Fashionistas in the San Francisco Bay Area are no stranger to the history of blue jeans. The gold rush brought immigrants and Americans from the East Coast to California which in turn found a new population in San Francisco and the city’s outlying areas. Blue jeans were invented by Levi Strauss due to the dire need for strong pants that would not fall apart in the gold rush country. The actual fabric originally came from France and was known as “serge de Nimes” which was a strong blend that included wool and silk. Levi Strauss imported the fabric and used it to make blue jeans. In 1873 Levi’s invented the stitched pocket and added rivets to the pants in order to make the seams strong. The denim fabric has been traced back to the east coast where a cotton version of the fabric was produced as early as the 1700’s and was used in Northern Italy for clothing. Levi Strauss brought denim jeans to the world as the fashion industry and world population knows the popular pants today.

The history behind denim and jeans in general is what makes this Spring 2010 fashion season so exciting for fashionistas in the San Francisco Bay Area. Not only is part of our local history a mainstay in fashion, but this season it is bigger than ever. Soon, fashion savvy locals will be wearing fabulous denim dresses, shorts, jackets, handbags, shoes and tops. This is in addition to all of the fabulous traditional jeans fashionistas everywhere will be wearing. The Paris, Milan and New York runways showed denim in all of it’s glory and in various shades of beautiful blue. A lighter version of denim known as Chambray also dominated the runways. Denim dressing is not only comfortable but practical as well due to the durability of the fabric.

When the fabric of denim is popular, so is the indigo color that is a defined by denim and it’s lighter sibling Chambray. This fabulous and very wearable color is also called Chambray. It is a pretty and soft medium blue that blends well with most colors and fabrics. The color is so wearable that it tends to hit the runways more often than other colors with the exception of black and white. Fashionistas everywhere can expect to see leather handbags, shoes, belts and other fabrics sporting this amazing blue color.

Since denim and chambray have traditionally been mainstays in the American wardrobe, this is a great trend for fashionistas to stock up on. Do not be afraid to buy every denim piece you love and can get your hands on. Denim is always a wise investment and always in style. Be fabulous, Be Bay Area and buy denim!