Fun!

As a child in the 80s, I did not like jeans. I thought they were uncomfortable and preferred dresses. That is, until a little boy on the playground looked up my skirt while I was on the jungle gym. That was the beginning of my sweatsuit period.

When I was around 10 I started taking very informal horse riding lessons and started wearing jeans again. The riding didn't last, but the jeans did.

I'm sure I wore mostly jeans in high school, but they were nothing special. After graduating I lived in Spain for a summer and picked up the habit of wearing jeans in very hot weather and I still wear jeans when everyone else is in shorts. I need to branch out into other fabrics.

Lots of jeans in college, but again, nothing memorable.

After college I worked as an archaeologist, so most of jeans had holes in the knees. I had a pair of dark denim for going out.

These days I own more jeans in more styles than ever before and still wear them pretty much everyday. It's cold out, so right now I'm reaching for my Gap straight leg jeans that are slim enough to tuck into boots. I have one pair of jbrand that work miracles on my backside. I also love my colored sueded NYJDs.

I don't think I ever owned a pair of jeans until mid-thirties and even then I never felt good in them. Being a curvy hourglass with pear tendencies jeans (and pants in general) were never my flattering closing option...until YLF enlightment
Now I love jeans and white jeans are special favorites. If somebody told me even 5 years ago that I would feel fab in white skinny (but not skin tight) jeans in my late 40s I would have laughed!
But I love trousers pretty much equally with jeans so they are a tie for me!

Hahaha... fun!

ca '75-'81 jr high to high school years...
Levi's 501s baby; shrink to fit & button fly.

ca '82-'88 college & beyond...
Guess jeans! OMG, love! Size 26 or 27, so tight they look painted on. Yes, some beds were rolled around upon in the name of getting them on. Acid washes, army green, railroad stripes, paisley; I had them all. Little zippers at the ankle, 'member??

ca 1990s...
First pair of designer jeans: black Girbaud baggy ankle crops. I buy them on a trip home to SF & every girl in the Pitt art history dept is jealous when I return!

ca 1996-2008
A lost decade plus wearing assorted Ross jeans but knowing I could do better.

ca 2008
Join YLF; begin wearing Paige's and Hudson's. Cue angel chorus. Jeans bliss!

Sorry... Dupe! My browser is acting up

I needed curvy fit and stretch denim for fit & comfort preferences. For style preferences, wide legs/trousers/flares (which weren't widely available at thrift stores!). That's why.

Wow - what a wild trip down memory lane! At least what I can remember of it - lol. I distinctly remember my first pair of jeans :two-tone denim where the legs are different from each other as are the front and back. I was quite the little fashion plate with those pants. I had all sorts of jeans - every bad permutation of studs, patches, pockets, etc . I sewed a lot of my clothes though during the junior high year and wore a lot of wrap skirts. Oh dear. I also remember wearing cords more than denim jeans during the middle school-high school years.

High school for me (mid to late 70's) : we wore Tribal dress pants a lot. I have no idea why, but I had them in several different colours. Jeans took less of a place in my closet.

University - I was in Clothing & Textiles, and we dressed up. Only "dressy" jeans. With permed hair. My first job out of uni was with Western Glove Works, the company who makes Silver jeans, and is the licensee for Victoria Beckham's line of denim, among others. Never wore them much though as they weren't allowed at work, oddly enough. That was the 80's though, and I am quite sure that isn't the case now.

Between then and now, it's only been in the last say 8-10 years that I've really worn jeans a lot. Never to work, that much I do remember. I remember when skinny jeans first hit the stores, and discussing with my friends how horrible we thought they were. Little did I know they'd become a mainstay in my wardrobe shortly after, and are still today. They are my preferred style as I like a streamlined and slim lower half visually. I've experimented with all cuts and silhouettes though - but always return to skinnies.

