The Ballad of Earl Jean: Where Did All the 44s Go?

I was reading yesterday how financial analysts predict a huge glut of denim in the fall, especially at the midpoint price point level, i.e. Gap, American Eagle, Express. Designer denim companies are also ramping up their offerings, and there looks to be no end to new brands launching, working up a hot streak and then fading away. I know this comes as good news to all the denim cultists out there, even though it's exhausting to keep track of all the names, stitching, finishes, and details: there should be a high-quality trendy jean for any budget at this point.

Considering the maturity of the premium denim market and the sheer breadth of offerings out there, it's highly ironic that I still managed to have a hard time last month finding a new pair of jeans to buy to replace a few that had simply just fallen apart. Maybe it was because I was out of practice (shopping being the new extreme sport, I suppose, and not having bought a pair of jeans for over two years), or maybe it was because I'm extremely picky: no distinctive stitching on the back pocket, no crazy distressing, absolutely no super low-rise and nothing super-tight. You know, just a plain basic jean that was both comfortable and flattering. I tried on a million things that never quite clicked, aesthetically speaking. But it was when I was cleaning out my closet when I came across an old pair of Earl 44s. They were old and faded, but still had an amazing fit and feel, and of all the jeans in my closet, had managed to retain the same sense of stretch and shape as when I first got them. Of course! It was so obvious; sometimes you have to go back to the beginning to go forward, and I was off to find a new pair.

If anyone ever writes a cultural history of the designer jean, there will be a chapter devoted to Earl Jean. Before there was Seven, Citizens, Paper or Rogan, there was Earl Jean, whose style #44 was one of the original cult jeans that headed up the most recent denim boom for low-rise stretch denim bootcut jeans. Any article you read on the starlet du jour back then had a mention of her wearing Earls (along with how she wasn't wearing any makeup but looked stunning and yes, she was a total geek in high school but look at her now, blah blah blah.) But where is the Earl 44 these days? There were really nowhere to be found on any of the major online retailers, and a scouring of department stores showed that they had disappeared from that arena as well. There are a very few online stores that still sell it, but for the most part the jean has faded into the background of a very crowded stage.

So it was with great irony to read an article about how bursting the denim market is just when some of its original vanguards, falling to the vagaries of business, mergers and competition, have faded from the scene. Style so often gets isolated into discussions of aesthetics and influences, but it's so closely tied to business cycles and their effects on distribution: at one point the denim market will glut, smaller companies will fail, larger ones will get unwieldy and then sold to some lame high bidder, and there go your favorite jeans. What's the lesson in all this, besides learn how to be a fashion Buddhist and practice non-attachment? Well, first of all, hoard: you never know when companies go out of business, change structure, whatever. And secondly, there's always Ebay.

Posted by Kat in Denim
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