Around 70 million pairs of denim jeans are sold every year in the UK. They come in a dizzying array of shapes and styles, but the essentials haven’t changed since they were first conceived in the Californian gold rush 150 years ago.

Charlotte Stavrou and Amit Katwala continue their exploration of our culture of consumption by unpicking our abiding love affair with denim.

Mohsin Sajid, denim designer and lecturer at some of the UK’s top fashion colleges, takes us through the history of denim which originated as tough workwear, to its golden age of 1950s American youth culture.

Meanwhile, Bryan Szabo who runs an annual raw denim fade competition - the Indigo Invitational - explains how denim allows wearers to leave an imprint on their clothes and tell a unique story.

Sir John Hegarty discusses his agency’s relaunch of Levi’s 501 jeans in the 1980s when an irresistible combination of visual and music references made this item so desirable it became a symbol of rebellion in the Cold War. We hear from Nicolai Khalezin of the Belarus Free Theatre about how denim was used in Belarus to bolster a protest movement.

Produced by: Ruth Abrahams and Emily Uchida Finch
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4 Show less