Denim Types

Denim clothing never goes out of style. It's attractive and durable, perfect for most casual occasions. Denim is most common as the fabric in jeans, but is also used for shirts, jackets, skirts, dresses, hats, handbags and more. Several different types of denim fabric are available depending on the function and look people are after.

Cotton Serge

o    The traditional denim is 100 percent cotton serge. Additionally, denim is often blended with other fabrics.

Raw Denim

o    Raw denim is dark, unwashed fabric that is stiff and very durable. It fades with wear in certain areas, creating a natural distressed look. It also fades with washing.

Selvage Denim

o    The premium type of raw denim fabric is selvage denim, with tight weaving and natural edges that will not unravel. Selvage denim is more expensive than other raw denim.

Stretch Denim

o    The blend closest to pure denim is called stretch denim, which usually includes 2 or 3 percent Spandex material for a bit of give in the fabric.

Poly-Denim

o    Poly-denim blends look like a dressier denim, and are more lightweight, which makes them more convenient to wash and dry. They also are more resistant to wrinkling.

Ramie-Denim

o    Denim is also sometimes blended with the plant fiber ramie, which reduces wrinkling and gives the fabric a softer feel.

Denim comes in a variety of fabrics, washes, colors and styles. Stores stock shelves filled with boot cut, flared, skinny and straight styles of jeans in the hopes of appealing to the right buyer. Cotton is a popular textile for denim because of its lightweight, arid qualities. However, denim fabric comes in a few varieties.

Raw Denim

o    Untreated denim fabric is known as raw denim. The qualities of raw denim make it super stiff, as it has not been treated or washed with chemicals. Raw jeans are very stiff when first worn but can be broken in by wearing it frequently until it loosens and molds to your shape. One of the most important factors of raw denim is laundering. You cannot wash raw denim for at least six months, since it is still conforming to your shape. However, it can be dry cleaned during this time.

Organic

o    Denim comes from cotton, but that causes damage to the environment, since 7,000 to 29,000 liters of water are used per kilogram of ready fabric. Cotton fields also use 25 percent of all insecticides worldwide. This is why some denim producers have taken to making organic denim from 100 percent organic cotton and blended yarn. The spinning, dyeing and other processes for denim are also eco-friendly.

Ring Denim

o    In the past, ring-spun denim was very popular, particularly with the 1970s bell bottom jeans. In ring-spinning, cotton moves around a ring, producing yarn that often has soft yet imperfect qualities. Usually denim yarn comes from open spinning. As vintage-style jeans have resurfaced, ring-spun denim has been used more for its edgier looks due to the imperfections. In fact, most current jean stores sell ring-spun denim, such as Levi Strauss and Company, Calvin Klein and Abercrombie and Fitch. Jack Matthews, president of American Cotton Growers (ACG), states that an estimated 15 percent of ACG's denim production goes to ring-spun denim.

Silk Denim

o    There are variations in silk denim types, such as mulberry silk made from denier and organzine. Silk denim is a lighter fabric, yet still provides softness and strength that most cotton denim provides. Silk is often mixed with rayon fabrics in denim to create a stretcher pant. In addition, when mixed with cotton, silk denim tends to have a shinier finish.

Denim jeans are one of the most common articles of clothing found in most people's wardrobes, yet few know how the fabric is made or the origin of this popular type of clothing that has survived years of changes in the fashion industry.

What Is Denim?

o    Denim is made from tightly woven fabric that usually comes from cotton warp yarn and white cotton filling yarn. The filling yarns are stretched across the width of the fabric and interlaced at 90-degree angles with warp yarns, which are also, stretched the length of the fabric. This creates an interwoven pattern of diagonal lines called “twill weave.” There are two kinds of twill weaves: left hand twill, which is softer and runs diagonally from right to left, and right hand twill, which runs diagonally from left to right and is flatter and smoother.

Modern Denim

o    Although denim fabric was originally made from only cotton, today it also includes polyamide, lycra, polypropylene, polyester or nylon for stretch and durability. The fabric is also sometimes given special coatings or rubberized effects to create a different appearance. Some denim fabrics are also made lighter by adding linen, hemp or wool.

