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Blue Jeans, Big Drama: Fashion’s Most Iconic Denim Moments

Katseye, Beyoncé, and the K-pop boys: the denim campaigns that make history (and the ones that don’t).

Feature - Publive (77)

If you’ve been anywhere near the internet lately, you’ve probably seen the denim drama unfold. Sydney Sweeney’s controversial American Eagle campaign was dragged for looking more like a glossy perfume ad than jeans you’d actually wear. The vibe was aspirational in the wrong way, airbrushed, out of touch, and fading into backlash territory.

But just as the internet rolled its eyes at another glossy misstep, along came Katseye’s Gap campaign, soundtracked by Kelis’s Milkshake, with choreography that felt IG reel-ready yet authentic. It was playful, cool, and most importantly designed for the women who will actually wear the jeans, not just pose in them.

This clash of campaigns says everything about the way denim is shifting in 2025. No longer the stiff, hyper-sexualised ad format of the early aughts, Gen Z wants their denim served with personality, inclusivity, and a dose of fun. 

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Katseye for Gap

Take Beyoncé’s Levi’s collaboration earlier this year: a cultural moment that merged music, movement, and a sense of power in denim. Or Jung Kook and Mingyu’s Calvin Klein campaigns, which went viral not just because of abs and smouldering gazes, but because they represented how global stars can reframe a heritage brand for a new generation. These campaigns worked because they felt lived-in, not manufactured.

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Versace Jeans Couture, 1995

Of course, none of this is new. Denim advertising has been stirring headlines for decades. From Brooke Shields’s infamous 1980 Calvin Klein campaign shot by Richard Avedon, where a teenage Shields declared, “Nothing comes between me and my Calvins”—to Cindy Crawford’s iconic denim moment jeans have always been about more than fabric. They’re symbols of rebellion, youth, sex appeal, and legacy. As more retrospective shows, the best denim ads are the ones that don’t just sell trousers, but bottle up an era’s energy—turning threads into cultural touchstones.

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Pepsi Commercial, 1992

There are few garments as democratic, as enduring, and as endlessly reinterpreted as denim. Jeans have been worn by miners, rebels, supermodels, and pop idols, moving from dusty workwear to cultural shorthand for youth, sexuality, rebellion, and identity. Yet the way denim has been sold to us tells an even richer story. Advertising campaigns have not just mirrored fashion—they have shaped how generations have seen themselves, and how they’ve been seen by others. Welcome to the world of the denim gaze: a history of how jeans became a canvas for our desires, our defiance, and, increasingly, our individuality.

From Workwear to Symbol of Defiance

Levi Strauss may have patented riveted jeans for miners in the 1870s, but it was Hollywood that transformed denim into an attitude. By the 1950s, James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause in a Lee jeans and Marlon Brando in The Wild One turned jeans into a symbol of youthful rebellion.

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James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause

Advertising quickly caught up. By the 1970s, denim campaigns leaned on this sense of defiance, pushing jeans as the uniform of counterculture. The rebel gaze was born—denim as shorthand for saying no to authority and yes to freedom.

The Provocative Eighties and Nineties

If the 1970s were about rebellion, the 1980s and ’90s were about provocation. Calvin Klein redefined the denim campaign—sometimes controversially, always memorably. Who can forget Brooke Shields’ 1980 line, “You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing.” Or Kate Moss and Mark Wahlberg in the infamous 1992 ads, topless and tangled in their Calvins? Guess, too, mastered the art of cinematic seduction—Claudia Schiffer and Anna Nicole Smith appeared not just as models but as characters, cast in smoky, sultry stories.

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Calvin Klein Jeans, 1980

Here, jeans were no longer the star. The body was. The erotic gaze dominated, denim framed the body as an object of desire, blurring the line between commodity and fantasy. 

The Commercial Glut of the 2000s

By the 2000s, the formula had begun to wear thin. Denim was everywhere—Diesel, True Religion, American Eagle, Abercrombie & Fitch. Some, like Diesel, leaned into irony with clever, tongue-in-cheek campaigns that winked at the audience. But others fell into a glossy sameness.

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Guess Denim FW 2000

American Eagle in particular struggled to cut through. Its campaigns, often staged to mimic “relatable” youth culture, felt curated rather than lived in. The brand’s attempts at inclusivity sometimes seemed performative, models styled for catalogue appeal instead of authenticity. For a generation beginning to demand more transparency and honesty, this rang hollow. If Calvin Klein’s provocation had been too much, American Eagle’s soft-focus relatability was, simply, not enough. The commercial gaze, denim as oversaturated commodity—was uninspiring, and consumers turned away.

The New Denim Icons: Gen Z Global Takeover

In the 2020s, denim has undergone another reinvention, one led not by anonymous models but by cultural icons with devoted fandoms. Calvin Klein, once the enfant terrible of denim advertising, found fresh life by casting Jung Kook of BTS and Mingyu of SEVENTEEN. Fans didn’t just consume the ads; they shared them, dissected them, embodied them. Unlike the provocative shock of the 1990s, these campaigns rely on authenticity and charisma. Sex appeal is still there, but reframed, it’s about confidence, artistry, and connection.

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Jung Kook of BTS for Calvin Klein

Gap, too, has struck gold with its 2025 campaign featuring KATSEYE, the global pop girl group coming from the same label as BTS. Unlike American Eagle’s over-curated shoots, Gap let KATSEYE do what Gen Z does best: move. The campaign is full of choreography, Y2K nostalgia, group energy. The jeans are for the women wearing them, not for the viewer’s gaze. That’s what makes it work.

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Mingyu of SEVENTEEN for Calvin Klein

Each stage tells us more about society than about denim itself. From defiance to desire, from overexposure to authenticity, denim has mirrored our shifting cultural values. In this new era, denim advertising no longer asks, How do you want to be seen? Instead, it asks, Who do you want to be?

Also read:

BTS’ Jung Kook’s Style Evolution: The Rise Of The Pop Star

6 Times BTS Served Up Fashion Inspo During Their Concerts

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