All About Denim Fabric

Denim is a type of cotton textile that uses a sturdy twill weave with characteristic diagonal ribbing in blue jeans and other clothing. Denim was originally used for workmen's clothes, but today has entered the world of high fashion. Nearly everyone has at least one denim garment in their closet today.

Levi Strauss is credited with making the first blue jeans out of denim in the 1850s, for gold miners in California. In the 1930s and 40s, commercially sold denim work wear became very popular with new companies such as Wrangler and Dickies. Known for its comfort and durability, Denim soon became associated with the blue collar culture, and the fashionable with the working class youth in the United States. Denim jackets became a fashion statement in the 1950s along with jeans.

Throughout the decades, denim continued to gain a wider market. By the 1970s, women were wearing denim as often as men, and denim skirts and dresses could be found in numerous styles. In the 80s, designer jeans were the rage, and a style once associated with the working class was updated for affluent yuppies. Though denim is still considered a casual material, it is not usually worn for more formal occasions, it is not unusual to see people sporting jeans at high end night clubs, and many designer denim garments cost hundreds of dollars.

While Denim was originally dyed blue with indigo, this popular fabric can now be found in nearly any color imaginable. Although Denim is traditionally 100% cotton, it is also available in cotton blends. Some denim blends add a bit of Lycra or spandex to create stretch denim. The earliest denim manufacturers, including Levi and Dickies, still dominate the market, though haute couture designers like Calvin Klein are also well-known for their denim garments.

Selvage denim is a particular type of denim fabric whose edges resist unraveling. Selvage, which is also sometimes spelled selvedge, is a corruption of the term self-edge, referring to this characteristic of the fabric. Selvage denim is popular among designer and premium brands, and commands a higher price than normal denim. What makes selvage denim unique and more expensive than regular denim is the fact that it is made on traditional shuttle looms, rather than more modern projectile looms. As a shuttle loom works to weave the denim in one continuous thread, it eventually reaches the end of the fabric. In finishing this end, the loom creates the self-edge of the denim.

For decades, shuttle looms were the primary tool for making jeans in America, until the popularity of denim clothing exploded in the 1950s. To meet this higher demand, manufacturers switched to faster projectile looms, which used less fabric per pair of pants. It was not until the 1980s that Japanese designers saw a niche for selvage denim. Purchasing many of the old American shuttle looms, they began producing so-called premium denim and charging extra for it. Since that time, selvage denim, and the old shuttle loom weaving methods, have regained popularity, and enjoy high demand despite their expensive prices.

Projectile-weaved denim has frayed ends and must have separate stitching done to finish the length of fabric. A good example of this is a typical bargain pair of denim jeans. With separate threads, rather than one continuous thread, used in the weaving of the fabric, the inseams and other ends are ragged and prone to fraying. On a selvage pair this will not happen, even past the cuff. Also, projectile loom jeans are generally lighter in weight and less durable than selvage jeans.

In both modern and vintage selvage denim jeans, the ends of the fabric are stitched with red, green, white, yellow or another hue to contrast with the color in the denim.The original reason for this was to signify the end of a piece of fabric. It remains a stylistic effect, used to help identify a piece of denim as selvage.

Though they are both commonly used to make premium-quality jeans, so-called raw denim and selvage denim are two different things. Raw denim uses natural indigo dye, as opposed to synthetic dye, and is not washed or distressed at the factory. It is up to the buyer to break in raw denim jeans, and appropriate special care - such as cold water washing - must be taken. Selvage denim generally requires no special care beyond that of regular denim.