Sometime around 1820, Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis were the first to patent riveted denim pants in America. Around 1890, denim fabric was introduced to the world by Levi Strauss. Denim is a type of sturdy cotton fabric that was originally produced in Nimes, France during the late 18th century. It was then known as Serge de Nimes and was used for making military uniforms. It was in 1873 that Levi Strauss & Co. of San Francisco began using denim to make work pants for miners and railroad workers. The company adopted the word “jeans” as a generic term for its durable trousers.
By 1890 denim jeans were being sold by Levi Strauss & Co., but it wasn’t until after World War I that they became popular among American teenagers, who adopted them as part of their uniform when working on farms or as manual laborers. It was also popular among aviators in the 1920s and 1930s — which earned it the nickname “Aviator Blue” — since it provided good protection against the cold and wind while flying open-cockpit airplanes.
In the 1920s, denim jeans became popular among Hollywood celebrities like Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Rudolph Valentino, and Clara Bow. And in the 1930s, jeans became popular among workers and the unemployed during the Great Depression.
In 1949, Levi Strauss and Company registered “Levi’s®” as a trademark in the United States. The second oldest denim manufacturer in the world, Levi’s® has been manufacturing jeans since 1873.
In 1980s, jeans became well-known because of a popular TV series “Dallas”.
Denim jeans are usually named after the color of their thread, for example, “blue jean” or “blue denim jeans” and can be found in many shades and colors. Some of these are listed below:
Black Denim
Black denim has been popular since the early 20th century. It is made from a black-colored denim fiber. In the mid-2000s, acid wash jeans, which are colored with bleach that creates a faded look, were popular.
Blue Jeans
Blue jeans are made of cotton and are dyed with indigo dye to create the blue color. Some brands of jeans use other dyes such as black dye to produce the dark shade of blue known as black denim or dark denim. They became popular in the late 18th century and have since evolved into many other shades and styles in different fabrics like twill, corduroy, selvedge and others.
Brown Jeans
Brown is a common color for jeans along with blue, red and yellow in China and India. The process used to create this color is called aniline dyeing, which uses aniline dyes instead of indigo dyes to produce the brown color on cotton fabric (aniline dye was discovered by Dr Karl Anilin in 1826). Aniline dyeing is a very complex process that involves bleaching the fabric along with using pigments to get desired shades of brown on cotton fibers. The aniline process, which is also used to dye leather, is very expensive compared to the older methods of dyeing cotton.
Selvage Jeans
Selvage refers to the self-finished edge of denim fabric. It is produced by passing the woven fabric through a flame in order to seal the edges and prevent fraying. The selvage edge is usually consistent along its length and can be used as a reference for proper orientation of the fabric in relation to other objects.
Fades and Washes Jeans
Fades are formed when denim jeans are exposed to intense stress during their lifetime, such as washing, wear, or exposure to sunlight. Fades can be produced on purpose by using different processes like sandblasting or acid washing which cause abrasion and fading. They are also produced unintentionally by neglecting proper care of denim jeans or exposing them to stress before they have been washed for the first time. This process gives jeans their unique look and feel because it can produce very different results on different pairs of jeans depending on where they were worn at what point in time during their lifetime.
Acid Wash Jeans
Acid wash is a finishing process used in denim jeans that produces a faded and worn out appearance by making use of the power of chemicals to remove dye from the fabric. This process was invented in the early 1980s, and it became very popular among American teenagers in the mid-1980s.
Bootlegged Jeans
Bootleg jeans are jeans that have been manufactured and sold with no license or permission from original manufacturer (see also bootleg). They are usually made from denim fabrics that are originally produced for other uses (e.g., blankets, bed sheets, curtains, etc.) and then dyed using cheap dye to produce fake jeans. These cheap imitations usually do not last for a long time because of low quality materials and poor stitching.
Cuffed Jeans
Cuffed jeans are jeans that have been turned up at the hem by folding the bottom hem and sewing it to form a cuff or a fold. This process is usually done to produce a more comfortable fit for the wearer, especially when wearing boots or shoes. The cuffs can be made of different fabrics like denim, leather or wool.
Distressed Jeans
Distressed jeans are jeans that have been manufactured with distressed patterns on its surface. These distressed patterns are produced intentionally by tearing, stitching, sanding and other processes that cause wear on the fabric in order to produce unique looks and styles of jeans.
Frayed Jeans
Frayed jeans are jeans that have frayed or unravelled edges on their surface. This process is usually done to produce a worn out look and feel on the jeans.
Lined Jeans
Lined jeans are jeans that have been manufactured with a fabric lining between the denim fabric and the other fabrics of the clothing to improve its warmth. Popular examples include lined leggings, lined jackets and lined hoodies.