One thing I find interesting: I've invested serious $ on other items in my closet: coats, handbags, jewellery, watches, blazers etc - but I have NEVER bought a pair of premium denim. I think it's fear of not getting them right - fit is so hard to get on jeans and some stretch and some don't. I may be breaking that barrier in January though:)

I never wore jeans as a child. As a teenager I remember saving up (from my Saturday morning job) for a pair of 501s. I took them on a family holiday. I wore them into the surf & crawled around in the sand in them to soften & fade them. My parents thought I was mad

Since then I've had periods when I haven't worn them, like the 80s, where I was more into the Japanese design aesthetic. Now I can't imagine my life without them (except in our summer when linen pants or dresses rule).

Hmm. '82-90's I was a young child wearing second hand jeans. Early '00's I was a college student and jeans didn't fit the dress code. 2005 to present; I had a few straight leg pairs but never loved them. Now, I have one bootcut pair and I do like them but rarely wear them since they need boots and as a stay at home mom I'm not wearing boots all that often. I prefer trousers now.

I've always worn jeans often. I used to sport corduroy a lot too, but ever since adulthood I've stepped away from that style of bottom.

Interesting thread!

As a girl in the 70s: Total tomboy. Rebelled against being stuffed into stiff frilly dresses, saggy tights and patent Mary Janes in favor of rainbow striped tees and denim bellbottoms, ideally with patched knees. My favorite pair had a pattern of running horse silhouettes and were are groovy as it gets.

80s: All in here. In high school those engineer striped baggy Lee jeans were a big thing, as were painter pants and overalls a la "Dexy's Midnight Runners". Then college...Acid wash, studs, zippers, skinnies or baggy pegged Levis. Lots of thrifting of clothes from Junior League or Goodwill.

90s: Working professional wardrobe became a focus, but on weekends was into a skater-punk look. Bought jeans from the boy's department with wide legs and attitude, worn with fitted tees or cropped sweaters..

00s: Suddenly willing to spend more on premium denim due to having a child and realizing that rummagin around in thrift stores was not my only option for casualwear. This was the decade of 7FAMK for me.

Today: Skinnies and BFs are my preferred silhouettes. I have ALWAYS worn BF jeans in some form, whether they were used Levis from the men's section of Goodwill or baggy skater pants. Somehow they have always been part of my style psyche.

Girls weren't allowed to wear pants to school in my day, much less jeans. Possibly pants were allowed my senior year (Class of '71). The first jeans I remember were 501s which I got in college or late high school. I wore painter pants in college, but I don't count them as jeans. I know I had high-waisted pleated pants when they were in style. I skipped the whole decade when all you could find were very low-waisted jeans since all they do is make my heavy thighs look heavier, my short legs look shorter, and my super long torso longer.

So now: I wear jeans more than I ever have in my life. I've finally found a few brands that work for me (NYDJ, Jag, Big Star) and are mid-rise. For that missing decade, I probably neither had the time nor inclination for an exhaustive and exhausting search for jeans that worked. The jury is still out on whether I will replace my fading black jeans. I am thinking about wearing the heck out of a couple pairs of black pants that don't currently see much wear.

I'm mid-forties and I never owned a pair of jeans until two years ago. I wore print dresses and corduroy slacks as a child and teen.

The first pair I bought were $20 from Target, dark, straight leg. They fit and flatter brilliantly. Then I discovered thrift shopping, and I've since acquired several more pairs, including some boutique brands, for about $3. I like mid rise (never lower) and straight or boot cut. They are a versatile wardrobe item and I now like them very much, and have added a couple of denim skirts, jackets and a sleeveless jacket to my denim collection.

I tend to skew dressy/ladylike and find it really hard to dress casually, but having jeans has helped me not look overdone.

Up until Age 8-- wore heavy denim jeans, mostly straight leg. Almost always were hand-me-downs, often from my boy cousins. Various brands and washes. Also wore a lot of leggings-- 80s/early 90s fashion influence there.

8 to 14-- wore denim nearly every day. All of it was hand-me down. Almost exculsively Western Wear bootcut or stretchy bootcuts from places like Levis. Wore hand-me downs until I got taller than all the ladies in our family and friend circle that were somewhat young and slim. Mom considered black jeans "dressy".

