Men and Women in Levis Blue Jeans

Waktu masih kuliah dulu saya sering mendengar beberapa dosen di FKIP melarang mahasiswanya baik perempuan ataupun laki-laki memakai celana jeans ke kelas. Beberapa berpendapat bahwa jeans tidak melambangkan karakter guru yang sifatnya mendidik, terlalu menonjolkan bentuk tubuh dan tidak sopan. Sebagai calon guru diharuskan untuk memakai celana atau rok yang tidak berbahan jeans. Untungnya dosen-dosen yang mengajar di jurusan saya tidak ambil pusing dengan masalah ini. Buat kamu yang cinta fashion, suka, tidak terlalu suka, atau suka sekali pada jeans perlu membaca essay yang saya tulis. Mungkin dari selemari pakaian yang ada di lemarimu hanya jeans yang menjadi bagian dari kemajuan sosial dan celana yang melambangkan anti-perang. Well Happy Reading!

Men and Women in Levis Blue Jeans

Levis blue jeans that we wear today are significantly different from time to time.  Material, styles, color and how Levis blue jeans reach its users and take part in the market throughout the changes have been modified and innovated. Blue Jeans have invented about 150 years ago by German immigrant Levi Strauss in San Francisco. According to levistrauss.com, Strauss and his business partner Jacob Davis gained their jeans patent on May 20 in 1973. The first jeans have made out from denim, a thick rugged traditional fabric that was used for men’s work wear.  Blue Jeans were called “Waist Overall” and were designed in suspender style with accurate stitching line, a pocket at the back, a watch pocket and comfortable crotch that make workers feel free to move.  Now it appears in large variety designs and has been integrated in broader fashion world. In marketing its product, J. Strauss Brothers & Co later Levi Strauss & Co keeps applying various approaches. It hooks its consumer through various ads and campaign that involved culture, sex, gender, heritage, environment sustainability and history that simultaneously shows how Levis Jeans bends with social progress around the world. To maximize its result, Levis even features poems of American poet, Whitman in its ads for this last ten years. Levis moves deep to people from various media formats and never stops embracing new technology. Therefore different techniques and methods among the advertisement since the first time it launched up to today distinguish them from one another.  For this purpose, I chose two ads from Levi Strauss & Co Blue Jeans to show how ads encrypt culture, gender and play with pictures and words to convince their consumers.

Photo taken from  levisstrauss.com

First Levis ad was released in 1886, later it is made as Blue Levis logo. The ad was in black and white, pictures two cowboys with whips controlling their horses.  A mirror like image of the objects creates a line that points straight to the slogan. Horse is associated with strength, speed and agility to describe the quality of the product. However, this ad is not relevant as it stressed on hyperbolic quality by picturing two horses that pull out possible ripped jeans. Interestingly, the appearance of two men also tells us whom the product was targeted to. Levis Strauss & Co clearly portrayed men without women to show pure masculinity. Craig (2009 pg.186) suggests that men’s men are frequently portrayed as men without women. He also adds that the absence of women must not suggest sexuality. Men’s men are clearly heterosexual.  Besides, the absence of women makes the subject or product more men exclusive. This ad further carried cultural, and historical picture in that era, in which jeans was made for men. It associates men as an outdoor person and adventurous and implicitly conveys that women were mostly at home. Further in old fashion, crotch represents man style. Cowboys in the ad emphasize not only to whom the product belong to but also strongly reflects American common setting. Solomon (1988, pg.169) states populist commercial accordingly transform products into signs of belonging, utilizing such common icons as country music, small-town life, family picnics and farmyard. Through this ad, Levis blue jeans gain a place in a market in which men were regarded as the main figure in the society. 

However Levis Strauss & Co noticed women also work hard. Women even used men jeans called 501 for many years. Then in 1930, Levi Strauss & Co produced special Jeans for women which is called Lot 701. This daring zipped front jeans was inspired Levis to expand its market. Since then, denim is not just for males, laborers or for second class people; it evens reached Hollywood movies; it expands its consumer regardless gender and social classes.  This year was also the time when women wear denim publicly for the first time. As it covers wider market, Jeans become more than just a fashion. It is part of American movement, American youth and their freedom.  New York Times.com reported young men exchanged chinos—khaki pants, types of US military uniform –for jeans as the protest of Vietnam War in 1965. Not only in US, jeans also become symbol of freedom in Europe. In 1989, youth, men and women wore jeans jumping, pulling down and sitting on the Berlin Wall. The purpose that they shared and the jeans that they wore brought them up together. It blends the sense of freedom and fashion. These changes have led Levis Strauss & Co to a different approach in advertising its product. 

As a result in 2011, Levis invited designers worldwide to celebrate 80^th years of women’s jeans to create new jean designs for women. According to the prnewswire.com Levis Jeans has tested these new designs to women around the world as women with curvy body have the most difficult time in finding jeans that fit them. To support these new designs, LS & Co produced new ads to promote women confidences by putting forward “Hotness comes in all shapes and sizes” as its slogan.  The ad portrays four women in different shapes and sizes of jeans. Their faces covered with makeup and all in the high heels. The bird between the women in the right side is associated with women’s freedom. Meanwhile, three windows on the wall are trying to suggest new perspectives. Their gestures show the bulges and attractive curves. The pastel setting not only represents soft color that always associates with women but it also vividly contrasts the lower part of their body. It pops up the different shapes and sizes of the models. “There are almost always hints of sexual availability in men’s women, but this is seldom played out explicitly (Craig, 2009 pg. 187)”. The complexity of what they wear, their sizes and gestures more suggest man’s women.  The casual upbeat of what they are wearing is lost because of their gestures make it fail in its message. However, this colored ad has vividly described the freedom of women to be what they want to see themselves through jeans. It shows fashion of 21^st century women where they do not only wear skirt and dress but pants also fit women.

Photo is taken from levi.com

Parting from the differences, from its demographic targeting to cultural values and changes that they tried to convey, similarities between two ads is clearly seen in how they communicate through their slogans. Both ads apply one sentence that can be easily understood and remembered by public. Further, the pictures in both ads form implicit horizontal lines to guide people in reading their slogan.

In conclusion, these two ads not only different in their looks, but also strongly symbolize culture, social progress and the role of women in the society during its era. The differences tell story how Levis Jeans has taken part in breaking down the social classes and gender discrimination; it embedded message that “Levis Blue Jeans is not merely just a pant.” Surprisingly, a hundred years different old do not make any change in how these two ads are conveyed its selling message. Both uses simple and easily remembered short slogans. 

References

Craig, Steve. Men's Men and Women's Men, 2009.

"Heritage Timeline." Http://www.levistrauss.com/. Accessed October 21, 2015.

Solomon, Jack. Master of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising, 1988.

"Dissecting Romney’s Vietnam Stance at Stanford." New York Times.