Denim is more than a cotton fabric; it inspires strong opinions from historians, designers, teenagers, movie stars, reporters and writers. In 1969 a writer for American Fabrics magazine declared, "Denim is one of the world's oldest fabrics, yet it remains eternally young." If continuous use of and interest in an item makes it "eternally young," then denim certainly qualifies.
Legend and fact are also interwoven when scholars discuss the origin of the name denim. Most reference books say that denim is an English corruption of the French phrase "serge de Nimes;" a serge fabric from the town of Nimes in France. However, some scholars have begun to question this explanation.

Origins in Europe



There are a few schools of thought on the derivation of the word "denim." The serge de Nimes fabric traces back to France prior to the 17th century. At the same time, there was also a fabric known in France as "nim." Both fabrics were composed partly of wool.

Serge de Nimes was also known in England before the end of the 17th century. The question then arises: was this fabric imported from France or was it an English fabric bearing the same name? Fabrics which were named for a certain geographic location were often also made elsewhere; the name was used to lend a certain cachet to the fabric when it was offered for sale. Therefore a "serge de Nimes" purchased in England was very likely also made in England, and not in Nimes, France.

There still remains the question of how the word "denim" is thought to have descended from the word "serge de Nimes." Serge de Nimes was made of silk and wool, but denim has always been made of cotton. Again, this relation between fabrics is in name only, though both fabrics are a twill weave. Is the real origin of the word denim "serge de nim," meaning a fabric that resembled the part-wool fabric called nim? Was serge de Nimes more well-known than serge de nim and mis-translated when it crossed the English Channel? It's likely we will never really know.

To confuse things even more, another fabric known as "jean" also existed at this same time. Research on this textile indicates that it was a fustian - a cotton, linen and/or wool blend - and that fustian from Genoa, Italy was called jean. This is evidence of a fabric being named for a place of origin. It was apparently quite popular and imported into England in large quantities during the 16th century. By the end of this period, jean was being produced in Lancashire. By the 18th century, jean cloth was made completely of cotton and used to make men's clothing, valued especially for its property of durability even after many washings.

Denim's popularity was also on the rise. It was stronger and more expensive than jean, and though the two fabrics were very similar in some ways, they did have one major difference: denim was made of one colored thread and one white thread; jean was woven of two threads of the same color.

Denim Comes To America







As denim moved across the Atlantic in the late 18th century, American textile mills started to produce their own denim fabric on a small scale, mostly as a way to become independent from foreign producers (mainly the English). From the very beginning, cotton fabrics were an important component of American mills' product line. A factory in the state of Massachusetts wove both denim and jean. American President George Washington toured this mill in 1789 and was shown the machinery that wove denim. That same year, one of the first printed references to the word "denim" in the United States appeared: a Rhode Island newspaper reported on the local production of denim among other fabrics. The book "The Weavers Draft Book and Clothiers Assistant," published in 1792, contains technical sketches of the weaving methods for a variety of denims.

In 1864, an East Coast wholesale house advertised that it carried 10 different kinds of denim, including "New Creek Blues" and "Madison River Browns," terms that still sound contemporary today. Webster's Dictionary from the same year contained the word "denim," referring to it as "a coarse cotton drilling used for overalls, etc."

Research shows that jean and denim were two very different fabrics in 19th century America. They also differed in how they were used. In 1849, a New York clothing manufacturer advertised topcoats, vests or short jackets in chestnut, olive, black, white and blue jean. Fine trousers were offered in blue jean; overalls and trousers made for work were offered in blue and fancy denim. Other American advertisements show working men wearing clothing that illustrates this difference in jean and denim usage. Mechanics and painters wore overalls made of blue denim. Working men in general, including those not engaged in manual labor, wore more tailored trousers made of jean.

Denim, then, seems to have been reserved for work clothes, when both durability and comfort were needed. Jean was a sturdy fabric, but it did not offer the added benefits of denim, such as durability and comfort.

