Jeaning in America

John Fiske describes the captivating and inspirational rise of Jeans in popular culture and society. Before their sudden rise to popularity, Jeans were associated with cowboys and was the West's inevident identity (4). He describes the eccentric styles created with jeans and how they led to inspiring others. In some way, everyone wearing jeans was united because EVERYONE wore jeans! This ultimately eliminated the idea of jeans belonging to a particular class of people. Fiske believed the jeans became an emblem of Americanness (4) and are practically the contribution America had made to the fashion.

Fiske unconsciously refutes Simmel's idea of trends solely belonging to the superior class and denies that any imitation of the pattern being frowned upon. Fiske mentions that Jeans were commonly worn by Cowboys, who were on the bottom of the social hierarchy pyramid. He shows us that the subordinate class are trendsetters. Not only that, Fiske, displays that jeans were worn by everyone, despite their race, sex, and social class.

With this in mind, we can see that time changed the way we saw fashion and reinforced its proper meaning. Its importance became apparent to many that fashion is a form of expression that leads to social unity and fellowship.