The History of Denim

Mia Fontaine
Reference: https://zady.com/features/the-history-of-denim

What do California gold miners, John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe have in common? Theyve
all helped popularize Americas favorite fabric: denim. From punk rockers to presidents,
cowboys to convicts, hippies to haute couture models, denim is as classically American as
baseball and apple pie. And much like another famous iconthe Statue of Libertyit came
to the U.S. via France. In an unsuccessful attempt to imitate a then-popular Italian type of
corduroy, the Andr family in the French city of Nmes developed a new, particularly durable
twill fabric called serge. This serge de (from) Nmes was shortened to denim. Fast-forward
about a century to 1848, when James W. Marshall struck gold at Sutters Mill and the
California Gold Rush began.
Miners needed clothing that could withstand water, wind, snow and gravel, and denim was
the perfect fit. Before long it was the standard uniform for Americans working in mines, on
railroad tracks, on farms and on horseback. The cowboys were the first to entrench denim in
American pop culture (John Wayne without jeans is like Karl Lagerfeld in anything besides a
black suit and sunglasses), but it wasnt until the 1950s that denim became worn en masse
by people other than workers.

KARL THOENNESSEN, A SELVEDGE DENIM EXPERT

James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause and Marlon Brando in The Wild One popularized
denim as a symbol of youth rebellion (denim was traditionally banned in hotels, restaurants
and schools) and once Marilyn rocked them in The Misfits, throngs of women and girls

followed suit. But while most trends fade with time, denims spread exponentially, and,
barring Le Bernardin or the Metropolitan Opera, its impossible to look around and not see
jean-clad crowds.
The great irony, however, is this anti-establishment movement ended up creating a new
industry and establishment. Until the 1950s, America produced the highest-quality denim in
the world. Traditional looms, however, took longer and produced fewer batches than more
modern equipment, and denim-makers soon ditched them, replaced real indigo with
synthetic dye and began prewashing fabric. Was it cheaper? Yes. Did it mean that each pair
of pants produced had less individual character and was of a poorer, thinner quality?
Absolutely.
Yet high-quality denim exists; weve all worn (or coveted) whats become known as premium
denim. And if you were to trace where the premium jeans youre wearing come from, youd
find yourself halfway around the world, in Japan. Beginning in the 1980s, Japanese
companies saw a huge opportunity and, after buying up the seemingly jurassic traditional
American looms and investing in real indigo dye, they created and cornered the premium
denim market.
Within the premium denim family, selvage denim is the crme de la crme. Selvage denim is
distinguishable by its deep blue color, clean edge (jeans made from old-style shuttle looms
have a clean edge, which is why if youre to pick up a pair of true vintage jeans, theyd have
a selvage, not frayed, edge) and naturally irregular stitch. The end result of this time, cost
and detail is a pair of jeans that is literally one-of-a-kind and that ages uniquely and
beautifully.
Today, however, a handful of American companieswere particularly fond of imogene +
williehave retraced our industrial roots. Using traditional equipment and methods, theyve
spearheaded the resurrection of American-made selvage denim, bringing this iconic fabric
back home in spirit and practice.