Businesses allow employees to wear jeans for Denim Day

April 25 is Denim Day. It's a day where people don their best jeans to promote awareness for sexual assault and domestic violence victims.

"We've got about 20 local offices that are participating in Denim Day. So, we think that's huge," said Jessica Gregory, with the Bay Area Women's Center.

Gregory said it is important to remind people sexual assault is not about sex, but about power.

"What they were wearing has nothing to do with it. In society, we often blame victims and what Denim Day is about is decreasing the victim blaming and making people more aware," Gregory said.

One of the businesses that participated is Michigan Sugar. The office usually is full of people sporting business attire.

The employees said they will do anything to give back to a good cause in Bay County, which is why they wore jeans on Wednesday.

"We've had dozens of employees take advantage. They're wearing jeans today, which is really nice for them. Middle of the week, wearing jeans to work. And they pitched in $5, $10, $20," said Rob Clark, community outreach director for Michigan Sugar.

Clark said their team raised more than $300 for the Bay Area Women's Center. They are already looking to top that next year.

"Obviously Denim Day is something that happens every year. So, I could foresee us apart of this on a year to year basis," Clark said.

Denim Day stems from a 1992 court ruling. The Italian Supreme Court overturned a rape conviction stating the victim would have first needed to help her assailant remove her tightly-fitted jeans.

Women in the Italian government wore jeans in protest at the Italian parliament the next day.