de Nîmes

Denim is a contraction of serge de Nîmes—a sturdy twill fabric produced in the southern French city of Nîmes. The 'de Nîmes' part—'from Nîmes'—was shortened to denim in English by the late 1600s. The fabric was tough, durable, and cheap—perfect for workwear.

Meanwhile, in Genoa (Gênes in French), Italian sailors wore trousers made from a similar sturdy fabric. The French called this fabric bleu de Gênes—'blue of Genoa.' This became the English word jeans. So denim comes from Nîmes and jeans come from Genoa—two French city names stitched into your wardrobe.

In 1853, Levi Strauss opened a dry goods business in San Francisco during the Gold Rush. In 1873, he and tailor Jacob Davis patented riveted denim work pants—the first blue jeans. The French fabric became American workwear became global fashion.

Denim jeans are now the most widely worn garment on earth. Every culture has adopted them. They've been banned by authoritarian regimes (the Soviet Union restricted them as symbols of Western decadence) and embraced by rebels, workers, and fashion designers alike. A French city's fabric became democracy's uniform.