Family Jeans Volume 19

Featuring Charlie Hourston

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May 28, 2026 12:05pm EDT

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Family Jeans: A newsletter where we ask friends of Still Here to dig through their family archives and share stories of their memories with denim. For Volume 19, we spoke to our friend Charlie Hourston. On top of being one of our favorite models, Charlie is also the founder and owner of Charlie Beads. Here's what she had to say about her childhood in Canada and childhood nostalgia:

I’ve been told I’m very nostalgic. Growing up in Canada, everything felt picture perfect. We had a tiny cabin where we spent our summers, a family of five, including our German Shorthaired Pointer, Scout. Days were spent swimming, fishing, clamming, boating, rowing, playing Uno, and almost burning the house down. If I close my eyes, I’m there. I see my mom, pigtails in her hair, wearing a long-sleeve waffle tee and jeans that were cuffed, ripped, patched, and often cut off. Then I see myself: tiny, blonde ringlets, and of course jeans that were just like my mom’s. We were preppy, for sure, but it wasn’t talked about. Since then, a lot has changed, but the clothes we wear have stayed relatively the same. Those late nineties early 2000s pieces are to good to let go of. Especially the jeans.

This next memory is so classic me… My brother is 10 years older than me, and when our parents would leave town, he would often throw raging parties. When I was older, his friend Mara told me that at one of them, I walked up to her and her girlfriends and asked if they wanted to come into my room to see my jeans. I would’ve been around five or six years old. Twenty years later, I still want to show everyone when I find a great pair of jeans.

My Dad, 6 years old, with his first fishing rod.

Mom and I love white jeans. She always has the best belts.

Dad in his Canadian Tux.

Uncle Craig, moving across the country to Hawaii. My mom told him to just sell his furniture and start fresh, so they had a sidewalk sale in LA! Also pictured is our dog Scout.