Girls Can Wear Jeans
San Antonio – On Jan. 8, the last of the Levi Strauss & Co. manufacturing plants in the United States will close, fading this American icon like a pair of its own 501s.
Levi’s — which were “born in the U.S.A.” and are featured prominently on Bruce Springsteen’s backside on the cover of his album of the same name — will now be manufactured overseas signals to some pop culture observers the death of an institution, one that has been stitched into American imagery like the little red tag on the jeans’ back pocket.
“It’s an end of an era,” says Patricia Leavy, assistant professor of sociology at Stonehill College in Easton, Mass. “More than any other garment in pop culture, Levi’s are symbolic of America. They’ve come to represent some of the ideals this country is based on. Equality: Anyone can afford to wear them, everyone does wear them, kids, adults, any age, any race.
Levi’s has been struggling for some time now, its sales damaged by momentary fads and brutal competitors like Old Navy and the Gap, where jeans can often sell for as cheap as $15 (an average pair of 501s costs between $35 and $40, although Levi’s has cheaper jeans as well). Levi’s factories, including several in Texas, began closing in the ’90s, when the company’s revenues began dropping from a peak point of $7.1 billion, according to The New York Times.
“The problem in the denim market right now is, there’s a hot new brand every month or so,” says Stan Williams, fashion director for Maxim, a men’s fashion and lifestyle magazine. “They’re so fast. They come out every second. That’s what young kids want, the latest trend. Kids don’t automatically think of Levi’s anymore.”
That wasn’t always the case. Founded by Bavarian immigrant Levi Strauss, over the years the company, and its trend-setting products, from 501s to Dockers, became synonymous with American pop culture, the jeans in particular. More than 3.5 billion pairs of riveted, red-tag jeans have rolled out of U.S. factories; everyone in the United States, it seems, has pulled on a pair of Levi’s at one point or another.
Madonna wearing Levi’s in a classic picture by Herb Ritts
“They have been such an integral part of American culture,” William says. “Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, James Dean — they all wore them and helped popularize them. People have written songs about them. They’re all over MTV. Even Calvin Klein wore Levi’s.”
No jeans company, Williams says, will ever have the immediate recognition or make the pop-culture impact that Levi’s has made, even though just in the last decade, 200 new jean brands have entered the market, according to The New York Times.
“I don’t think, at this point, that anyone is going to be able to take over the brand recognition that Levi’s has,” he says. “I don’t think there’s a company that can even come close.”
Source: Star Telegram