The Origin Of Jeans

By Author: kelly
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The history of blue jeans actually goes back to 16th Century Europe. It's amazing that a product developed 500 years ago fuels today's multi-million dollar denim industry. Who would have thought back in Genoa in the 1500's that the material worn by Genovese sailors in their everyday pants would evolve to become the textile and fashion industry phenomenon that denim is today.

The story goes that "jean" derives from the word Genoa. It refers to the material that sailors from Genoa used in their pants. This was a coarse cotton wool and linen blend. It originally came from Italy, and is evidence of the custom of naming a material for its place of origin. By the late 16th century, jean was already being produced in Lancashire, England. The composition eventually evolved to 100% cotton by the 18th century.

On the other hand, the origin of the term "denim" can be traced to late 16th century in France, where a fabric known as "serge de Nimes" (Twill from Nimes) was very popular. Some doubt remains as to whether the contraction "denim" actually came from this French fabric or another twill called "nim", also used in France ...
... at the time. "Serge de Nimes" was a blend of silk and wool, which leads some historians to doubt if this was truly the origin of modern day denim. Either way, the history of jeans goes this far back in history.

Both fabrics grew in popularity, denim being the stronger and more expensive of the two. The major difference between them was that denim was woven with one colored thread (the warp) and the other white (the weft), while jean was woven with two colored threads. By the late 19th century, weavers in America were making twills in the same fashion as the European denim, adapting to the more readily available and locally produced cotton fibers. The material had a reputation for being very strong and not wearing out quickly, in spite of many washes.

Jean and denim remained two very different fabrics, and were used for different types of clothing. Denim was used mainly for workers clothes and jean for lighter clothes that did not have such high durability requirements. Now denim is everywhere. Denim is back on designer's catwalks, on accessories, home collections, and designer jeans by the hundreds of labels. Price barriers have been broken. Washes and finishes, embellishments, destroyed and distressed jeans, ultra low rise jeans, … the palette available to designers offers limitless possibilities, and the market appears to never bottom out. Now jeans are a very popular form of casual dress around the world, and have been so for decades. The history of jean continues.

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