Denim is deadly! Son of a Critch remembers the '80s obsession with a wicked workwear fashion staple

Let's grab our favourite pair of acid-wash Levis and fleece-lined trucker jackets and take our Canadian tuxedo on a waltz into the indigo world of blue jeans.

From finding a pair of jeans that fit your hips, to finding a pair so you can "fit in" — denim dredges up complicated emotions despite being such a simple piece of unisex clothing. In the CBC sitcom Son of a Critch, the comedy show takes a look at the painful process of fitting in, so we thought we'd take a look at a few different ways to look at denim and how it has been woven into the fabric of Canadian life.

Son of a Critch is based on the experiences of a young Mark Critch, out of step with 1980s St. John's, Newfoundland and pop culture at large, as a result of his isolated upbringing and senior citizen compadres. In the episode "Spirit Week," the kids are allowed to wear jeans at their Catholic high school. The only problem is that Mark doesn't own a pair himself, and goes to great lengths to find some. It doesn't go well.

Comedian Deanne Smith (aka Denim Smith) celebrates the iconic garment first created in 1873's San Francisco, and declares that "Denim doesn't judge" when extolling the virtues on CBC Radio's The Debaters.

In this 1987 report from CBC in Sydney, Nova Scotia, reporter Joan Weeks says "Going back to school without something in acid wash denim seems to be a fate worse than death… Heaven help the child who wears the wrong designer label."

Now, my favourite piece of denim trivia is the one perpetuated by Levi Strauss, in that the roots of wearing "double denim" can be traced back to 1951 in Vancouver, when Bing Crosby was denied a room at a fancy hotel because of the denim outfit he was wearing returning from a hunting trip. When Levi's heard about the incident, they crafted a denim tuxedo jacket for the singer. Yup, it turns out another icon of Canadian identity was originally intended as a joke at our expense (look into Bob & Doug and HBO if you're curious).

We know that denim can change lives, even if they have complicated rules, as Run the Burbs star Rakhee Morzaria finds out in this sketch from her Canadian Screen Award-nominated series, Note to Self.

However, we also know that denim's dark wash and worn, distressed details come at an environmental cost: Sustainable fashion journalist Alden Wicker says the genetically modified cotton used largely in fast fashion jeans production is an exceptionally water-thirsty crop, while the process of distressing jeans can endanger workers.

"They're inhaling these fumes, it's coming into their skin because they're touching these toxic dyes all the time and then the dyes are being washed off of the floor and into drains," Wicker said in a report by CBC Radio's Ideas program.

So if you're looking for as sustainable option for your next pair of low-rise bell bottoms, CBC Life has a short guide here on educating yourself on what brands are doing to minimize the amount of waste and environmental impact that comes with producing denim.

Jeans may have become a fashionable and often high-end commodity but it's important to remember they started out as humble pants for farm and industrial work. Personally, I love this story from Prince Edward Island, where one woman says the greatest Christmas gift she's ever received was a denim quilt stitched together from the jeans and overalls of a Wilmot Valley, P.E.I., woman's forefathers.

"It's something that you can't really buy. I can't go back in history and buy their time and their effort and all the work that they've done, and so I've got to carry that with me. And so it'll be something that I'll cherish forever because it's priceless in my opinion," says Rachel Bourgeois.

If there's one thing I'd like you to keep in mind, is to please wash your jeans, and don't be like this University of Alberta student who wore a pair of raw denim jeans for 15 straight months.

Catch Son of a Critch Tuesday nights on CBC Television and streaming free on CBC Gem.