Fabric Definitions — definitions of fabrics, cloths, laces and textile materials from Apparel Search
Denim, in American usage since the late 18th century, denotes a rugged cotton twill textile in which the weft passes under two or more warp fibers, producing the familiar diagonal ribbing identifiable on the reverse, which distinguishes denim from cotton duck. Denim was traditionally colored blue with indigo dye to make blue jeans, though jean denoted a different, lighter cotton textile.
Denim, in American usage since the late 18th century, denotes a rugged cotton twill textile, in which the weft passes under two (twi- "double") or more warp fibers, producing the familiar diagonal ribbing identifiable on the reverse of the fabric, which distinguishes denim from cotton duck. Denim was traditionally colored blue with indigo dye to make blue "jeans," though "jean" denoted a different, lighter cotton textile. In 1789 George Washington toured a Massachusetts factory producing machine-woven cotton denim. In the mid-19th century the durability of hemp cloth, of Cannabis sativa fibers, processed as in making linen, temporarily competed with cotton.
A similarly-woven traditional American cotton textile is the diagonal warp-striped hickory cloth that was once associated with railroadmen's overalls, in which blue or black contrasting with undyed white threads form the woven pattern. Hickory cloth was as rugged as hickory timber and was worn by "hicks." Records of a group of New Yorkers headed for the California gold fields in 1849 show that they took along four "Hickory shirts" apiece. Hickory cloth later furnished some "fatigue" pantaloons and shirts in the American Civil War.
A popular etymology of the word denim is a contraction
of serge de N
mes in France. Serge weave, with a distinctly-twilled
diagonal rib, is now more usually associated with sturdy
woollen textiles.
Pioneer 1847 Companies (http://heritage.uen.org/companies/wc485f5e3069b9.htm)
Levi-Strauss and denim "jeans" (http://www.levistrauss.com/about/history/denim.htm)
Gap Inc and Gap "1969" denim (http://www.gap.com/)
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Denim's fashion history is unusual because the cloth never changed sides: the same indigo twill served workwear, youth rebellion and designer fashion in succession, with styling doing the moving. Denim jackets have moved in and out of fashion since the 1950s, carried by pop-culture association — James Dean among the icons closely linked to the jacket — while jeans cycled through tight stone-washed and acid-washed fits in the 1980s and very baggy fits in the 1990s grunge movement, on the identical underlying fabric. The cloth supports that range because its meaning is in its wear: indigo sits on the thread surface rather than through it, so every pair records its wearer in fades at the thigh, knee and pocket. Few fabrics offer both industrial durability and that personal record, which is why denim, alone among work cloths, became a permanent fashion category rather than a period costume.
Three neighboring cloths keep denim's definition honest. Jean was historically a different, lighter cotton textile — the word survives as the garment name, jeans, long after the garments switched to denim. Hickory cloth, a diagonal warp-striped American cotton in which blue or black contrasting with undyed white threads forms the woven pattern, was as rugged as the hickory timber it was named for, clothed railroadmen in overalls, and appears in records from the 1849 California gold fields — four hickory shirts per man — through Civil War fatigue clothing. Serge is the woollen twill whose name denim borrowed. Together they describe a whole workwear ecology of cotton and wool twills, from which denim emerged as the survivor because indigo, cotton and the five-pocket jean reinforced one another at exactly the moment industrial America needed a uniform.
Only the warp threads are dyed indigo; the weft is left white. Because the twill is warp-faced, the dyed warp dominates the face of the cloth and the white weft dominates the back — which is why blue jeans are white on the inside, and why denim fades as the indigo surface of the warp threads wears away.
Weave. Denim is a twill, with the diagonal ribbing visible on its reverse; duck is a plain weave, flat and even. Both are rugged cotton work cloths, but the twill structure gives denim its diagonal hand, its drape and its characteristic wear patterns.
A popular etymology contracts serge de Nîmes — serge from the French city of Nîmes, a sturdy twilled textile. Serge weave, with its distinctly twilled diagonal rib, is now more usually associated with sturdy woollen textiles, but the name transferred to the cotton cloth that became denim.