Denim has become a fabric so popular and current in contemporary fashion that in its ubiquity we may forget it has a history too. The origins of the denim fabric are somewhat disputed but some historians trace its production to centers in Italy and France during the sixteenth century where mention is made of fabrics ‘de Nimes’ (from a region in France) or ‘jean’ from production centers in Italy that were made of various threads including wool, silk, cotton. By the 18th and 19th centuries the production of denim had transmitted successfully to England and the United States and had begun to detach itself from association with ‘jean’, becoming a durable, entirely cotton weave fabric, akin to the denim we are familiar with now.

Jean and denim remained different in their categorization through the 19th century- with ‘jean’ fabric being designated for slightly more refined clothing and the sturdier denim weave being used for work-clothes and considered a much simpler, unpretentious textile. The first textile mills in the United States arose in New England and that is where in the mid 1800’s the production of denim in the weave and color we are familiar with began as well.

Denim, as similar to the denim used to make the jeans we wear today, was first employed in clothing for the pants and overalls worn by miners on the west coast. It was celebrated for providing durable, understated, utilitarian clothes and became identified with the westward movement in North America: the lifestyle of the gold rush participants and the pioneering ranchmen and settlers who would help mold American ideals of independence, strength and perseverence.

Old West Store Old West Trousers or Duckins Old West Range Pants 1849 Pocket Revolver Pistol - Antique Gray You Are My Sunshine - The Story of the Sunshine Mine Disaster 1972

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image: photograph, late 1800’s, miners in denim
image: poster for denim jeans, Cowboy

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