Surprising Facts You Didn’t Know About Denim

February 17 2025
Surprising Facts You Didn’t Know About Denim
Almost everyone has at least one pair of jeans in their closet if not more. And among them, there’s always a favorite. That pair that has been worn for years, carries memories and experiences. If jeans could talk, they’d have some incredible stories to tell! Luckily for most of us, they can’t. 😉
Wouter MunnichsFebruary 17 2025

What is true, however, is that denim has a fascinating history filled with surprising, funny, and little-known facts. It’s time to uncover these stories and give people a deeper appreciation for their jeans or denim jackets. And with more people becoming conscious of what they wear, understanding the history and impact of denim is more important than ever. Denim was once banned in schools. Denim wasn’t always the ready-to-go clothing style to wear every day. Until the 1950s, denim was mostly worn as true workwear garments. Strong, made to last, and to do your job properly was key these days. After the Second War, soldiers left denim worldwide and people were slowly inspired by the typical American denim style. Youth would start to wear jeans, received as a gift from soldiers or bought in a thrift store. The popularity of denim boomed extra when more and more actors and actresses were dressed in denim on screen. It was also until this period that denim were seen as a rebellion piece of clothing. Although the new generation was fully into wear denim, the society wasn’t ready for it yet. So, wearing denim to school wasn’t allowed. In fact, most schools banned youth wearing it during these days. Luckily, this changed due to Hollywood stars as James Dean, Marlon Brando and Marilyn Monroe to name just a few. The thread of your jeans was first colored with a dye from plants. Jeans are known for their blue color, or most of the jeans as they’re available in all the colors of the rainbow these days. The original is still blue. The threads of the blue jeans are colored with indigo. Back in the day, they used natural indigo dye for coloring, but in the late 1800s, synthetic indigo was created in Germany by a chemist called Adolf Von Bayer. He even won the Nobel Peace Prize for his great work in with synthetic indigo dye. Nowadays, most jeans are colored with synthetic indigo instead of natural indigo. Natural indigo comes from the leaves of the Indigofera Tinctoria plant. Originally used in countries as China, Japan and India. This to color authentic clothing, to make them stronger due to the indigo, and because blue was one of the few colors that were allowed to wear by people. Denim wasn’t always a fashion style. Sometimes it still surprises many people when they hear that denim was first used as fabric to create workwear clothes. Most were known to produce sturdy pants for miners who were in search of gold and silver in the mines of Nevada in America. Later, farmers, cowboys, and other laborers joined the denim wear. Over time denim has grown into a hard-to-beat fashion icon. A culture that is so strong that it’s hard to beat. It’s already been around for more than 150 years and will continue for another 150. The small copper nail that changed jeans forever! If you look more closely at your jeans you will notice the small nails at the corners of your pockets, and even sometimes at your crotch. These nails, better known as rivets, were first used in 1873 to strengthen work pants on spots that needed extra strength. Over time, these rivets are still part of each pair although we don’t wear jeans in the first place anymore as workwear. Of course, some still do, but the majority of jeans wearers wear it as a fashion style. That the rivet changed the jeans industry is just a fact. It can be seen as the birth of jeans as we know them today. Denim mill Calik Denim develops innovative denim fabrics that perfectly matches the denim fashion today. For their Spring Summer ’26 collection they created the Fix Fit concept. Within this concept you can find power stretch articles with high level recovery. They offer natural permanent softness, an original denim look with an extra soft touch. Perfect to serve the denim fashion industry for many years! Denim gets better with age. Last, but certainly not least, denim gets better with age. Just like a good glass of wine. Or to keep it with clothes, that old heavy worn-in leather jacket. The aging is typical denim. Most of the people like their most worn pair of jeans in their closet. But, they don’t always realize that the key factor of this is that it ages so beautifully. And with that, it shapes perfectly around your body type. That makes denim a true winner!

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