DO YOU KNOW WHERE DID THE NAME DENIM JEANS COME FROM ??

Photos by baju24

Photos by baju24

'Serge de Nîmes' 

In fashion history, jeans and denim history continues to baffle us.  No one truly knows the perfect answer to where jeans began.  As so often happens fashions often emerge together in various parts of the world and are the result of the sudden availability of a new fabric, cloth, dye or technique.
But we do know that the phrase denim jeans is thought to derive from several sources.  The majority of source books suggest that denim derives from the English translation of the South of France French phrase 'Serge de Nîmes'.  Denim fashion history is thus associated with Serge de Nîmes.
It may well be that the fabric which was made in France also had a version made locally in England, and was called by the same name of denim, in the same way that Cheddar cheese is called cheddar all over the world.  The Serge de Nîmes was originally a wool silk mix, twill weave.  Certainly by the 19^th century in England, denim had a white warp and a navy woof (weft).  Denim was considered a hard wearing sturdy fabric, ideal for heavy labouring.

Genoese

It is also thought the name ' jeans ' comes from 'Genoese' the name for Italian sailors of Genoa who when at sea dressed in blue fustian fabric, composed of a cotton and wool or linen blend. Genoese fabric was imported into Britain as far back as the 16^th century.
Thomas Hardy used the word fustian to describe basic clothes of a skilled countryman in 'The Mayor Of Casterbridge'. He mentions a fustian waistcoat, breeches and a jacket, all the type of garments often made up in jeans material today.  In Pickwick Papers, fustian is described by Dickens as 'common fustian' which firmly puts it in the everyday category.
In the 19^th century, American weavers made hard wearing cotton duck, denim and jeans fabrics to satisfy a home market.  At some time, some manufacturers must have replaced the yarns with the locally produced, more readily available cotton making the fabrics all cotton. (fashion - era.com )