14 through college -- Bootcut blue denim almost everyday. Most of it was Western Wear or from teen catalogs. Had a couple pairs of flares and some full-length boyfriend jeans in there too. Also liked cargo pants and sometimes corduroy.

As a young adult/career person-- I still wear jeans almost everyday. Non-destroyed denim gets a thumbs up from my office (and my profession in general). Now I wear all silhouettes of jeans, still mostly stick to blue denim, but also wear black denim. Most of mine are currently from GAP, but I'm not brand loyal.

Who else wore these? Probably 1974 for me and I cannot remember the brand.
Oh, and pic 2 are Wranglers

Bought my first pair of Levis jeans with my own money in 1976 when I was 20. My mother would not buy them for me. I never wore them in college, only on certain occasions.

I don't really remember owning or wearing jeans in the 1980s or early 1990s. I wore suits for work and slacks or pants at other times. I think it was in the 2000s that I really fell in love with jeans since I was a SAHM and did not have to dress up on a daily basis. Now I wear jeans most days of the week because I feel most comfortable in them.

I've been wearing jeans all my life. My earliest memories were wearing them in elementary school. It was only cool to wear flared Levi's and the bigger the flare the better. We would have our moms sew in colorful fabric sections into the flares to make them even bigger! It was uber cool to have a pair Levis that was so worn in that they had holes.
I also remember wearing a pair of paper bag cropped jeans in the 80s that I can see in my mind and wish I still had. In the 90s I wore lots of boot cuts and some denim overalls that I would throw on after work. Even though I wore jeans, I never felt like they really fit me until some of the more recent changes in denim technology and shaping.

So fun to read everybody's answers. I just realized that what we called "clochard" waist in Brazil (using the French word) is what you call "paper bag waist."

Sometimes, when I think about the ubiquity of denim, I wonder if there'll ever be a time when it's not so commonly worn. And if so, what would replace it. I'm not an expert in fashion history, but did they start to become so pervasive in the 80s? From everybody's answers here it would seem so!

I don't recall a time when I didn't wear jeans. I wore Levi's as a child. My mother would bring both my brother and I to the same store so we could pick them out at the same time. I have always had a preference for straight leg jeans. I will admit that when the movie Grease came out, my friends and I wore tight jeans and tucked pink or purple combs into our pockets. Ridiculous weren't we?

In the late 70's early 80's Jordache jeans were a big deal. They were the cool jeans. I stuck with my Levi's. I was already tall and they fit. Worse than having the wrong jeans would be a pair of "floods" or jeans that were too short. I look at kids in middle and high school now and they are growing like weeds. Their clothes almost never fit them properly for very long, especially the boys!

I cannot say when I stopped wearing Levi's but I think it's when the store my mother traditionally brought us to for purchasing them closed. It broke my heart. It took a long time to find a suitable replacement but I have in JCrew matchsticks. I love them. I'm fortunate that I can wear jeans to work. I hope to continue wearing jeans my entire life.

Oh, right! Jordache, Calvin Klein, Gloria Vanderbilt - it's all coming back now.

I longed for jeans when I was at primary school but my Mum prefererred cords or elastic waist pants (or pinafores).

When I was 11 I was allowed my first pair of jeans (skinny and tight). Then in the 1980s I wore paperbag, coloured, acid wash, patched, marbled etc...and then 501s about 1990 I think.

From about 1995 to 2001 I went off jeans and onto trousers and moleskin trousers, but after having a baby rediscovered the beauty of denim. I have worn jeans regularly the last 12 years in flares, bootcuts, straight, skinny and boyfriend styles.

This is such a fun thread!!!!

I really don't have any distinct memories of wearing jeans until college in the mid 1980s when I bought a pair guess ankle jeans with zippers. I wore them til I had holes in both knees ( no spandex back then I guess). They would have an awesome pair of distressed jeans today.
I didn't buy premium denim until middle age - 2000's and can't live without all of the different washes, patterns, coating, etc.

