On Denim Day, jeans are more than a piece of clothing
Sarah Yudichak | Contributing Illustrator
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For some, wearing jeans on the last Wednesday in April is more than just an outfit choice.
On Denim Day, the worldwide organization encourages people to wear jeans in solidarity with victims of sexual violence. The annual day promotes sexual assault awareness and aims to challenge myths of consent.
On Wednesday, Syracuse University’s Barnes Center at the Arch’s Health and Wellness department invited SU students to post themselves wearing denim on Instagram, tagging the Barnes Instagram account and using the hashtag #SAAM2026 to raise awareness for Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
Denim Day’s history dates back to a 1998 Italian Supreme Court case, a ruling which overturned a 1992 rape conviction. The justices determined that because the victim was wearing tight jeans, she must have helped the defendant remove them and therefore consent was implied. This reasoning is known as the “jeans alibi.”
In response, women in the Italian Parliament wore jeans to work and launched a protest on the steps of the Italian Supreme Court. The movement traveled around the world to the California State Capitol. Denim Day in LA was held in April 1999 to contest myths about why women and girls experience sexual violence.
Denim Day is now observed on college campuses nationwide on the last Wednesday in April.
“It is critical to invest in evidence-based prevention education,” Tracey Vitchers, executive director of It’s On Us, wrote in a statement to The Daily Orange.
It’s On Us is a program that resulted from a 2014 public awareness campaign to help combat sexual assault on college campuses.
“Now more than ever, using our voices matters, an open letter from Denim Day founder Patricia Giggans reads. “In a time when injustice, violence, and abuse of power continue to surface across our institutions and communities, silence is not an option.”
Twenty-seven years after Denim Day’s start, it remains a powerful initiative across college campuses, including at SU.
“When millions of us participate in Denim Day—wearing denim, jeans, jackets, and hats as symbols of protest and solidarity—we make visible a powerful truth: survivors are not alone, sexual violence will not be tolerated, and together we can change the future,” Giggins wrote.
In a nationally representative survey of female adults conducted by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 34.4% of female rape victims experienced rape between the ages of 18 and 24. Over 40% of students experienced at least one harassing behavior while in college, according to the survey.
In 2024, the biennial Survey on Sexual and Relationship Violence, required on college campuses by New York state law, found that 11% of SU students said they had witnessed a verbal statement they thought might lead to sexual assault. The bill requiring the survey, titled “Enough is Enough,” first went into effect in July 2015 as part of a broader initiative about sexual assault on college campuses.
“Moments like Denim Day help start conversations about sexual violence and the importance of consent within campus communities, serving as an entry point for students who otherwise may not be engaged in the fight to combat campus sexual assault,” Vitchers wrote.
The theme of Denim Day 2026 is “Use Your Voice,” encouraging people to speak up about sexual assault. Past themes include “Be an ally,” “Let’s protect each other” and “Be an upstander” from 2023, along with “We Believe Survivors” and “We Protect Each Other” from its 2021 campaign.
According to the Rape, Abuse and Incest Network, 4 out of 5 students nationwide do not report the sexual violence they experience to law enforcement. At SU, roughly one of every six survey respondents who experienced sexual assault filed a report, according to the 2024 SSRV survey.
“Denim Day makes it clear: it doesn’t matter what a survivor was wearing — the only person responsible for sexual assault is the perpetrator,” Vitchers wrote.
