Seattle loves denim! Although the fabric wasn’t invented here, its durability and functionality are perfect for both work clothing and casual wear—you might even be wearing it now. Below, explore photographs from MOHAI’s collection that tell the story of our city’s devotion to denim.
/ March 19, 2025
Halibut fisherman, Seattle, 1956
MOHAI, Josef Scaylea Collection, Lib1993.20.96
Denim was invented in Nîmes, France in the 1700s, and blue jeans came about 100 years later when Levi Strauss began manufacturing pants for gold miners in California.
Pictured here is a denim-clad fisherman on the job in Ballard. These denim overalls are the perfect workwear: durable, protective, and full of pockets. Today there are fewer fishermen but still lots of denim in Ballard, now worn at hip breweries and restaurants for fashion rather than function.
Three boys watching a swan in the water at an unidentified park, circa 1950
MOHAI, Al Smith Collection, 2014.49.091.012.07
In the mid-20th century denim began to make its way into mainstream casual fashion, as seen in this photo. In simple jeans and short-sleeved shirts, these children wear outfits that wouldn’t be out of place today. The boy in the middle is Butch Smith, the photographer’s son, which helps date the photo to about 1950.
High school fashion models, Seattle, September 6, 1973
A black and white photo of two young women in denim bell-bottom pants and cropped tops, walking outdoors.
MOHAI, Seattle Post-Intelligencer Collection, 2000.107.060.19.01
The 1970s ushered in the era of “fashion jeans” when denim went from a casual basic to a style choice featuring ever-changing fads of embellishments, cuts, and washes. In this image, Seattle high schoolers Cathy Lenay and Gail Goodenough show off two versions of bell-bottom jeans in the fall of 1973.
Paisley Sin at Mad Dogs, October 1992
MOHAI, Kurt Armbruster Collection, 2014.43.1.1.MUSIC144
By the 1980s and 1990s, denim was a fashion essential. As grunge dominated the charts, Seattlites embraced denim for its “cool factor.” Disheveled denim has long been associated with musicians who wear it to project a laid-back attitude and rebellion against conformity, including Seattle rock band Paisley Sin.