JEFF: Hi. Well, here I am.
I don't know if you know my face by this point.
Hmm, no, I'm not the guy from the old Ghostbusters.
Hello little doggy, hey!
My name is Jeff Goldblum.
In any case, based on what you're seeing...
Oh drippy, drippy.
What do you suppose we're going to be talking about today?
What do you think?
Here's a... here's a quiz.
Uh, at any point in any given day, what percentage would you suppose
of the world's population is wearing denim?
Hmm?
Fifty percent.
Half. (CHUCKLES)
Half of the world's population is wearing denim.
Now, how did that happen?
We are going to find out that and a whole lot more.
Oh, yes, denim, denim.
Come on, Jeff, let's continue forward.
Wild horses couldn't stop me from pursuing my investigation.
(RIPPING)
(ZIPPING)
(RIPPING)
JEFF: I've been a fan of denim for as long as I can remember.
Yep. (SPITS)
I may not have always picked the best jeans. Oh, boy.
These jeans, long gone, long gone.
But this is where it all began for me.
Hopalong Cassidy.
It was my very first exposure to the allure of, uh, the jean.
-Hoppy, my clothes sure look purty. -Yeah.
JEFF: And it was in the Old West
where denim's meteoric rise first had its humble beginnings.
(HORSE NEIGHS)
(WESTERN MUSIC PLAYING)
JEFF: Today, if you know where to look...
treasure lurks around every corner.
JEFF: Where are you taking me?
BRIT: I'm taking you on a denim quest, uh, a denim hunt,
a denim safari, if you will.
Wait a minute, denim quest, denim hunt, denim safari?
-Okay. -Yes...
My passion is finding old clothing,
I feel like I'm the best person in the world at doing that.
Don't break your arm patting yourself on the back.
JEFF: Look at this... this evocative, what do I want to say,
this unusual Western...
mining environment.
Yeah, that's-- that's well put.
-Thank you. -BRIT: The real irony here, Jeff,
that I want you to understand is that...
imagine you're a miner, that you are trying to get rich, right,
and you're looking for gold and it never really works out.
But you're wearing jeans, you're wearing Levi's,
which everybody wore back then.
-Wow. -That the... the gold
that I'm looking for were the pants
that these guys were throwing away and discarding.
-And I'm really fired up to go see. -I can't wait,
-you are infecting me with your... -My enthusiasm?
-Yes! -It's infectious enthusiasm?
-Yes. -That's what I like to have.
You have infectious enthusiasm too, I think.
-I do. -We're feeding off each other...
-The two of us. -...with this infectious enthusiasm.
We're like a couple of sticks, we may...
-this may be combustible in a second. -(BRIT LAUGHING)
-JEFF: Uh, okay. -BRIT: Let's go.
Is it true that you're known as Indiana Jeans?
Let's go find out.
If I find some jeans in here, I guess I will be today.
Do you believe in ghosts? I opened this and then it closed all by itself.
-Did you see that? -That's the wind.
-Really? -It's windy, be careful.
That's what they always say about ghosts,
-"That must have been the wind." -(BRIT CHUCKLES)
-JEFF: Wow. -Hold on to your hats, people.
Let's get in there, come on.
He's trippy, this guy. (CHUCKLES)
JEFF: Brit Eaton is a true denim obsessive.
BRIT: Oh, this is cool, I don't know if it goes anywhere.
JEFF: For over 20 years now, he's been risking his life
unearthing denim in the most dangerous of locations,
but he's not doing it just for fun.
Brit sells his wares to avid collectors around the world
for a serious profit.
(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
JEFF: Jeans that once cost a dollar twenty-five,
can now sell for almost 100,000 dollars.
JEFF: Wait a minute, what the heck is this?
This is an old hoist house, it's a mining building.
The amazing thing is, there could be old clothing anywhere.
The... the denim was an adaptation to the environment
-that they encountered, right? -Yeah.
So the miners would get wet sometimes.
I mean, they used candles back in the old days,
so it's possible that they would, you know, uh,
burn some of their pants, they'd have to get another pair of pants.
That's why we might find clothing in the mine or in the mine buildings.
-Here's your... here's your lights. -JEFF: Yeah.
-You figure that out, your helmet. -JEFF: What's this?
-It's a mask. -What do I need that for?
We're going to start hunting for stuff, man,
we're gonna do some real denim hunting here.
How would I put it on? It's... uh, oh.
-BRIT: Yep, there you go. -Really? Ready?
-Don't forget, it does say unsafe mine. -Okay. Let's get jeans.
Yeah. Well, let's look around, man. Let's see who can find something first.
