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BLUE COLLAR DENIM
Advertorial. Identity.
Collaborating with Stylist and Creative Director Ciana March to create an editorial story and visual identity for West of Ireland denim brand Blue Collar Denim.
Role - Photography, Concept, Casting, Location and Feature Copy Writing.
Year - 2020
Client - Blue Collar Denim
Publication - Business Post Magazine
January Blues
Written by Sean Jackson | Business Post Magazine. January 2020
What is it about vintage denim that makes it transcend trend and have such an in-destructable spirit? So much so, that we can dress everyone from an eight year old girl, to a man in his late 50’s head to toe in it and still feel current.
“Denim doesn’t discriminate” says stylist Ciana March who styled the vintage denim photoshoot that accompanies this piece. “It’s nature is inclusive as it’s cut for every shape and size and sold all over the world. And, denim is usually blue, which is the one colour that looks good on everyone”.
Her father, Ben March, started collecting rare and vintage denim in the 1970’s. All the pieces in the shoot come from his stock and were styled on street-cast locals in and around Lahinch, Co. Clare where Ben lives close by.
The people in the area have thankfully become much more diverse looking, but the land and the denim are slower to change. As a stylist, Ciana appreciates working with clients that put craftsmanship at the core of what they do and her father was her root inspiration for this. “True craftsmanship comes from a conscious connection to and respect for the production, quality and environment and I’m lucky enough to work with some brands that live and breathe this.
I always witnessed this level of care and respect in how my Dad worked with his hands, making bodhráns and mending denim or whatever he was up to. I could always see that he saw something else, something alive in the materials and clothes, even when I was very young and couldn’t see it myself” In recent years Ben has become more of a vintage denim dealer where people will travel far and wide to buy a wrangler jacket or pair of original 501s that they will have for the rest of their life. It’s been mainly word of mouth up until now but he’s in the process of moving online to see where it goes.
Denim had a long journey to become the indiscriminate force that Ciana recognises as it was not born free. In the 1930’s a group of artists and intellectuals from Santa Fe, New Mexico created scandal in the local newspaper due to the shocking fact that they had adopted wearing jeans.
Up until this point, denim was strictly the uniform of labourers and farm hands. Most known artists and intellectuals at the time, wore padded shouldered, tailored suits to dinner, more identified with bankers and merchants than the manual workers and craftspeople of the day. The jeans were a brave and bold fashion statement against the grain of the norm and sought to express “I am not the same as you” to the club mentality that had led to the Great Depression.
But it was also a recognition of equality in the Santa Fe group themselves and a symbol of their progressive heartedness, showing solidarity with the down to earth openness of the people of the land, as well as reconnection with the heritage that they shared.
Denim had, then, been in existence for less than a hundred years but much of the country had been built in that time so the blue shirts, work jackets and jeans seemed to absorb and emit an ancestral, global heritage through the blood, sweat and tears of the migrant workers, including the Irish, who built it up the infrastructure from raw earth and water.
These days, blood, sweat and tears are running blue, through the stained rivers of present day India, where the toxic side effects of cheap jean manufacturing is resulting in declining health of vital waterways and the human and non-human life that are dependent on the water they supply.
The 2016 documentary, RiverBlue raised some awareness on quite how dire the situation has become and used harrowing imagery to communicate the hydrocide we are commiting and the health implications that the toxic waste is having on the men, women and children within the daily water cycle of the rivers.
Many of the rivers themselves are often running entirely blue from the levels of toxic jean dye waste dumping straight into the live water.
Not much has changed in the four years since it was filmed. Indeed the profit at all costs mentality that the Santa Fe group rebelled against in the early 20th century, somehow continues to hold the balance of power within global consciousness with deeper, more acute symptoms as the disease has stealthily spread even as our awareness expands.
Jeans, when made well, are by their nature hard wearing enough to build giant countries, so a couple of decent pairs, made with good production values and some integrity, should suffice for the average wearer in today’s world, considering we do comparatively little physical work if any at all. Plus they look and feel infinitely better than the cheap stuff and should last for years instead of months. Good denim needs little washing in comparison to other materials which makes it economical from that perspective. But there is undoubtedly a market for fast fashion where people buy five, ten, twenty pairs of cheap jeans a year and have no idea of the true cost of consequence. It’s true that the fashion industry creates the advertising and stirs the appetite but we, the buyers, are the ones with the true power and accountable only to ourselves, which can be a sobering exercise to actually take true stock of and realise you’re in the driver’s seat.
So how do we reconnect with the progressive humanity that denim once embodied and show solidarity with the men, women and children who pay the true price for our unchecked appetites?
Ciana puts it frankly, “if we all stopped consuming poorly made, cheap goods and instead chose local independent brands, the whole system would be in much healthier stead. We, as the customers, have a responsibility to change how and why we consume at the rate that we do. We need to drive the change we’re expecting of the corporations as it’s a two way relationship and we can only influence our side. We need to give them a reason to stop producing at the rate they currently are.”
A very good place to start is denim. There is a huge supply of quality vintage and second hand in circulation and some great conscious brands that are more affordable than sometimes expected with long life expectancy. If you’re lucky enough to meet someone like Ben, you can pick up a life piece with a story and a clean conscience that will save in the long run.
Credits:
Photographer: Sean Jackson
Stylist: Ciana March
Concept & Creative: Sean Jackson and Ciana March
Clothes: Blue Collar Denim
Models: Streetcast in Lahinch Co. Clare
Shot on location in Co. Clare
Copywriting: Sean Jackson
Publication: Business Post
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