The DNA of Denim | By Gail Greco

InJeanious!

High Country Denim ‘Jean-eology’ Calms our COVID Blues

By Gail Greco

Funky Tulip At Boone Belles Mountains of Denim by David Westwood Rachel O'Hare at Lililu

We’re going above the fray this summer, the pandemic having woven a silver lining into our beloved denim jeans. They’re flared at the bottom with a dramatic swinging bell shape or just a hintof-kick at the ankle and with a higher give at the rise. And, that’s not all.

Displayed in store windows and beckoning fashionably on sidewalk mannequins all over the High Country, this season’s new relaxed jeans are responding to our needs, walking us back to serenity, hope, and the promise of fun again!

“The change is subtle and friendly, with looser jeans maybe even more flattering and even cooler to wear now in the hotter weather,” informs Lisa Ireland, owner of Funky Tulip women’s boutique in Blowing Rock.

The state of our jeans is particularly near-and-dear to our hearts here. Denim is in our DNA, a High Country “jeaneology” that began with textile giant Moses Cone, known as the Denim King. So, it’s metaphoric that his Cone Manor, located on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Blowing Rock, is also taking on a fresh new look. From doorknobs to rooftop, an exciting structural facelift at the historic 1901 home is underway at the now National Park Service property, scraped down to the bare wood, looking like—well—the distressed rips on some trendy jeans... carpenters and artisans diligently repairing years of the manor’s peeling skin with putty, paint, and passion.

Right now you can’t get into Moses’s and wife Bertha’s summer home to visit the rooms during renovations, but you can ease “in” to your roomier new jeans that are literally hanging out at Funky Tulips’ The Denim Bar. Step up to that bar and try on a charming wide-legged pair, for example, with a floral fabric calf-to-ankle inset for everyday wear—but still chic enough for the Denim Ball, the annual fundraiser that the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation hopes to hold again.

Denim worn to a ball in the High Country is our glass slipper, but one we find easily. Take Watsonatta Western Wear in Boone, and wow, jeans are stacked practically from floor to ceiling. Same at Mo’s Boots where buyer/manager Kelly Hardy pulls out a pair of the popular Carhartt men’s work jeans, always baggie, but maybe even more so now. He shows us a 34-inch waist you think’s gotta be a 42-incher and he can’t keep them in stock. He’s not surprised: “The working class never stopped during the pandemic,” he beams. “The reason, the stimulus...more than quadrupling our sales.”

Hardy’s wife, Michelle, manages the so-called Mosey’s women’s department at Mo’s West Jefferson. “We started seeing the ‘widees’ in fall, and now for summer the capris are flared, too!” she says. “At the Atlanta Apparel (buyer’s) Mart I attended this year, anyone selling jeans at all had the wide-legs. So you’ll be finding them now wherever you shop.”

That includes Mast General Store in Valle Crucis, already in full supply of relaxed Levi’s just as the jeans giant’s CEO Chip Berg had promised in spring: “We have rushed to respond to customers searching now for more comfortable jeans,” and he forecasts: “We believe this option in jeans is here to stay. It’s not a trend.”

He’s probably right. From subtly distressed to more tailored but dazzling prints cuffed, cropped or full length, the new look “adds fun and possibilities, expanding your jeans wardrobe,” explains LeAnn Gregory, a manager at Lililu on King women’s clothing shop in Boone.

“Any age can wear these jeans, and we help them find the right fit for their body type so they can dress with confidence. Tops also complement the look either tucked, cropped or long and tied at the waist,” she adds. “Initially, older women were hesitant, but once they try them on, and with our chunky wedges, they feel so light and comfortable, they go for it. Definitely a wardrobe addition that’s catching on fast!”

Jeans brands at Mast General Store are coming in traditional true-blue indigo but washed lighter, reports Sheri Moretz, “and some with decorative hems like eyelet are versatile enough for a football game

The word jeans is from the cotton corduroy jeans in Genoa, Italy and the term denim from serge de Nimes, meaning a sturdy fabric (woven with blue indigo and white thread) from Nimes, France.

