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SEASONAL NOTES S/S10

The mountains of south Missouri cut off many small communities, leaving them at odds with mainstream American. On the one hand referred to as Hicks and Hillbillies, these people are simultaneously mythologised as mountain dwellers- the simplicity of their way of life envied.

The Ozark ancestors came to the region as pioneers, for mining and oil. It is, perhaps, the decline of these industries and the resulting economic hardship that has kept their pioneer spirit alive. Of German and Scots-Irish descent, often including Native American ancestry, these families have been living in the Missouri mountains since the 19th Century. They came hungry, stayed hungry and developed ties with the land as strong as the family bonds that saw them through.

The Ozarks, much overlooked, is beyond fashion and, unselfconsciously, a denim homeland. Jeans are, and since their invention by Levis, have always been, the natural costume of these hill people ¬ a second skin and a tool of their trade.