Denim Day: A History

We celebrate Denim Day in honor of a young Italian woman who was forcibly raped by her driving instructor.

The 18-year-old young woman was picked up by her 45-year-old male instructor and taken to an isolated area where he raped her. He then threatened her with death if she told anyone and made her drive home.

The young woman later told her parents and they supported her in reporting the attack to authorities. The perpetrator was arrested, convicted and sentenced to jail.

However, the perpetrator appealed the sentence and the case made its way to the Italian Supreme Court. It was later overturned because the Chief Judge decided that, “because the victim wore very, very tight jeans, she had to help him remove them, and by removing the jeans it was no longer rape but consensual sex.”

Enraged by the verdict, the women in the Italian Parliament launched into immediate action and protested by wearing jeans to work. This call to action motivated and emboldened individuals across the world to make a statement by wearing jeans with a purpose. The first Denim Day in LA was in April 1999, and has continued every year since.

This year Denim Day occurs on Wednesday, April 27^th, 2016.  We invite you to join us and use your fashion statement to make a social statement. Wear denim or one of our Denim Day stickers as a symbol of protest against destructive attitudes about sexual assault—namely the dangers of victim blaming and shaming. We invite you to join us in using this day to raise awareness of the prevalence of sexual assault, as well as to increase visibility of the local resources available to victims of sexual assault.