The First Blue Jeans







In 1962, the magazine American Fabrics ran an article that stated, "If we were to use a human term to describe a textile we might say that denim is an honest fabric - substantial, forthright, and unpretentious." So how did this utilitarian and unpretentious fabric become the stuff of legends that it is today? And how did pants made out of denim come to be called jeans, when they were not made out of the fabric called jean? One very important reason can be found in the life and work of a Bavarian-born businessman who made his way to Gold Rush San Francisco nearly 150 years ago.



He sold common dry-goods products to small stores all over the West. These products included pillows, blankets, underwear and clothing whose manufacturers are no longer in business. Levi worked hard, and acquired a reputation for quality products over the next two decades.

In 1872, he got a letter from Jacob Davis, a Reno, Nevada tailor, who had come up with a great idea. To improve the strength of the pants he made for his customers, he added metal rivets, which proved to be a big success. He wanted to patent the idea, but didn't have the money he needed to file the papers. So he wrote to Levi, saying that if he would pay for the application, the two men could make riveted clothing and, as Davis put it in his letter, "make a very large amount of money." Levi knew a good business opportunity when he saw one, and in 1873 he and Davis received a patent for an "Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings."

Levi brought Jacob Davis to San Francisco to oversee the first manufacture of their copper riveted "waist overalls," the old name for jeans. These pants were made from brown cotton duck and blue denim. Knowing that the riveted pants were going to be perfect for work wear, Levi and Jacob decided to make them out of denim rather than jean because denim was a very sturdy fabric appropriate for workwear.



The oldest surviving catalog in our company archives, which was published after the earthquake, shows a variety of denim products for sale.

From Workwear to Fashion












During World War II, American GIs took their favorite pairs of denim pants overseas, guarding them against the inevitable theft of valuable items. When the war was over, massive changes in society signaled the end of one era and the beginning of another. Denim pants became less associated with workwear and more associated with the leisure activities of prosperous post-war America.



How did the word "jeans" come to mean pants made out of denim? There are two schools of thought on this one. The word might be a derivation of "Genoese," meaning the type of fustian pants worn by sailors from Genoa, Italy. There is another possible explanation: jean and denim fabrics were both used for work wear for many decades, and "jeans pants" was a common term for an article of clothing made from jean fabric. Before 1873, Levi Strauss used to buy "jeans pants" from the Eastern part of the United States to sell in California. When the popularity of jean gave way to the even greater popularity of denim for work wear, the word "jeans" was still used as the term for the denim version of these pants.

In 1964 a writer for American Fabrics said, "Throughout the industrialized world denim has become a symbol of the young, active, informal, American way of life. It is equally symbolic of America's achievements in mass production, for denim of uniform quality and superior performance is turned out by the mile in some of America's biggest and most modern mills. Moreover, what was once a fabric only for work clothes, has now also become an important fabric for play clothes, for sportswear of all types." By the next decade, the trade papers made comments such as: "Jeans are more than a make. They are an established attitude about clothes and lifestyle."

This attitude could be seen very clearly in the "decorated denim" craze in the 1970s, which included beaded, embroidered, painted and sequined jeans appearing on streets from California to New York and abroad. Personalizing one's jeans was such a huge trend in the United States that Levi Strauss & Co. sponsored a "Denim Art Contest" in 1973, inviting customers to send in pictures of their decorated denim. The company received 2,000 entries from 49 of the United States, as well as from Canada and the Bahamas. The winning garments were sent on an 18-month tour of American museums and some of them were purchased by Levi Strauss & Co. for the company archives.

Denim Meets the 21st Century







American Fabrics magazine predicted back in 1969 that denim would become a fashion statement for many occasions when it said, "What has happened to denim in the last decade is really a capsule of what happened to America. It has climbed the ladder of taste."



Born in Europe, denim's function and adaptable form found a perfect home in untamed 19th century America with the invention of jeans.

Denim gives us a little bit of history every time we put it on.