JEFF: Oh, it's a piece of material.
Hey, I could make a pair of short shorts out of that.
Look at that, that's a collar.
Put it in the pack, that's our first thing.
Oh, okay, but what... but, uh...
See anything else next to the blackboard?
Oh, I see some material.
Oh. Is that a tar... Yeah, it's a tarp.
Let's go over this way.
-Can you see this? -JEFF: Holy cats!
-Wait a minute. -Let's try to figure out how deep this is.
Okay. There ready...
(ECHOES)
-It's still going. -That's not possible.
-What's this behind you? -That is fascinating.
Anyhow, I'm gonna climb up here and see what's back this way.
JEFF: You are? Ease up already.
BRIT: Let's go take a little bit of a look outside.
-JEFF: Yeah. -(WOOD FALLS)
Oh man, the weather changed completely. Look at this place.
-Look at all this trash. -JEFF: Oh, wait a minute.
And this looks like a building that just came down or something.
JEFF: Wait a minute.
Okay, I see...
BRIT: Watch out for nails.
For nails, yeah.
What's up behind you there?
There's some... something there, what's that white stuff?
-JEFF: Wow. -BRIT: Well look how sun faded it is,
it's been here for like, 50 years, look at it.
Those are jeans or overalls or something there.
Uh-huh. A whole other level... Whoa, whoa!
Jeez, I think this is the motherlode.
This is great, I mean this is a legitimately really cool piece.
-That's a... that's a... -I mean this is like a framable piece.
I've got a guy in France right now with a store.
-Yeah? -That's been looking for something,
he wants to put it in a frame that's all screwed up.
It's not the big dollar stuff,
you know, maybe in the thousand-dollar range.
I think that's what we found here.
-Holy crap! -Wait a minute.
-There's an old shirt, Jeff. -It's a whole outfit.
-God, look at this, man.
-I knew I needed something... -Oh, it's got the tag.
-It's an Uncle Sam! -JEFF: Wait a minute.
-It's a freaking Uncle Sam shirt. -Indiana Jeans strikes again.
This is freaking great, seriously. I'm excited.
-One, two, three, yabba-dabba-doo! -Yabba-dabba-doo!
(BOTH LAUGH)
This is the most fun I ever had in my whole life.
(BRIT LAUGHS)
JEFF: So, why is it that a pair of jeans can survive so long up a mountain?
And, from whence did this rugged material spring? Hmm?
Any answers, Professor Goldblum? Well, as a matter of fact, I do. If I may.
Five to ten million years ago,
an African plant evolved light and strong fibers
in order to help carry its seeds in the wind.
Cheeky, cheeky.
The cotton plant spread across the planet.
At some point, homo sapiens got a hold of it,
did some tinkering, resulting in those fibers
getting longer and stronger.
Now, we go to France and a city called Nîmes
where cotton is woven into a unique pattern,
de Nîmes, or as we say, denim.
And then, we come to America.
There was a tailor named, uh, Jacob Davis...
and he had one particular customer who was...
Uh, gee, I don't wanna be... he was quite, uh...
he was... he was a mountain of a man
and he needed a pair of trousers that wouldn't bust at the seams.
Anyway, what was the solution? Copper rivets.
Copper rivets, eureka!
Mr. Davis went in business with a guy named Levi Strauss
and there we go, we have these super-duper tough pants
that became a smash hit on the workwear scene.
BRIT: So I brought a few pieces from my own collection.
-I thought you might want to look at. -I'd love that.
All right.
Wait a minute. Levi Strauss & Company copper riveted clothing.
These are the holy grail of the vintage denim world.
This is the one pocket Levi’s, okay?
So in 1901, Levi’s added a second pocket
and the one pocket Levi is the crème de la crème.
I mean, I've met Japanese collectors who've been doing this 30, 40 years
that never have had one of these.
These are like super rare, like maybe 25 in the world.
Denim is a canvas that paints itself over time,
or is painted by its experiences and its exposures.
Look at the candle wax all over the front.
-Look at these original repairs on it. -Let me see, let me see.
-Okay, 'cause what... -BRIT: It's a work of art, man.
That's amazing. And where'd you get those, by the way?
Can you say? You can't say? Never mind, I shouldn't pry.
It's okay, you can ask questions, I don't have to answer.
-That's correct, that's correct... -I always say,
it's nice to be asked to the dance, but I don't have to dance.
-Do you dance? -I'm ready to dance any time.
How about the forbidden dance, do you know what that was?
It goes like...
