Jeans documentary on CBC Radio

For the past several months, I have been working on a documentary about why jeans are the most ubiquitous garment in the world, and one of the most polluting. The documentary airs tonight on CBC Radio One’s “Ideas” across Canada and around the world. Tune in at 8pm local time or anytime (and anywhere) online. Just follow the link here.

The documentary follows the journey of denim jeans from 1870s workwear, through 1930s cowboy wear, 1950s rebel wear, 1960s countercoulture through to today’s fast fashion. Along the way, I talk with Emma McClendon, from The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology and author of “Denim: Fashion’s Frontier;” G. Bruce Boyer, menswear historian, writer, journalist, podcaster and someone who wore jeans in the 1950s; sustainable fashion journalist Alden Wicker; Swiss “jeans freak” and manager of the world’s largest independant jeans museum Ruedi Karrer; and Ben Viapiana, Toronto’s custom jeans maker who I’ve written about and commissioned from before. (You can hear the making of my custom jeans in the doc).

I want to thank everyone who helped make this doc a reality, especially my producer at CBC, Nicola Luksic, who transformed my rants into a coherent argument. I sincerely hope this doc makes a difference because by changing how we buy our jeans, we can actually change the world.