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.
At the end of the 18th century in pre-revolutionary America as well as in the reforming political climate of Europe, a dispersion in fashion trends appeared for a short period of time that would mirror the greater ideological changes of the century. In France, the disappearance of the court at Versailles suppressed extravagant fashion for a period, and the flare and flaunt of King Louis XIV’s noble class was replaced by the Republic’s simplification in style: mens fashions looked to the proletarian class somewhat and womens fashions sought the appeal of a Classical, Antiquity-inspired, aesthetic. Fashion in France also had strong implications for fashion elsewhere.
In England, there was a temporary shift away from the flare and excess luxury of the Georgian period and styles for both men and women were tempered in their tailoring for various reasons. Social class was less bound by costume than before and England, too, was adjusting its taste in fashion to a general cultural shift that applauded the country lifestyle over the aristocratic lifestyle. In both France and England, wigs fell out of fashion and a general sobriety dictated the cut and color of men’s and women’s clothing.
The change to a more comfortable attire for both men and women during this period was a culmination of periods of successive unrest in the political and cultural realms of 18th century Europe (and by extension, the 18th century American colonies). Although there were fitful bursts of extravagance in fashion circles, such as the style of the Macaronis in England, and the fad for women’s panniers (the undergarments women wore to amplify their skirts) towards the late 1700’s, there was a general tendency towards a universalism in clothing that expressed itself in simple lines and comfortable fabrics as well as in the manufacture of garments en masse. The lines of distinction between the classes and the political and economic hierarchies began to meld and fashion confirmed itself as the mirror of these changes, as it continues to do today.
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image: Print, women’s fashion’s in the style of Antiquity, c. 1800
image: Painting by Gerard of Mme Barbier-Walbonne, 1796
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The cowboy boot as we know it today, as an icon of the American West and the rough riding and spirited cowboys who wore them, is a style of boot actually born far from North America as part of the military dress of Hessian (German) soldiers in the 18th century. The Hessian boot was characterized by a high shaft decorated with a tassel at the front, which was cut at a v-shape. The tip of the boot was narrowed and it had low heels that were adapted for ease of use with the riding stirrup.
The journey of the Hessian boot to the cowboy boot of the wild west was helped along by England’s Duke of Welllington, Arthur Wellesley, who took the original Hessian style of boot and had the design altered for his own use towards the middle of the 1800’s. His version of the boot, which came to be termed the Wellington, had a shorter shaft cut to mid-calf and was more closely fitted than the Hessian original. This boot quickly became popular with his compatriots and eventually made its way to the United States where it was widely worn among soldiers in the Civil War and then by those involved in the expansion of the western frontier: the cowboys of the American imagination.
The cowboy boot, an evolution of the Wellington (which also later would be more firmly associated with the rubber material version rather than the original leather version), was distinct for its ornamentation and slight variation on the Wellington style; they originally did not have as pointed a toe as the Wellington and some alternatives had the cut of the shaft higher at the front or decorated with inlaid ornamentation. By the 1950’s, the cowboy boot was popularized to an extraordinary extent by the film industry. Hollywood proliferated the image of the heroic cowboy and the fashion for cowboy boots was no longer confined to the great wide open frontiers or the rural lifestyle but became tokens of independent spirit for the urban style-setter as well.
The English riding coat as a feature of women’s fashion flourished towards the beginning of the 1800’s in Western Europe and among the landed classes, well-associated with one another’s court styles, became a conspicuous trend thereafter. Equestrian sport was a favorite pastime and horseback riding was still the standard of transportation when the English riding coat, in fashion terminology transformed to the French ‘redingote’ where the new fad for women began, became the necessary outer garment for the aristocratic female equestrian. 
Initially the redingote took its stylistic cues from military coat design and was more function than form. It typically would have been a cloak-like covering with layered-cape collars and would have been made of wool or other sturdy fabric. As it developed in design from very functional origins to a more embellished and fastidious style, it became a more tailored, form-fitting garment. At the end of the 1700’s its traits were the narrowed waist that opened into the expansive skirt of the coat, with a wide opening at the front to reveal the woman’s tailored clothing beneath. 
In the late 1700s cattle herders of Spanish descent spread throughout the west with their horsemanship and indefatigable attachment to the land and came to define a certain way of life that occupies a distinct part of the American and Mexican imagination.
