Dude Ranch Craze

Jeans and denim have become the most popular and versatile clothing options in America, but it hasn’t always been that way. Between the time of invention to present day, traditional blue work jeans and denim changed from being a sign of lower-middle working class and frowned upon by the upper class, to being conventional and worn by most Americans as a result of The Dude Ranch Craze, the influence of media on rebellious teens and young girls, as well as wearing denim to show patriotism during World War II.

Jeans were invented in 1873 by Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis, two business partners looking to make money during the California Gold Rush. This new kind of pants were distinguished by the rivets in the material that made them sturdier and

last longer, and were designed to be functional rather than fashionable. They were patented May 20, 1873, and at the time, they were called “waist overalls”. Over the years, jeans have been redesigned and made into thousands of different styles to keep up with the ever-changing fashion industry. The practical design of jeans and their accompanying sturdiness caused them to quickly gain popularity among local laborers shortly after invention. Jeans were ideal for workers such as farmers, gold prospectors, construction workers, and others alike because the rivets made the fabric stronger and prevented seams from ripping. Jeans’ initial image of being for poor workers lacking fashion derived from these lower-middle class laborers wearing the pants before they were widely accepted.
The Dude Ranch Craze played an important role in the popularization of jeans and denim when rich couples living in the East would visit dude ranches while on vacation to experience “traditional” Western culture.

Western films had created an image in the mind of people living in the East of the Western lifestyle, which included cowboys in their blue jeans and boots with a lasso and horse for rounding cattle. Along with Western films, Levi Strauss & Co. advertised their jeans as being “traditionally Western”, as seen in a 1950’s print ad depicting a man wearing Levi’s jeans and a cowboy hat with the text “The West Grew Up in Levi’s”. The people in the East wanted to experience the Western culture they had seen in films and visited dude ranches on vacation to get a sense of it for themselves. Dude ranches, also known as guest ranches, are a form of agritourism that allow guests to participate in a variety of ranch-oriented activities, such as helping with cattle, riding horses, and learning new skills, like how to use a lasso. The Dude Ranch Craze refers to the growing popularity of dude ranches across the United States during the late 19th and 20th

centuries.
Dude ranches arose in the late 19th century as a result of the romanticization of the American West. The movement then spiked after World War I. Postwar prosperity allowed couples and families to spend more on vacation and leisure activities. The growing popularity and use of automobiles sparked increased travel, and the rise of Western films cultivated the desire of people in the East to experience Western culture hands-on.
One aspect of guest ranches were the jeans that the guests wore. To the guests, jeans were foreign, something they had seen the cowboys in the movies wear. However, they were more than a costume. The guests of the dude ranches would bring a pair of jeans back home with them. The popularity of “traditional” Western culture was a trend that would soon evolve to be a full-blown fashion phenomenon, resulting in jeans and denim being America’s most notorious piece of clothing.
The rebellious image behind jeans was first established by a group of artists around Santa Fe in the 1920’s. These artists, both male and female, wore jeans as a statement of nonconformity and “… were identifying themselves with the ruggedness, the directness, and earthiness of the laborer, and were placing themselves as a part of the Western scene.”(Gordon 32). The artists used jeans as a declaration of their rebellion against the fashion norm, as well as being an identification of their own separate group and elite status.
World War II created an increased demand for jeans due to more people working in factories to contribute to the war effort.

Factory work during the war was seen in a positive light, and therefore denim came to symbolize patriotism during World War II due to the denim the war factory workers wore. Women, who rarely worked in factories pre-WWII, found the ability to wear jeans, granted by the need for laborers, liberating in contrast to their usual tight and uncomfortable dresses. The need for women to work in factories to provide for the war also helped accelerate the development of women’s rights. Denim became a symbol of power for women during World War II, as seen in the iconic Rosie the Riveter print ad, with the woman in the picture wearing a denim shirt and showing her bicep with the text “We Can Do

It!”
Media, specifically movies and TV during the 50’s and then later in the late 70’s and 80’s, played a huge role in the adaptation of traditional blue jeans as a common American wardrobe staple. Characters on television and in films that wore jeans helped change the image and connotations given off by denim and jeans.
The characters played by James Dean and Marlon Brando were the stereotypical “bad boys.” The character Jim Stark, played by James Dean, from the movie Rebel Without a Cause is a rebellious young man who moves to a new town. James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause is notorious for wearing jeans, as well as Marlon Brando in The Wild One. These characters created a perception of denim that included the idea that it was edgy and rebellious, yet it was still considered blue-collar attire. Many people did not choose to wear jeans because it would give them the image of being a “punk”.
The largest and most notorious seller of jeans, Levi Strauss & Co., only started selling jeans beyond the western states after World War II, but denim was not initially accepted by the states in the East. The company used the same advertisements as in the West, which included print ads advertising that jeans were the proper attire for a schoolboy. The eastern states were not yet accustomed to denim and perceived it as lacking class and promoting juvenile delinquency due to rebellious, denim-clad characters on TV, and in response, some schools in the East banned denim. In a letter to Levi Strauss & Co., a woman living in the East wrote “…assuming that only ignorance is responsible for such a lack of good taste… Let’s not desecrate our schools nor promote juvenile delinquency,” in response to a print ad stating Levi’s jeans to be part of proper school attire. However, the East’s opposition to denim was short-lived. By the 1960’s, jeans were the recognized uniform for societal rebellion and were worn nationwide.
In the 1950’s, a new classification of jean wearers arose, termed bohemians or “beatniks”. They were a new kind of rebel, a dissenter going against the materialistic and conformist society of their time. Beatniks opted for a black sweater paired with their blue jeans because “To wear plain jeans and dark colors was to reject the more-is-better, new-is-better mentality of the Organization Man world,” (Gordon 34).
The TV character Daisy Duke, played by Catherine Bach, from The Dukes of Hazzard wore revealing,denim cutoff shorts and was an outgoing, occasionally feisty female character with strong opinions. Teenage girls looked up to her as an independant female character, just as women were breaking down the barriers of the expected domestic life of a woman with the Feminist Movement beginning in the 1960’s and continuing onward. Along with the independance of Daisy Duke, her denim shorts were revealing, which related to teenage girls and their burgeoning sexuality. In a book written by Nicole Graev, there is a chapter that includes an account of how and why she acquired her first pair of denim jeans in the 1980’s when she was on the breech of her teen years. Graev stated that jeans were worn by “the girls standing outside of the gas station smoking”(Graev 28), but Graev looked up to these girls because they were older and independant. Along with the gas station girls, Graev saw the character Daisy Duke as a role model. Her mother however was reluctant to buy Graev jeans as they “gave off a bad image” (Graev 30). Along with female role models sporting denim, societal pressures, such as 1960’s-1970’s printed advertisements depicting young women wearing jeans in sexually implicative positions, encouraged girls to buy jeans in order to promote their sexuality.
In the present day, jeans are the most common piece of clothing in America. Jeans come in a huge selection of different styles, washes, and even colors. The historical image and connotations given by jeans have long since faded, and now all that remains is a popular style of pants. Jeans are now popular worldwide along with denim in different forms, such as denim jackets. By analyzing the aspects that contributed to the shift in meaning of jeans, it is found that jeans have had a significant cultural impact on America. They have helped sponsor radical subcultures, encourage participation in the war effort during World War II, and continued to be a large part of the basis of Western culture for decades. The popularization of jeans remains a significant aspect of American history and culture as a result of The Dude Ranch Craze, the influence of media on rebellious teenagers and young girls, and the use of denim as a symbol of patriotism during World War II which helped contribute to the Women’s Rights Movement.