There are few things more iconic than a great pair of jeans.
And few things more loaded.

Denim is stitched into every corner of American lore: the cowboy, the beauty queen, the rebellious teen, the factory worker, the supermodel. It’s hard to find a fabric more universal - or more mythologized. We see it, and we think: sexy, simple, strong. Classic. Cool. American.

But that idea - what’s “American” - is the part we need to talk about.

The nostalgia of denim is deeply romanticized.

It’s almost too easy: blonde hair, blue eyes, sun-bleached denim slung low across perfect hips. The billboard fantasy. The catalog dream. The Sydney Sweeney x American Eagle moment that recently set the internet on fire.

And while there’s nothing inherently wrong with that image, it’s not the whole story.
Because America isn’t just blonde, blue-eyed denim beauties.

It’s deeper and more layered - and honestly, more interesting - than that.

It’s James Baldwin in jeans. A Chicano teenager starching his denim uniform for a Saturday night out. A queer girl in cutoffs and combat boots. A trans boy in hand-me-down Wranglers. It’s softness. Defiance. Performance. Discomfort. Transformation.

Denim doesn’t just symbolize freedom. It carries tension - between fantasy and reality, between who we’re told to be and who we become.