Wear Denim Tomorrow to Support This Important Cause

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(Image credit: Sandra Semburg)

We're guessing there's a good chance that you were planning on wearing jeans tomorrow anyway (because they're the best), but if not, you might want to consider it for a very important reason. For the past 19 years, the organization Peace Over Violence has declared a Wednesday each April (which is Sexual Violence Awareness Month) as Denim Day. This year, it falls on April 25.

So why jeans? According to the organization, in the '90s in Italy, a rape conviction was overturned because the Justices decided that since a teenage girl was wearing very tight jeans the day the crime was committed against her, she must've helped her rapist remove them, therefore implying consent. The next day, the female parliament members wore jeans to stand in solidarity with the victim. Members of the California Senate showed their support by doing the same. Peace Over Violence started Denim Day as a result of the case to encourage the public to wear jeans as "a symbol of protest against erroneous and destructive attitudes about sexual assault."

So how can you show your support for the cause, aside from wearing jeans tomorrow? You can make a donation, order a $5 Denim Day Action Kit, purchase a Denim Day button, run a campaign, or spread the word on social media. All the information on ways to get involved is available here. (If jeans aren't part of your office dress code, feel free to forward this to your boss!)

Allyson Payer
Senior Editor

Allyson is a senior editor for Who What Wear. She joined the company in 2014 as co-founder Katherine Power's executive assistant and over the years has written hundreds of stories for Who What Wear. Prior to her career in fashion, Allyson worked in the entertainment industry at companies such as Sony Pictures Television. Allyson is now based in Raleigh, North Carolina, and is originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She holds a BFA in theater. Her path to fashion may not have been linear, but based on the number of fashion magazines she collected as a child and young adult, it was meant to be.