Denim are today the best-selling garment in the world. This fame is mainly due to their versatility, both thanks to several occasions of use and the variants in which it is found on the market. Let’s see together the story of denim, the fabric that made Shaft Jeans a renowned brand in the world of luxury fashion.
Where Was Jeans Born?
When we say “jeans” the first thing that comes to mind is that it is an English word, precisely American. But the derivation of the name has closer origins.
At the beginning, the denim fabric was called fustian. This fabric was used from the 13th to the 16th century and it was made from cotton and another material which could be linen or hempen or both of them. During the 16th century the Italian production of fustian went into crisis and it was moved to other places.
Despite the crisis, the merchants of Genoa continued to export their fustian. In the mid-1500s England became an important importer of this fabric, both from Swabia and Genoa. Precisely the fustian from the Ligurian city was called “jeans” (from Gènes, Genoa in French).
Our ancestors from the 1700s already knew the strengths of jeans: very resistant, easily washable and absolutely more durable than many other fabrics. At the ancient port of the beautiful Ligurian city, this blue fabric was used to make the sails of the ships and the cover tarps.
“Blue de Genes”, or blue of Genoa, was the name given to this particular fabric, which later became blue jeans when it arrived in America in the 19th century. blue jeans quando arrivò in America nel XIX secolo.
From The Sea To The Mines
The main use of jeans was transformed in the United States. The famous strong and durable fabric was also perfect for miners’ work clothes. From this period the term blue jeans was used to indicate no longer the fabric, but the model of trousers.
From this moment on, the fame of blue jeans continues to rise. In the 1870s gold prospectors began wearing the first five-pocket denim trousers to prevent the loss of gold from worn pockets of wool ones. The story of jeans also continues in the Far West, a period in which denim is used to make not only trousers but also jackets.
Denim In Fashion
The spread of blue jeans had a huge surge throughout the 1900. The peak was reached during the first Hollywoodfilms, and the credit was to the famous sex symbols James Dean and Marlon Brando.
And if the spread of jeans has never stopped, neither has their evolution and transformation. The classic blue jeans model has changed several times over the decades of the 20th century, following the fashion of the moment from time to time. In the 1960s, teenagers aimed to look sexy with their denim pants, even at the expense of comfort and freedom of movement. In fact in this period jeans were almost a second skin, making the dressing process quite complicated due to the lack of elasticity in the denim fabric.
Fashion changed and so did the jeans models in vogue. Jeans that were wider at the calf and tighter at the top began to appear, in other words “bell bottom pants“; later we see those wide at the top and narrow on the calf, to those totally oversize or “perfect fit”. Moreover, thanks to the use of elastane, skinny and sexy models are created but with less sacrifices.
Today jeans are not only a garment loved by everyone, at all ages and in every country of the world, but also stands out in the luxury fashion sector. In fact, many brands do not stop focusing on the quality of this fabric and its workmanship, always offering a quality and fashionable product. This is what Shaft Jeans does and continues to do with its products.
