The Blue Gold: Jeans, Indigo, and Haute Couture

The thousands of tons of blue indigo pigment produced around the world annually indicate the enduring place that blue jeans, the industry’s “blue gold,” hold in the fashion world. Nearly 150 years after their conception, an estimated 450 million pairs of jeans are sold each year. But how did jeans make the transition from worker’s garments to haute couture, gracing the runways of top designers? How did indigo attain its noble status and come to be traded like bars of gold? How did a pair of Levi’s jeans become an archeological artifact, selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars? This lecture will take you on a beautiful journey through time and culture, weaving together fashion, sewing, and history to reveal endless layers and shades of blue.