Founded in 1973 as a joint venture by Yakka and Vanity Fair Corporation, H.D. Lee Australia imported jeans from the US before it started a pilot plant in March 1974 in Kiewa Street, which was on the former Frank Ross Motors premises next to The Border Morning Mail.

Twelve sewing machinists worked on the floor to make garments sold at stores throughout Australia.

H.D. Lee's workforce swelled to 100 within months, buoyed by soaring demand for jeans nationwide.

Wodonga resident and H.D. Lee past employee (1974-1990) Allan Wilson said the business quickly outgrew its floor space in Albury.

In 1975 H.D. Lee moved its operations to a Wodonga factory, which was located on the corner of Romet Road and McKoy Street (now occupied by Bounce Inc and Inflatable Funhouse).

The Victorian government threw in $300,000 for good measure under its decentralisation policy.

"Jeans were high fashion in the mid-1970s," Mr Wilson said.

"The popularity of sales meant we couldn't keep up with demand.

"We outgrew Albury quickly but the conditions were very hot in Kiewa Street too; we had big plastic bins of cordial with ice in them to cool us down!"

Within a decade 400 staff were employed by the H.D. Lee Australia company.

Myriad fabrics were used to make jeans, jackets and overalls such as brushed and stretch denim twill, velvet and corduroy.

In the mid-1980s the Wodonga factory introduced four acid stone wash machines, which generated record sales and paved the way for the company to become the second largest jean manufacturer in Australia behind only Levi Strauss.

A factory outlet shop opened in Wodonga during the 1980s.

Mr Wilson said most people in Albury-Wodonga would have owned a pair of Lee jeans.

He said Lee workers were also a big part of their community.

"We joined the Mad Hatter Regatta at Noreuil Park on Australia Day; we used 30 metres of denim to make a sail for one," he said.

"People would chuck eggs and flour at you; you probably wouldn't get away with it now!"

H.D. Lee's Border staff celebrated the Lee company's centenary in 1989 at Kinross Woolshed.

Born and bred in Albury, Mr Wilson also met his wife, Martina, at the Wodonga Lee factory.

He said Jenny Gavel introduced them in the cutting room.

"It was love at first sight," Mr Wilson said.

Having met in November 1979 and marrying the next August at St Patrick's Parish Church in Albury, the couple would celebrate their 44^th anniversary this winter.

Mrs Wilson, who worked in product development from 1979 to 1989, said acid stone wash was the biggest breakthrough for Lee in the mid-1980s.

"We had four machines doing stone wash or acid wash," she said.

"The acid wash used to stink to high heaven!"

H.D. Lee fashion shows ran at The Commercial Club in Albury each season for sales representatives Australia-wide.

During its peak in the late 1970s, H.D. Lee Australia employed 610 staff between the Wodonga distribution centre and factories at Wodonga, Myrtleford, Yarrawonga and Brunswick.

From the mid-1980s, the Australian government cut protection of the Australian textile, clothing and footwear sector with many producers forced out of business.

H.D. Lee wound back its Wodonga operations after a series of strikes in the early 1990s before its demise in the mid-1990s.

Mr Wilson said H.D. Lee was one of the Border's greatest manufacturing achievements but there was little in the way of plaques or recognition.

"There were a lot of friendships and a lot of memories," he said.

There is a Lee Jeans Wodonga private Facebook group and reunions have occurred.