A cloth from Nîmes
The fabric was called "serge de Nîmes". A cloth was being woven in Nîmes as early as 1557; it originally mixed wool and silk. So it was not yet the blue cotton we know today, but a twill fabric, whose weave forms diagonal lines.
Exported via Beaucaire and the Mediterranean
This cloth became an important export. It travelled through the Beaucaire fair, one of the great trading events of the south of France, and through Mediterranean trade. After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, Huguenots who took refuge abroad spread their skills, which helped make this type of fabric known far beyond Languedoc.
The move to the United States
Modern denim developed elsewhere. In the early 19th century, production took root in the United States, first with the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company. In the early 20th century, the mills of the South dominated, in particular Cone Mills in Greensboro, North Carolina. Cone supplied Levi Strauss from around 1915 and became its exclusive supplier in 1922.
Denim and jeans, two stories
The two words are often confused. "Denim" refers to the fabric and comes from Nîmes. "Jean" goes back to another source, the "bleu de Gênes", or Genoa blue, a dyeing process. The two stories meet in the garment, but they do not say the same thing. In Nîmes, the Musée du Vieux Nîmes, housed in the former bishop’s palace, tells this textile story.
- Etymology
- "de Nîmes"
- First mention
- cloth woven in Nîmes from 1557
- Original composition
- wool and silk
- Spread
- Beaucaire fair, Huguenots