Designer Jeans. Richie, David & Andy. Part 3 in a series.
Designer jeans started to become a fad - which has evolved into a mainstay of American fashion to this day - starting around when I was in 3rd grade. Gloria Vanderbilt was the pioneer of the industry, creating a line of denim jeans for women bearing her signature on the back right pocket and a swan on the front right pocket.
The audience targer for these jeans were geared towards women, not girls. So people like my teachers and Mother. At this point, I don't think my Mother even owned a pair of denim anything. My Father had always looked at jeans as something for farm workers and other "laborers." Some of our teachers did get pairs, but to this point, the idea of jeans on a teacher at school was definitely not part of the dress code. I think Mrs. Edwards, our school Librarian, might have led the "charge for change" and been the first to take that leap and wear designer jeans to work. Keep in mind that women wearing pants was relatively new in the work place. I guess we had some fearless, bold women at Green Elementary. The faculty was almost all female, except for the gym teacher, Principal and I must be forgetting someone. There seemed to be more polyester double knit pants and pant suits than anything else during my tenure. I do for certain that whatever comprises polyester double knit it never found its way into my Mother's closet. She found such attire quite objectionable for whatever reason.
By the time I was in 4th grade, more labels were coming out and they were starting to be marketed to men as well. But it was still the end of the 70's and 'roles' for men and women were much more clearly defined. While the NY Rangers might be sporting Sasson jeans, boys at Green Elementary School were not, except one. I begged my parents for a pair. They would not oblige. But Nana made sure I had them for my birthday, costing her what was probably about a day of her pay from her then nearing 20 years at Bamburger's in Morristown, NJ (which became part of Macy's in the 80's). Today, the location is a Century 21 discount store. There was quite a bit of debate, myself included, to make them as "masculine" as possible. Black jeans, I don't recall much else other than the big label on the back right pocket. I proudly showed up at school in my new couture to be immediately ridiculed. I was wearing "girl's jeans" and the "ooh la la" calling was endless. Admittedly, the latter had some justification, it was a really dumb campaign... The tipping point is that this is when people at school first calling me a "fag."
My 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Schroeder, tried to help but really only added to the beginnings of my becoming an 'outcast.' She was quite bothered when we had to come to class with a drawing of some sort and Nana and I had put together drawings from dresses in the Bonwit Teller catalogue. She had me come over to meet her high school, football playing sons, so I could understand what it was to be a real man or boy; however she referred to what she clearly saw was the definition of being a guy. I don't recall details, but the guys were assholes to me and I hated them. No surprise, for starters I was considerably younger and while I don't recall the conversation, I can bet football came up and I could have cared little to nothing about it.
Richie never chastised me that I can recall. Andy either was just arriving or had not yet in West Bloomfield and his Mom was a very "modern day woman" and I seem to recall him being one of the next guys in our cluster with designer jeans, perhaps in part because I had them. David, however, was a driving force in the campaign to demoralize my being.
The audience targer for these jeans were geared towards women, not girls. So people like my teachers and Mother. At this point, I don't think my Mother even owned a pair of denim anything. My Father had always looked at jeans as something for farm workers and other "laborers." Some of our teachers did get pairs, but to this point, the idea of jeans on a teacher at school was definitely not part of the dress code. I think Mrs. Edwards, our school Librarian, might have led the "charge for change" and been the first to take that leap and wear designer jeans to work. Keep in mind that women wearing pants was relatively new in the work place. I guess we had some fearless, bold women at Green Elementary. The faculty was almost all female, except for the gym teacher, Principal and I must be forgetting someone. There seemed to be more polyester double knit pants and pant suits than anything else during my tenure. I do for certain that whatever comprises polyester double knit it never found its way into my Mother's closet. She found such attire quite objectionable for whatever reason.
By the time I was in 4th grade, more labels were coming out and they were starting to be marketed to men as well. But it was still the end of the 70's and 'roles' for men and women were much more clearly defined. While the NY Rangers might be sporting Sasson jeans, boys at Green Elementary School were not, except one. I begged my parents for a pair. They would not oblige. But Nana made sure I had them for my birthday, costing her what was probably about a day of her pay from her then nearing 20 years at Bamburger's in Morristown, NJ (which became part of Macy's in the 80's). Today, the location is a Century 21 discount store. There was quite a bit of debate, myself included, to make them as "masculine" as possible. Black jeans, I don't recall much else other than the big label on the back right pocket. I proudly showed up at school in my new couture to be immediately ridiculed. I was wearing "girl's jeans" and the "ooh la la" calling was endless. Admittedly, the latter had some justification, it was a really dumb campaign... The tipping point is that this is when people at school first calling me a "fag."
My 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Schroeder, tried to help but really only added to the beginnings of my becoming an 'outcast.' She was quite bothered when we had to come to class with a drawing of some sort and Nana and I had put together drawings from dresses in the Bonwit Teller catalogue. She had me come over to meet her high school, football playing sons, so I could understand what it was to be a real man or boy; however she referred to what she clearly saw was the definition of being a guy. I don't recall details, but the guys were assholes to me and I hated them. No surprise, for starters I was considerably younger and while I don't recall the conversation, I can bet football came up and I could have cared little to nothing about it.
Richie never chastised me that I can recall. Andy either was just arriving or had not yet in West Bloomfield and his Mom was a very "modern day woman" and I seem to recall him being one of the next guys in our cluster with designer jeans, perhaps in part because I had them. David, however, was a driving force in the campaign to demoralize my being.
Comments
Post a Comment
Your comments are greatly appreciated! I greatly welcome input, feedback, any and all suggestions.