Woven Fabrics - Fairchild Books

A product that can be considered as one of the
most successful ever produced is the denim fabric.
Denim jeans became popular among young and
old alike, of both sexes, in all economic and social
classes, with both radical and conservative dressers,
and in virtually all parts of the world. Never before
has the entire world adopted a clothing fashion so
unanimously.
Origin
The origin of denim was in Nîmes, France, where
a fabric “serge de Nîmes” was developed. It was a
coarse, twilled fabric made of cotton, which was
very strong and durable. The sails of the Niña,
Pinta, and Santa María were made from this fabric.
A version for trousers was later developed,
called “denim” (“de Nîmes” or “from Nîmes”). Sailors
from Dung, India, wore trousers made of this
fabric and hence the name “dungarees.” A century
later, the trousers became known as “jeans,”
the name derived from the trousers worn by sailors
from Genoa.
The first exclusively American denim jeans
were made by a Bavarian immigrant, Levi Strauss,
on the West Coast in about 1850. They were created
as durable pants that could stand up to the
rigors of gold mining and other outdoor activities.
The only color available was blue, hence the term
“blue jeans.”
The denim fabric, as well as its precursors (e.g.,
canvas), were very stiff. They had to be washed
thoroughly before they became comfortable to
wear. There was some color bleeding from most of
the garments, thus they had to be washed separately
to prevent undesirable coloring of other garments
in the wash load. Such conditions were tolerable
for work clothes since this was expected from past
experiences.
Cowboys adopted jeans as their own. Attempting
to eliminate wrinkles in their jeans, which
could rub and create sores after a day of riding, they
would sit in a water-filled horse trough and then
ride all day in the wet jeans. The result was a pair
of jeans sun baked in the form of the man’s body.
Textile Connection
FABRIC SCIENCE
A 110 F
(In the 1960s and later, many owners would use a
bathtub to obtain a snug, body-conforming fit.)
Evolution of Blue Jeans
Jeans moved into the 20th century, carrying their
blue-collar image until the 1950s. Then a new segment
of consumer was recognized—the teenager,
who made jeans the uniform of American youth.
Blue jeans became an anti-establishment symbol
of the 1960s and the anti-war movement. Sales of
blue jeans grew rapidly during this decade.
In the 1970s, the impact of the counter-culture
declined. Jeans became an expression of a more
leisurely life. Jeans were being purchased not for
sociological reasons, but for their inherent virtues—
durability, comfort, value, and the non-necessity of
ironing them. Jeans also embodied the new sexuality
emerging in U.S. culture.
The wearing of this garment spread to other
countries, helped by new technologies that encouraged
rapid global communications, a global transportation
system, and global business services and
rules of trade.
Design Influence
In the late 1970s, designers became involved in
making denim jeans a fashion item. Jeans were
made for women for the first time—with different
proportions than those for men.
Fashion designers branded their tailored jeans
by “signing the back pockets of their own jeans.”
The high price of these signature jeans proved of
secondary importance to the strong fashion trend.
The evolution of denim and blue jeans continued
with the introduction of pre-washed (to soften
the fabric) and pre-shrunk (for better fit) jeans.
Then the pre-worn look evolved—the more worn,
the better, including holes in the knees and frayed
leg bottoms. To increase the worn look, abrasives,
such as stones, were put in the commercial washing
machines used by jean manufacturers. (This
process also further softened the fabric.) This was
called stone washing.