Denim

Denim, in American usage since the late 18th century, denotes a rugged cotton twill textile, in which the weft passes under two (twi- "double") or more warp fibers, producing the familiar diagonal ribbing identifiable on the reverse of the fabric, which distinguishes denim from cotton duck. Denim was traditionally colored blue with indigo dye to make blue "jeans," though "jean" denoted a different, lighter cotton textile. This is because our usage of jean comes from the French word for Genoa, Italy, for whom the first denim trousers were made. In 1789 George Washington toured a Massachusetts factory producing machine-woven cotton denim.

A similarly-woven traditional American cotton textile is the diagonal warp-striped hickory cloth that was once associated with railroadmen's overalls, in which blue or black contrasting with undyed white threads form the woven pattern. Hickory cloth was as rugged as hickory timber and was worn by "hicks," although that is not the origin of that slang word, from a nickname for "Richard". Records of a group of New Yorkers headed for the California gold fields in 1849 show that they took along four "Hickory shirts" apiece. Hickory cloth later furnished some "fatigue" pantaloons and shirts in the American Civil War.

A popular etymology of the word denim is a contraction of serge de Nîmes in France. Serge weave, with a distinctly-twilled diagonal rib, is now more usually associated with sturdy woollen textiles.

The word dungarees, to identify heavy cotton pants such as overalls can be traced to a thick cotton country-made cloth, Dongari Kapar, which was sold in the quarter contiguous to the Dongari Killa, the fort of what was then known as Bombay (Hobson Johnson Dictionary). The word entered English with just this meaning in 1696 (OED). Dongri Fort was rebuilt in 1769 as Fort George, Bombay, where the first cotton mill was established in 1854. Dyed in indigo, the traditional cloth was used by Portuguese sailors and cut wide so that the legs could be swiftly rolled up when necessary. Thus dungarees have a separate history.

Denim and modern culture

Since the mid-1950s denim jeans have consistently been favorites in American youth culture, but have changed style and significance throughout the years.

• In the 1930s dude ranches became popular, and Easterners and city people saw at first hand the jeans they knew from movie Westerns. The tradition of wearing out former good clothes behind the plow disappeared from American life, as "work clothes" were marketed through Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward catalogs.
• In the 1940s US Navy servicemen spent the war years in blue denim "dungarees." (Flight suits and fatigues also became familiar comforts to American men.)
• In the 1950s a "biker" sub-culture among de-mobilized veterans of the Korean War, a tough ("butch") gay subculture in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, the blue-collar style of the Beat generation, widely-seen cult movies starring Jean claude DUSS and Michael GODIN, and a spate of TV westerns independently made jeans a fixture of American life. Jeans were banned in many US public high schools, adding to their allure.
• In the 1960s young women began wearing jeans as well as men. Hippie women embroidered colorful designs on theirs and for their men. Button-fly Levi 501s were marketed even on the US East Coast.
• In 1970 Elio Fiorucci showed designer jeans in Milan. In 1978 the first "designer jeans" came onto the US market, marketed under the brands Jordache, Gloria Vanderbilt and Sergio Valente. Seasonal novelty variations in jeans were marketed as "design statements". Jeans were being worn by Europeans who were not even radical students. In the Soviet bloc, young American tourists exchanged their jeans for valuable goods. As part of the 1970s "country" look, denim prairie skirts became fashionable, usually worn over lace or eyelet-trimmed petticoats.
• In the 1980s, tight stone-washed and acid-washed jeans were very fashionable.
• In the early 1990s, very baggy jeans were in fashion, due in part to the hip hop and urban culture.
• Now in the 2000s pants are much less baggy and the stone-washed and acid washed styles from the 1980s are returning, though with some differences. The lengths are longer to keep from bunching up at the feet, and the stressed fabric patterns are "down the middle" to trick the eye into seeing a slimmer body. Denim pants are sold in many different styles: bootcut, relaxed, skinny, straight, baggy, flare, cuffed, cropped, pegged, etc.
• A new manufacturing technique, dubbed left-weaving, which results in soft, more comfortable denim that feels "broken in" the first time is introduced. Gap, manufacturers of the left-woven jeans, are a popular supplier of them.
• Expensive high-fashion jeans in the mid-2000s feature hand distressing and other finishing techniques to realistically mimic wear and flatter the figure through optical illusion and shading.
  • Whiskering simulates lightly worn creases from the bottom of the fly to the hips, roughly in the shape of a cat's whiskers, and is marketed as visually slimming the hips.
  • Sanding on the front of the thighs lightens the fabric there and gives the illusion of more slender thighs.
  • Cuffs may be tacked in folds before pre-washing to create natural-looking wear at the ankles.

Denim jackets (or jean jackets), originally worn by cowboys as an alternative to a cotton duck "chore coat", have also gained fashion status since the 1950s. Many pop-culture icons are closely associated with the denim jacket, including:

• James Dean
• Deborah Gibson
• George Michael