Why It Is Usually Blue

o    Denim is usually dyed the color blue just like the original versions of jeans, which were created for workmen. Those jeans were traditionally dyed with indigo, which was known as the most significant natural dye and associated with practical fabrics and work clothing. New colors were introduced to denim fabrics in the 19th century when synthetic dyes were created.

Denim Treatments

o    Denim fabric is treated in a variety of ways to give it different aesthetics. For instance, manufacturers sometimes repeatedly pre-wash the fabric to make it softer, while stoned-washed denim originally involved pumice stones to give the fabric a more natural appearance. Today, the look of stone-washed denim is usually accomplished with ceramic balls, enzymes and sand. In addition, sand-blasted denim is sprayed with sand or chemicals to give it a worn look. Vintage or dirty denim fabrics are created with patterns, such as brown filler yarns that are added to the weaving.

The First Denim Jeans

o    The first denim jeans are credited to Levi Strauss, a German immigrant who went to California in 1853 and sold rough canvas for tents and wagon covers during the Gold Rush. When clients told him they needed pants that were strong enough to last in the mines, Strauss began making jeans from the rough canvas, switching to denim when miners complained of chafing. However, the first “blue jeans” weren't created until 1873, when Strauss joined forces with a tailor from Nevada named David Jacobs and co-patented the idea of using rivets to make the jeans stronger.

Where It Gets Its Name

o    A common theory about the origin of the word “denim” is that the fabric was originally created in the Middle Ages in Nîmes, France, under the name “serge de Nîmes”. The name was later shortened to “denim” when it reached the U.S. in the 1800s.

Denim is a rugged fabric made of cotton in a twill fashion. The difference between denim and cotton twill is the diagonal ribbing on the reverse side of the fabric. Denim has been the fabric of the clothing of slaves, laborers, rebels, hippies, celebrities and everyday people for centuries.

French History of Denim Fabric

o    There was a fabric made in Nimes, France by the Andre family called "serge." This fabric was made of silk and wool, but woven in the denim fashion. This is thought to be the first denim fabric produced. This denim fabric was originally called serge de Nimes, but later was called denim to give it a shorter name. Soon after the Italians from Genoa wore this denim as trousers finally the name "jeans" came to be after the Genoans who wore these pants.

American Denim History

o    Americans started falling in love with denim as a working material in the 18th century. It is recorded that George Washington toured a production line of denim in Massachusetts in 1798. Slaves and blue color laborers wore denim because of its durability and strength. During the 19th century, the miners of the California gold rush needed strong clothing to handle the harsh work environment so Levi--he was called Loeb at birth--Strauss developed a pair of "jeans" that started a huge fashion craze in America.

During the same time, the railroad workers wore a similar fabric called hickory cloth that was denim with white and black contrasting threads in the denim pattern. This cloth was known to be tough as hickory wood so these workers were called "hicks." The modern usage of this term refers to someone who lives in a remote, rural area far from civilization.

Dry Denim

o    Dry denim is denim that is not washed after being dyed after being produced. It is known to fade slowly as the consumer wears the article made of denim. Some consumers prefer this type of denim because they can "age" their denim in a more natural way rather than buying a piece of denim clothing that is pre-distressed by the manufacturer.

Uses for Denim

o    Denim fabric has been made into jeans, shorts, overalls, skirts, jackets, bags, capris, shoes, dresses, duvet covers, curtains and shirts.

Care of Denim

o    Denim is a rugged fabric. It can be washed in hot or cold water and dried on high or low heat. Since denim is made of cotton, it has a tendency to shrink when first washed. To reduce the risk of shrinking, wash in cold water and dry on a low heat or hang to dry.

Levi Strauss and Denim

o    Levi Strauss is known to be the inventor of the original American set of jeans used by hard laborers who worked during the California gold rush in the 1850s. These tough jeans were held together with metal rivets to add a longer life to the pockets used often by the working people. His manufacturing was based in San Francisco. Today, Levi's brand blue jeans are known throughout the world.