I was born in the eighties and I rarely if ever wore jeans. I found jeans to be uncomfortable (Jordache skinny legs and no stretch were not good then or now!) and opted out. I wore a lot of coordinated tops + leggings that my mom bought for me in elementary school.

In middle school, everyone wore jeans so I learned to like them. I discovered wide legs (surfer-esque, Pacific Sunwear and such) and vintage bell bottoms in the nineties and wore them with oversized tops and flannels.

High school and college were mostly bootcuts. I don't even remember there being other denim options at the time. Worn with hoodies at first and later with cardigans to look more "adult."

And since 2010 I've added a lot of straights, a few skinnies, and a couple of boyfriends to my wardrobe. I still have a pair of bootcuts but they don't see a lot of wear at the moment. I also have a bit more color variety (blue, grey, black).

Angie, it is pretty strange that I don't like jeans more! I think it's mostly a comfort thing. Some are better than others, but even the best ones always feel kind of stiff and constricting.

This thread is making me realize something interesting. Growing up in the '80s, a lot of my clothes were kid-friendly versions of adult trends, and a lot of the same brands that were cool for teenagers were cool for kids, like Gap and Guess and Esprit and the Limited. I'm not sure I've ever really thought about how recent that norm is, compared to kids being dressed in a whole separate universe of "children's" clothes without a lot of choice about what they wore. Although it makes sense, since it kind of goes along with greater focus on individuality, for kids and in general.

Oh wow, so fun! I have very little clothes memories but am sure I wore jeans from a young age. Everyone wore jeans to school when I was a kid in the 70s in NJ. Gloria Vanderbilt does come to mind. I do remember that in college in the mid-80s I had two pairs of Levis bootcuts in forest green and navy blue that I wore pretty much exclusively all the way through law school and beyond. My next jeans memory isn't until my early 40s when I found YLF and started to pay attention to these things. I have made up for lost time and was an early adopter of both the resurgence of skinnies and bf jeans, which I love.

It has been fun to read this thread. Count me in with those who definitely wear jeans more than ever before.
Growing up in the 50's, women and girls did not wear pants of any kind, at least in my world. On cold walks to school in the winter we were allowed to wear snow pants under our dress, but they had to be removed once we arrived.
Highschool: no jeans or other pants except shorts in the summer.
College: (60's) I don't think jeans were made in women's sizes and no stretchy fabrics. I shocked my parents with a pair of men's cords that I wore with an inside out sweatshirt and felt the height of fashion. At college we could not wear pants of any kind to class or meals except for Saturday lunch.
Post college and teaching: no pants. Not professional. But I did wear quite short miniskirts :). Weekends I wore some tapered wool slacks with matching mohair pullover sweaters.
Even as a mom, I did not embrace jeans. ( mom jeans at that time). Until I found YLF and learned of premium denim, I didn't own a pair of jeans. Since buying my first pair of Citizens of Humanity, I have not looked back. They are much more flattering than other styles of pants on me.

Angie I have only really worn jeans since joining YLF. Never wore them as a kid, nor as a teen and as a young adult I just never liked them on myself. I have had one or two pairs of boot cut jeans over the past say 10 years, encouraged by my hubby, but otherwise my discovery and subsequent love affair with a good skinny leg jean is all down to you x

My story is strange! I had a very rigid education and my father would not let their daughters wear pants, so until my 18th birthday I only wore dresses and skirts, my big dream was to buy a pair of jeans!

I bought my first pair with my own money, a pair of bootcuts, I wore bootcuts until I join YLF.

I didn't wear jeans until college. They were more expensive than we could afford, I think.

During my teens (late eighties), my mom worked in a garment factory that produced clothes for JCrew and Ann Taylor, among other companies. I had access to leggings galore. Grunge was the look when I was in college, and I embraced it fully.

Since then, I have always had a pair of jeans, but mostly for utility reasons (whatever I could easily get just to have something to wear). I bought my first pair of higher end skinnies last fall and wondered why I waited so long.