-(JEFF HUMMING INDISTINCTLY) -(BRIT GROANS)
-It's a... it's a little like that. -Yeah, okay.
-All right. That's exciting. -But, uh, we can't show the whole thing.
-That's exciting. -I'm a little excited, too.
Okay, so where can I go next? Where would you point me to visit people
-who are also obsessed with jeans? -Oh, man.
Who are buying jeans and the most interesting places to buy?
Well, I mean the Rose Bowl Flea Market is incredible in Pasadena.
Man, you're gonna love it, you're going to flip out.
-Thank you, good stuff. -Wonderful.
-Awesome. Really fun. -I can't thank you enough.
JEFF: Uh, traveling music, please.
Well, no time to waste then, let's travel from the denim past
to denim present.
Well, looky here. This is the rather well known
once a month California Rose Bowl Flea Market.
It's a carnival, as you can see, a circus of all kinds of denim.
Wow.
Lots of denim here.
-Denim. -Over the bridge for denim. Lotsa denim.
-JEFF: Really? -Oh, yeah.
-JEFF: Denim? -Denim.
I got a little tip about a denim legend
who operates right around here, somebody who is known the world over
and she's got a quite intimate knowledge, I'm told,
of how denim has evolved.
-My name's Kathleen. -Hello, Kathleen. I'm Jeff.
-Lovely to meet you. -You look fantastic. Look, denim...
there's much denim on you. This denim jacket is so interesting
and that denim... (SPEAKS GIBBERISH) ...I didn't see that.
I like it. All the vintage places in America,
maybe in the world, is this the...
-This is the place. -But why? Why is this the place?
It's just this gathering place of humanity
from all over the world and you just never know
what's gonna show up here.
-KATHLEEN: I might have something. -What?
I think the original man in black.
-JEFF: Oh my gosh, yes. -KATHLEEN: Hopalong Cassidy.
Wait a minute, you're killing me.
It's my first remembrance of seeing a pair of jeans,
I was like...
And look how impressed you were by that, that you still remember that to this day.
Oh, I'm telling you, I do and I can't believe.
And look at this feature.
-JEFF: Oh. -KATHLEEN: Sweet.
I want to share these with you.
(CHUCKLES) You're hypnotizing.
Follow the whimsical pants.
KATHLEEN: Women's pants, in excellent shape.
Wow. Duke, Duke!
You could actually buy these, um, in a Sears catalog.
It's a history lesson like right here in music.
Jeez, what year do you think these are from?
Um, early '40s.
KATHLEEN: These are from the '90s.
It's Malcolm X.
-Amazing. -It's kind of acid wash,
-is that what you call it? -KATHLEEN: Acid wash, yeah.
-Maybe like '92. -It's back because it's ugly beauty.
It went away long enough, died a horrible death.
It's back!
JEFF: Why is it that denim material and the...
this evolution of denim has been the basis for all these clothes?
I think it's like a... Kind of an armor,
it's like a soft armor that carries you through the day
and it allows you to get out there and just be yourself,
you know, and you're protected.
And when you wear it, it does function oftentimes
as a kind of, hey, self-realization, you know, right.
-I think so. -It's kind of, "Hey, this is me."
This is who I am, through the eras.
You know, it started off as a humble workers' thing
and it just went from there and now it's like...
it's a... In our lives, it's not going anywhere.
Ho there!
JEFF: Since the denim of the Old West, styles have just exploded.
Tough, flared, boot cut, all manner of washes,
patched, bell bottoms, straight bottom,
cut off, high waisted, low waisted, acid washed, distressed,
doubled up, baggy, skinny, colorful.
There's now a whole cornucopia of denim out there.
It's overwhelming, I'll tell you that.
(RIPPING)
Wow. Uh, denim, denim, denim.
Well, originally work wear for the rugged and the... the protective, uh, wear...
Now, uh, it's used for many, many other kinds of costuming.
You know, what began as one thread of interest,
now that I've been to the Rose Bowl, what strikes me now
is that it possibly is several threads.
And as we follow it along, maybe we'll find,
as we put all those threads in the loom, so to speak,
we come up with a tapestry...
and a design which may tell a larger, more interesting story.
Well, that's what I'm on the lookout for.
JEFF: These days, people seem to be just hungry
for a whole wide variety of denim looks and styles
and for a whole bunch of different reasons.
But mass-producing individuality,
that's one heck of a job.
Nobody knows this better than the man who has spent his whole life
perfecting ways to produce and distress
denim on a vast scale.
Speak of the dibber.
Bart Sights.
-Bart Sights. -Hi, Jeff.
-Hello, so nice to meet you. -How are you?
