10 Denim Innovations That Made Your Life

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1. Stretch Denim Where would the rear ends of America be without stretch

denim? The first stretch jeans hit the market in the 1970s

and were an instant sensation with consumers who were

tired of baggy, unflattering jeans. Stretch denim innovated

the humble jean by incorporating a small amount of elastane

(also known by the brand names Spandex and Lycra) into

standard denim cotton fabric. The result was a new kind of

jean that hugs the body's curves and provides a high degree

of flexibility and "give". This small change in fabric

construction ushered in a new era of body-conscious jeans

and gave birth to the modern designer jean industry

2. Designer Jeans Whether you love designer jeans or can't believe the price

tags, you can thank fashion designer Calvin Klein for kicking

off the designer jeans era. In 1980, the Calvin Klein brand

cast a 15-year-old Brooke Shields in a commercial featuring

their new, form-fitting jeans. After Shields delivered her

immortal tagline, "Nothing comes between me and my

Calvin's", consumers bought the jeans like crazy -- and

other fashion designers took notice. Designer jeans became

a true status symbol and a few brands like Calvin Klein,

Jordache and Gloria Vanderbilt were among the first to profit

from the trend. Today, you can shop for high-end jeans from

dozens of designer brands, from 7 for All Mankind to

Victoria Beckham Denim.

3. Skinny Jeans Skinny jeans, so-called for their tight fit from the waistline

right through to the leg and ankle, became the must-have

jean for women around the year 2000. While skinny jeans

had been around since the 1970s, they were largely worn by

male musicians, from punk rockers The Sex Pistols to hard

rocker Bon Jovi. When the grunge era of the 1990s ended,

however, women were ready for a return to a more body-

conscious way of dressing. Fashion icons such as Kate

Moss started stepping out and being photographed in the

new skinny jeans and soon everybody had to have a pair.

Today, "skinnies" have evolved from a trend to a wardrobe

staple that women wear to the office and for casual and

dressy occasions.

te Moss started stepping out and being photographed in the

new skinny jeans and soon everybody had to have a pair.

Today, "skinnies" have evolved from a trend to a wardrobe

staple that women wear to the office and for casual and

dressy occasions.

4. Boyfriend Jeans Boyfriend jeans are inspired by the way a pair of men’s

jeans would look on a woman, if she borrowed them from

her boyfriend (or husband). This style first made fashion

waves in 2008, when Katie Holmes stepped out in then-

husband Tom Cruise’s straight leg jeans. The early

boyfriend jeans were casual clothing -- fairly relaxed or even

baggy versions of a classic straight leg jean, often seen with

rolled cuffs worn with a wide men's style belt. Today, many

designers offer an updated, slimmer fit of boyfriend jean

that's more stylish and better designed to flatter a woman's

figure.

5.Curve-Friendly Jeans More than a century-and-quarter afterLevi Strauss first gave us the blue jean, in 2010 the Levi's Jeans brand introduced its Curve ID line of denim. Designed mainly as a shape-sensitive alternative to skinny jeans, these jeans are cut to solve a number of jeans complaints shapely women shared with the brand, from gapping waistbands and unflattering backsides to jeans that flattered one part of the figure but not others. Today, several major denim brands offer jeans specifically constructed to address the curvier women's figure flattery needs, including plus-size jeans.

6.Maternity Jeans Before 15 years ago, if you were pregnant and wanted to

wear jeans, the best option was to buy a giant pair of jeans -

- possibly men's -- and try to cinch the waist around or

underneath your belly with a belt, to hold them up. Then

came the rise of media interest in celebrity pregnancies in

the late 1990s, when stars like Katie Holmes and Angelina

Jolie were photographed "expecting". With this increased

attention on celebrity mommies, fashion designers

recognized an opportunity in the market. Several high-end

designer jeans brands jumped into the new category of

maternity jeans, producing styles that could fit a woman

through her various stages of pregnancy and the trend has

trickled down to mass retailers. Today, you can shop for a

range of maternity jeans, from affordable styles by Gap and

Old Navy to those from higher-end brands, including

Citizens of Humanity and Seven For All Mankind.

7.Body Contouring Jeans Since the advent of Spanx in the year 2000, women have

increasingly chosen to wear "shapewear" underneath their

clothing, to smooth curves and create a slimmer look.

Certain, clever denim designers responded to women's

desire for body-shaping effects in their clothing by creating

jeans that perform like they have built-in shapewear. These

new, body-contouring jeans, from designers such as J

Brand and NYDJ, rely on super-stretch denim and ingenious

stitching techniques to visually reshape a women's body,

flattening the tummy, slimming hips and thighs and lifting the

rear end.

8.Eco-Friendly Jeans What if taking care of the Earth is as important to you as

looking fabulous in jeans? Luckily, in the last several years a

number of jeans brands have recognized this need in the

marketplace and made eco-conscious denim design a

reality. "Green" jeans brands set themselves apart by

producing jeans from organic cotton, recycling materials and

using fewer precious natural resources to produce new

jeans. The result is jeans that are still fashionable but come

with less of a price tag for "Mother Earth". That's a win-win

for everyone

9.New Denim Fabric Washes What would Levi Strauss, inventor of the modern blue jean,

say if he could see a pair of acid-wash jeans? We'll never

know -- but we're thankful that today, jeans come in a wide

variety of fabric washes. The wash of jeans simply refers to

shade of the denim fabric. Jeans manufacturers can achieve

many different hues of blue by literally washing the fabric in

certain dyes, bleaches or other agents that affect the denim

color. Over the years, popular washes of blue jeans have

included rinse (the dark indigo you seen in dark denim

jeans), vintage or aged (a faded blue that looks pre-

worn), distressed (to create effects such as whiskering,

spot-fading, abrasions and baked-in creases), stone wash

(the jeans are literally washed with small stones that break

down the fabric's color for a mottled look) and acid

wash (treating jeans to an acid bath to achieve a stone

wash appearance).

10.Colored Jeans Colored jeans in every rainbow shade have been popping

up in denim designers' collections for the past several years.

While each season has its trendy shade, such as the coral

jeans trend of summer 2012, sparked by Duchess of

Cambridge Kate Middleton's appearancein a pair. Colored

jeans are a great way to work more color into your wardrobe

and can be mixed and matched to create plenty of different

looks, whether casual or more dressed up. i

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