An Irishman’s Diary on how jeans got a leg up

'Money talks /But it don't sing and dance / And it don't walk; / And long as I can have you / Here with me, I'd much rather be / Forever in blue jeans." Thus goes the opening verse of the 1979 Neil Diamond hit, Forever in Blue Jeans.

Appropriately, Diamond did radio ads for jeans in the 1960s, the decade that is probably associated more than any other with the huge growth in popularity of jeans among young people. It was when jeans became their uniform.

For the past 50 years, it would be hard to find a piece of clothing so widely worn and loved all over the world. The anthropologist, Daniel Miller, who has written a book on the subject (Blue Jeans, published in 2011) counted the first 100 people to pass him by in every country of the many he has visited; in each country he discovered that at least half the population wore jeans on any given day.

The word "jeans" to describe heavy twilled cotton cloth, of which denim is a type, probably comes from the French "Gênes" for Genoa, the place of original production of that material. The word "denim" itself comes from "serge de Nimes", the French city where it was produced; this fabric was typically blue.

What eventually became jeans, as we know them, were originally designed as working overalls for farm workers and miners in the western states of America in the later decades of the 19th century. A Nevada tailor called Jacob Davis struck success when he came up with the idea of reinforcing sturdy trousers with rivets. His trousers were soon in great demand and he realised the potential of what he had but he could not afford to take out a patent.

So he asked his San Francisco fabric supplier, Levi Strauss, to join him in a business enterprise and Strauss agreed. Of the two fabrics, cotton duck (similar to canvas) and denim, that the newly patented trousers (called Levis) were made from, the denim ones sold much better because they were more comfortable and softened with age.

Before the second World War, jeans were mainly working wear in the American West. In the east, among more affluent Americans, they came to stand for romantic ideas of the cowboy (tough and independent) but at the same time rural and working class.

The transition from working "overalls" to popular casual wear was more related to what jeans came to symbolise, while retaining a link to notions of ruggedness and independence. They became a surprising symbol of rebellion, as depicted in Marlon Brando's 1953 film The Wild Ones and James Dean's Rebel Without a Cause two years later. Jeans came to represent a subversive counter-culture of young people riding around on motorbikes instead of settling down and having families.

They were banned in schools across America – which simply added to their attraction for teenagers. Outside America they began to become popular too because they stood for a more relaxed American way of life that Europeans longed for.

Middle-class Americans began wearing jeans in the 1960s, especially protesting college students campaigning against class and racial discrimination and the Vietnam War. Since then every youth subculture, such as hippies with their bell-bottoms, punks with their co-ordinated rips and tears and goths in their overall black, have put their own individual stamp on jeans.

Today, jeans are worn by people of all ages, while probably still retaining something of their symbol of youth, which may explain why they are still banned in some stuffy and snooty clubs and establishments. People wear them because they feel comfortable and relaxed in them.

The Levis’ patent has long expired and there are many other brands available on the market but the most traditional styles are still very popular. The Levi Strauss and Co. archivist and historian, Lynn Downey, described the original Levis 501 jeans as simple and uncomplicated. “It’s just denim, thread and rivets.”

Perhaps more than any other garment, jeans have become an intrinsic part of our lives and have found expression in popular culture. We began with Neil Diamond and other examples are easy to find. “Blue, blue jeans I wear them every day, / There’s no particular reason to change,” sang Blur, capturing a moment of calm perfection, and Francine Roberts celebrated her enjoyment of a short holiday break in these lines: “With coffee and book, / Jeans and bare feet, / Onto the deck / The morning to greet.”