-Welcome. -I wanna drink you in before I...
-Before we say anything. -Sure, drink.
'Cause we're here to... (STAMMERS)
...gee you're stylish, you're very interesting.
-So are you. -What happens here?
This is Levi Strauss & Co's Eureka Innovation Lab.
It's a small factory.
So if you go to our shop anywhere in the... in the world,
anything you see in that shop, we've probably made one of those
a year before that. Let me show you.
Glad I asked. I think I asked the right question.
Hey, I didn't notice this.
-Hey. Do I ever. -You can throw a spiral!
JEFF: Bart's experimental denim playground helps create
over 3,000 different styles of jeans every single season
and they do it with the help of some ingenious technology.
So, this is a 501 that we consider a base.
We photograph that and we have this application,
uh, that's going to allow you to build your own finish.
Some damages maybe?
-Maybe just a little. -JEFF: Oh my gosh.
Oh, the different kind of holes.
-I see. Wow. -We have libraries of these.
So, well, this is amazing.
Then I would suggest maybe, like, a small one like this.
-Click that on. -I used to have holes in my pants
all the time, I used to fall down. But they weren't jeans,
you know, they were just... But nobody really gets holes.
So if you see somebody's holes, you go, "That's phony"?
A pattern. Hey, can I look at all those patterns?
I-- I like a plaid, but let's go to the leopard print.
Let's... let's make it intense.
Yeah, yeah, let's play around with that.
JEFF: Well, traditionally, denim has been uh,
just horrendous for the environment...
using a cocktail of polluting chemicals and huge amounts of water.
But Bart and his team with their high-tech tools,
uh, are aiming to clean up the whole denim world somewhat.
This is how these finishes were done a couple of years ago.
Look, this is like 800 men in a room, repetitive motion.
-Look at that, look. -Least desirable jobs in the factory.
-JEFF: Nobody... -BART: Fast forward to today.
JEFF: Clean as a whistle.
-Non-intrusive. -This uses a fraction of the chemicals,
-it creates much less waste. -I see.
So now you're... You want to be able to see the jeans.
(SINGING) Oh, yeah, that's what I got
-BART: Reanna, you ready? -REANNA: Yes, I'm ready to go.
-Three, two, one, go. -Three, two, one, go.
JEFF: It's doing something, it's doing something.
-Wow. -BART: So it's gonna see...
it's starting on the left side.
It's taking off the very fine top layer
of cotton fiber and the indigo that's attached to that cotton fiber,
much in the same way we would have done that with sandpaper,
or much in the same way a farmer would have done it
by rubbing his hands repeatedly over his thighs
when he was sitting on a tractor.
If we got in between that laser, what would happen to us?
Um... it would mark you.
REANNA: (CHUCKLES) You'd have a little tattoo probably.
-JEFF: Oh, I'm not going to... -REANNA: A little burn.
BART: So now, those are the highlights
and now it's going to do the burning, these damages.
-JEFF: It is amazing. -(MACHINE FIRING)
BART: There you go.
(MACHINE WHIRRING)
-And now... -Did you see that?
I see it. (CHUCKLES) And now it's starting the leopard.
-So... -It's starting the leopard?
How is it doing that?
REANNA: The laser is able to produce the pattern using different intensities,
like higher power, lower power of the laser,
you can achieve different effects.
-Yeah, it's like magic. -JEFF: It's magic.
BART: I want to take these off so you can see them.
Okay. You smell that?
I love the smell of...
-burning denim in the morning. -REANNA: Burning denim, yeah.
JEFF: So, what is it about blue denim jeans
that makes them susceptible to get marked up?
Well, uh, may we offer a show and tell at this point?
Who likes animation? Here you go.
Uh, here... here... here's the big word, indigo.
That's the dye that makes jeans blue.
It was originally made 6,000 years ago in Peru
and some resourceful folks found a way to ferment plant leaves
in order to extract a brilliant blue dye.
Now, if you zoom in, you see it's, uh... molecules don't penetrate the fiber,
but instead just cling to the surface, which means that in denim fabric,
the dye is built up in layers and layers, like coats of paint on a wall.
So as we wear it, layers of indigo dye are worn away
and that is what allows every pair of jeans to become, you know,
as individual, as a uh... as a fingerprint.
BART: Indigo is like our lifeblood,
so we keep these natural fermentation pots here
to develop new colors, and also just to... to play around with.
-It's uh... So it... (LAUGHS) -Ugh! Ugh! (LAUGHS)
The great thing about indigo is it chips off and wears.