Kelly Hardy at Mo's

or a fancy dinner party.” She jokes that the loosey-goosey jeans also address “the weight we’ve gained during the pandemic. Customers feel better about the fit and themselves in these new styles—especially working from home.”

True, tapered jeans can make it hard to do business at a desk or cross-legged on the floor cradling a laptop. It’s one example of why Scott Baxter, CEO of Kontoor brands (Wrangler and Lee, Greensboro headquarters), told The Associated Press last month that the pandemic has, “accelerated casual dressing. Shoppers are going out again and want to be as comfortable as they have been at home.”

Appalachian State University graduate Sarah Anderson agrees. “We millennials are all-in with comfort-focused clothing, loving a good vintage look freshened up,” she told CML when we bumped into her at Stick Boy Bread Company Kitchen. The Art Education major did look comfy in a pair of wanna-be-jeans in the so-called ‘boyfriend jeans’ style, billowy from the hips, bunching at the ankle Greta Garboish, above a pair of fresh, spin-on-retro designer sneakers!

Wider-leg jeans—do we dare call them bell-bottoms again—have been trying to replace the skinnies for a few years without success “until the pandemic caused the tipping point,” notes Leigh Ann Pless, at Boone Belles. The shop owner cites comfort as key, as long as we look chic and sassy, which she thinks we can certainly count on with a classic straight-leg jean, not so skin-tight and with fun accents like embroidery designs down the legs and flirty frayed edges at the break.

Newland resident Tracy Trice loves a good look but needs to move around easily in her work in personal healthcare. “Let’s not forget these jeans are also high-waisted—the feel of the old ‘Mom jeans.’ Unlike the low-risers, I don’t have to be pulling them up all the time...makes me feel free and normal again.”

We treasure our jeans for everything they do for us, even after they don’t fit anymore, passing them down, sending them to the attic, or as artist David Westwood does, upcycling them. A commercial illustrator, Westwood scours thrift shops and cuts up jeans into the curvy iconic shapes of mountain ridge silhouettes, sewing the denim cutouts artfully onto a canvas.

It’s an idea the Hayesville resident conceived while one morning observing the mountains reflective of the colors and textures of his jeans. So he mused to himself, “Hmmm... denim, like the mountains... tough; it just won’t quit,” and neither does he, producing his life-imitating art for those who send along their jeans, or their child’s, parent’s or granddad’s jeans, to create a unique keepsake (www.davidwestwood.com/blueridge).

Sarah Anderson

The new look – in denim...and the manor

Whether denim is art on our walls or hugging our hips, we wondered what Moses Cone might have to say about all these ingenious, or shall we say inJeanious uses of denim. So, we put the question to Appalachian State University’s Dr. Beth Davison, producer of the documentary The Denim Dynasty (https://vimeo.com/356676305). “Proud,” was the word she landed on, adding, “Cone was such a successful businessman, that we not only got denim, but the entire Cone property to enjoy every day.”

And I bet he would toast to that with a “Bell-bottoms Up,” a summertime concoction created exclusively for CML by Stonewalls Restaurant in Banner Elk. See our recipe on the next page to craft one at home this season, or visit Stonewalls Restaurant and request a fresh batch for the table.

617 W King Street Boone, North Carolina 828-263-7350 www.boonebelles.com

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YOUR DENIM DESTINATION

LILILU LOOKS GOOD ON YOU

529 W. King St, Boone NC 828-264-4120 www.lililionking.com Levi Strauss patented the first working jeans in 1873, and turned to Cone Mills to produce the denim fabric for the company’s dungarees and overalls, and over time, for the everyday jeans we know today. This made Moses Cone the world leader in the manufacture and supply of denim by the early 20th century.

In 2021, Stonewall’s Restaurant in Banner Elk pays homage to this famous fabric.