Wearing jeans is so common and popular today, and it is no wonder. Jeans are so durable and trendy. and they don’t cost very much. Everyone enjoys the simplicity and comfort for work, for everyday wear and even for formal events. People are wearing jeans for times at home relaxing, as work clothes, for social occasions and even a night out on the town. Jeans withstand the test of time so you can really wear them just about anywhere.

Who Invented Jeans?

There is no one person who can be credited as the “inventor” of jeans. It may be hard to believe, but the distinctive pants we now know as “jeans” have evolved over a long period of time - over 400 years.

Traditional jeans are made of a woven cotton fabric called denim. Denim is a rugged cotton twill material with a distinctive diagonal weave that makes it very tough and very versatile.

The name “dungaree” comes from Dongarii Fort, an area on the outskirts of the Indian city of Bombay, where the material was produced and sold. It was usually dyed with blue indigo dye creating the distinctive blue colour that exists to this day. This distinctive dungaree cloth was first used by sailors on Portuguese sailing ships. They wore it in their travels around the world and introduced it to Europe.

Not too many years later the fabric was being manufactured in Europe, more or less as the thick cotton material we know well today as “denim”. In France in 1600s denim was woven near the city known as Nimes where the cloth was called serge. It became known as “serge de Nimes” which was eventually shortened to “de Nimes” and anglicized to “denim”.

The term “jeans” came about because denim trousers were manufactured in the Italian port of Genoa, which is pronounced “Genes” in French. The durable pants were first used by sailors in the Genoese navy. Like teenagers of today, these sailors practically lived in their clothes, which made the denim fabric ideal. The sailors could wear the denim either wet or dry, and it is easy to roll the legs up for swabbing the deck. They could also wash the ‘jeans’ by putting them in a large net, and dragging them behind the ship.

Hey! What could be more convenient than that?

Related Articles