associations. The next year it’s back in new cuts, new finishes, high-waisted silhouettes in stone blue. Jean jackets returned as spring essentials.
I don’t know why I care about this. It’s fabric. But there’s something almost generous about how completely something can be forgotten and then rehabilitated. The guys in their Mantas are long gone. The denim stayed and got another life with people who didn’t know it was ever uncool.