I mean that... that's why jeans, uh, a walking history of, you know,
your life and your experience and everything.
It all comes from that... The inherent way that a jean wears in.
-Yes, it's a map, it's a recording device. -Right.
-For what it's gone through. -Exactly.
Like your jeans, a lot of jeans you say, don't wash them, don't wash them.
Oh, I never wash my jeans...
-for 35 five years. -Even if the...
even if you... even if they get dirty?
I mean, they... If they get stained, then you can...
-you can take that stain off. -Yeah, brush them, brush them, uh, yeah.
I mean there have been experiences
where, you know, something happened catastrophically.
You don't have to go into those, that's private.
Everybody poops their pants at one point or another.
Well, we know that. There's no shame in it.
I hope that helps you.
-This is a red-letter day for you. -Uh, it wasn't that, it wasn't that.
It's warm.
Just put your finger in there, just one finger.
-Okay, I'll put a finger in there. -Just feel how warm it is.
Ooh, oh! I... I...
Oh, boy. (INCOHERENT MUMBLING)
Wipe that off. Oh.
-Oh, you should shake my hand. -Thank you so much.
-It's great to have you -We're brothers, we're blue brothers.
The Blues Brothers, we're The Blues Brothers.
Blues Brothers, yes.
JEFF: What can we say about jeans at this point?
Well, I'll tell you this. Even though it's uh, mass produced
and so many people around the world
are wearing the exact same pair of jeans essentially,
it's almost like, you know, it's everybody's uniform,
except each one of them becomes formed
and tells the story of the individual. You-- you make it your own.
Whether you've gotten help from the laser system of technology or not.
So, isn't that something? Hmm, hmm, hmm.
Denim's popularity,
it seems to me, has a whole lot to do with the, uh...
the many, many ways that it allows us to,
uh, express ourselves.
I think, at this point,
it's time to visit some folks for whom denim, uh, really matters.
MAN: Five, six, five, six, seven, eight.
(COUNTRY MUSIC PLAYING)
JEFF: I've been invited to take part in a denim ritual.
This happens to be the Dallas Pride Dancers
weekly LGBTQ line dance.
And, uh, I think I picked it up pretty quick.
I don't know if they're laughing with me or at... at me.
Yeah, look at that.
Not bad, uh, but keep that tongue in, Jeff.
That's the only thing I'd say.
(LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)
Wow. Wow.
Let me see, now that I'm looking at everybody.
Yes, you're all wearing jeans, jeans, jeans.
What kind of jeans are you wearing, may I ask?
It's the Asian cowboy jeans.
-MALE VOICE: Asian cowboy jeans. -Well, you know, those are fancy pants.
Yeah you've got... Look at those, your shoes, everything,
boy, jeans seems to be the uniform of everybody.
So maybe... we're trying to figure out what the big appeal is?
One thing that everybody has in common is denim.
Isn't that interesting?
The denim, the reason that it, uh, became so iconic for us here,
we can go to a country and western bar and get to dance,
-line dancing. -JEFF: Yeah, yeah.
Whether we're from the LGBT community or the straight community
and you can feel comfortable and the uniform was the jeans.
I mean, I came from a farming background in Kansas.
-Ah. -So, denim was a way of life,
you just wore it because of all the things you're doing throughout the day
and so now that I've lived into the bigger metro cities...
-Yes. -...it is still inclusive,
it doesn't matter the conservative life that I came from, denim is...
-what we wear. -Sweet.
-Kansas. -Mm-hmm.
In what movie do they say,
"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore"?
-The Wizard of Oz. -The Wizard of Oz.
-My grandfather hated that movie. -(LAUGHTER)
Why did he hate that? How could he have hated that?
Ready? One, two, three.
(ALL SINGING)
I love this, this is my favorite moment of my entire life.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
JEFF: So what then can we say, uh, finally about, uh, jeans?
You know what, they, um, cover the, the bottoms,
the legs of half the population at any one time,
but somehow, magically, they make you feel unique, an individual.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
JEFF: And so, what's... what's special about denim, it seems,
is it offers us a glimpse at a mythical fashion utopia...
you know, it's an item of clothing that unites us all...
while allowing each one of us to express our own honest...
uh, identity.
Authenticity. Authenticity.
I think that's it. Who here doesn't want to be real?
That... That's it in a nutshell. And I think I'm done here.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
Well, let's pack up and get back to Bar 20, you homeless little maverick.
(LAUGHS)
(ALL LAUGH, CHEER)
(HUMMING INDISTINCTLY)
JEFF: (LAUGHS)
(THEME MUSIC PLAYING)