It feels good to put on a pair of blue jeans when you’re tired and stressed out. You can have a miserable day but slip into a pair of your favorite blue jeans and feel like a million dollars.
Basic blue jeans, the pants we put on without giving it a second thought, might have greater influence on our psyche than we ever imagined.
Not only do they provide physical comfort, but they also offer psychological comfort.
In other words, they help us relax.
As a photographer, I have always been intrigued with the dramatic impact that clothing can have on people’s moods and behavior. After a wedding, it’s amazing how quickly some wedding party members can switch from their tuxedoes and bridesmaid dresses to blue jeans.
Slipping into something casual can allow the wearer to create an entirely different persona, altering the way she is perceived by her peers.
Because jeans are so universally worn and well-liked, they are fascinating apparel.
Many people convey a strong psychological bond with their jeans.
It could be that jeans evoke important memories of life experiences and key relationships.
A McDowell County girl once embroidered her initials on my jeans at Marshall. At the time, I probably thought “What a neat trick.”
Nowadays, such flowery needlework would seem out of place. But back then, such casual displays of affection were evidence that the jeans had “lived,” in a sense, for a time and became very meaningful.
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People select clothing to help them act out different social roles—both for work and play.
I used to feel comfortable wearing a tie to work. For years I did not think anything of it, just part of the routine.
Now I would feel awkward wearing a tie, though at least 50 of the colorful neckwear items hang in my closet.
Some people who wear blue jeans say they like the casual attire because it does not force them to conform to any role.
In other words, the blue jeans conform to the wearer, not the other way around.
Plus, their versatility offers the wearer a greater sense of comfort.
Or maybe it’s psychological comfort that the blue jeans provide. If clothes can trigger positive feelings and moods, then blue jeans are right up there at the top of the list as mood enhancers.
A common statement from people who like to don their blue jeans for special occasions is: “I feel I can be myself in my jeans.” Or “I can do anything, and I feel comfortable, self-confident and composed.”
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Ideally, people should wear clothing that enables their true self to come out.
After you’ve owned a pair of jeans for a while, they become part of you.
You trust your blue jeans to help you when you’re uptight.
I probably do my best thinking when I’m in blue jeans and just relaxing at home.
Some of us grow so attached to our jeans that we begin to look on them as “special friends”—ones that have been with us through thick and thin, when we had money in our pocket and when we were broke.
And it appears that feelings about the denim articles of clothing seem to grow stronger as the jeans grow older.
It’s just amazing how much a pair of pre-worn and faded blue jeans can fetch at the high-end fashion stores, jeans that perhaps some rough-neck lineman or heavy equipment operator already wore out on the job somewhere in Idaho.
I doubt if I would feel comfortable wearing jeans that were broken in by someone else.
I would rather have the blue jeans I wore while doing my own thing, photographing wild horses at the Outer Banks, or hill folks in the heart of the Ozarks, or artists on the streets of quiet little towns in Oklahoma.
But most of all, I wish I still had those jeans my dark-eyed sweetheart embroidered with looping “L’s” and baseball logos.
And I’d love to be able to fit in them again.
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Top o’ the morning!