The history of this fabric, and the iconic garment made from it, is really interesting.
The word 'Denim' is taken from a sturdy 'Serge' fabric made in Nimes, France.
Originally it was known as Serge de Nimes, and eventually got shortened to "Denim".
'Jeans' originates from a French phrase 'bleu de Genes', translated as 'the blue of Genoa'.
In the 1500's Genoese Navy sailors wore "denim". It was a coarse cotton-wool and/or linen blend. The weavers of Nimes, tried to replicate it, but came up with their own developed twill weave fabric instead.
The twill weave which is used to create denim uses different colours for the warp and weft. The warp is the long vertical yarn used on the loom, and the weft is the horizontal yarn. In the twill weave the weft passes under 2 or more of the warp. It is this pattern that creates that diagonal ribbing seen on the reverse side and one colour will predominate on the fabric surface. It makes for a very strong weave, hence denim is a tough textile, ideal for workers pants.
I am teaching my Yr. 7 class about weaving at the moment. Today they made their own sample of a 'Plain Weave', except Mena, she completed the extension task instead....the 'Twill Weave' and a very good job she did.
It seems amazing to think of a 'denim' type fabric being worn in the 16th century, but there are a number of paintings dating from the 1650s that document denim being worn as work wear. Many of them make up a wonderful exhibition 'The Master of The Blue Jeans' that has toured parts of the world over the last couple of years.
Marithe Francois Girbaud, a sponsor of the exhibition, produced a jean jacket, which had this lovely painting transferred on the back of it using laser technology. I think the little boy's original denim jacket is quite cool and he's obviously wearing it to death.
Anyway, back to history and the "establishment" of denim jeans.
Two men are involved...Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis, and it's the late 1800s.
Jacob Davis was a tailor, who got the idea to use copper rivets on trousers as a way to reduce the ripping that often occurred at the corner of the pockets and the crotch. However, he did not have the finances to patent his idea, so he wrote to Levi Strauss, a German businessman, who had set up his working life in a wholesale dry goods business in San Francisco, the commercial hub of the Californian Gold Rush. Davis suggested he and Strauss should set up a partnership, as Strauss had caught on to that twilled cotton cloth that originated from Nimes, and together they could create strong workers pants which would go down a treat with the Californian miners. The riveting process was patented in 1873.
Go on to this website and check out the video about Lyn Downey, who is the historian for the Levi Strauss Company . She knows her stuff!
And while I'm on about history, these are interesting images
I love these jeans. They are just the style I would wear!
Here is a visual summing up of the blue jeans, in particular Levi blue jeans
and, if you would like to see more about the construction of denim and jeans, check out this site:
Comme des Garcons does denim, very cool denim, by way of Junya Watanabe. Rei Kawakubo hasn't worked with it quite the same way as JW. In her early days there might have been some connection with denim, but her later collections have never worked with it quite the way Watanabe has.
Junya Watanabe began work as a patternmaker with Comme des Garcons in 1987. He proved himself highly capable, and worked his way to the top of the CdG designer ladder. In 1992 he began a label under his own name as part of the Comme des Garcons "universe". 'Junya Watanabe Comme des Garcons' showed its first collection in Paris 1993. Watanabe is astoundingly innovative. He creates unusually structured clothes from modern, technical materials, yet he still has a fondness for denim; he has collaborated with Levi Strauss in his time. Watanabe applies the same creatively intense approach to working with "humble" denim as he does to any other high tech. fabric.
His latest collection which included denim is the 2013 F/W RTW, worked on a concept of "ready-made", a piece of clothing that already exists, and in this collection it was denim jeans. Perhaps this was his collaboration with Levi Strauss, I'm not sure, but, he sure produced some cool patched jeans. Jackets and coats were also a very strong feature of this collection.
Check out this video re ideas for Junya Watanabe inspired patched jeans. It is a nicely designed video, but she/he doesn't finish the raw edges, so you might need to consider that if you give it a go.
This site gives very thorough instruction. Great way to get more life out of an old pair of jeans.http://www.carlytati.com/diy-junya-watanabe-patchwork-jeans/
And another site with some good diy ideas
Let's go back even further...2002 Spring/Summer RTW collection from Junya Watanabe. It was a fabulous concept dedicated to denim. Watanabe made the denim look worn and old. Apparently hundreds of metres of denim were washed, faded, ripped, tattered and torn (by hand!), then turned into these amazing clothes. The collection was described as "wildly deconstructed denim pieces" Love it!
This is an amazing corset-style dress Junya put together for the collection. It is very complex, which is very Watanabe. The analysis of the dress structure is amazing reading...
"Although this is a single garment, it is composed of two distinctly different parts. The most obvious and readily visible part of the dress is the amplitude of form that emerges from the top of the bodice and the flare of the skirt in front. The amplitude in front is crafted from long bands of fabric (none more than five inches wide), cut on the straight grain and then connected into vertical strips that incrementally narrow at the waist. A few of these vertical strips start at the hem start at the hem, extend over the shoulder, and then return to form another edge of the skirt. Other bands that begin at the hem curl back into the bodice or wrap around the torso and then either return to another part of the skirt's rim or attach to the other components of the dress.
This second component is a partial skirt that is visible only from the back. Rather than forming a series of ever widening or narrowing bands, the skirt is a patchwork of irregularly sized rectangular panels laid on their sides." ('Japan Fashion Now' by Valerie Steele with Patricia Mears, Yuniya Kawamara & Hiroshi Narumi)
The whole collection is about "pieced" denim garments, and it is evocative of the homespun quality of a quilt, and the quilts I instantly think of are the Gees Bend Quilts. So I'm going to take a wee diversion.
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| Emma Lee Pettaway, Blocks & Strips, Work-Clothes Quilt |
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| Andrea P. Williams, Blocks & Strips, Work-Clothes Quilt |
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| Annie Mae Young, "Britches Quilt" (quilts pieced from old work clothes) |
It is named after Joseph Gee, a white planter who claimed the area in the early 1800s. When emancipation was granted, many of the former slaves stayed in the area as tenant farmers or share croppers. They are people who are accustomed to working with what they have, as opposed to purchasing "nice new" fabrics to make a "nice new" quilt.
As you can see, the 3 quilts I have shown, are pieced with old pieces of denim clothing, which are known as 'Britches Quilts'.
Emma Lee Pettaway's uses the white selvedge of dark denim fabrics in such a way to suggest the slightly opened joint of a hardwood floor, maybe it reflected her own floor.
Andrea P. Williams' uses worn jeans and work shirts, with the hems let out and pockets removed.
Annie Mae Young has pieced her quilt from old work clothes with a centre section of colour, which could be corduroy.
There is such a warm raw real feel to the emotion of these quilts.
Annie Mae Young has pieced her quilt from old work clothes with a centre section of colour, which could be corduroy.
There is such a warm raw real feel to the emotion of these quilts.
One Gees Bend quilter described her process as "I just taken me some pieces and put it together, piece them up till they look like I want them to look. That's all"
Another example of beautiful 'piece work' created through necessity is this Japanese patched futon cover.
Poverty driven Japanese farmers utilised cotton for all that it had to offer as an item of indigo dyed clothing. In deeply rural Japan many a farmer owned only a minimal amount of clothing, consequently all thread, cloth and clothing was held in very high regard. The clothes were often destroyed relatively quickly in the harsh rural conditions, so they were recycled (connection with previous blog) to maintain the valued life. The pieced and patched works created are referred to as 'boro', which means ragged.
Although the pieced work is not actually denim in nature, the blending of blues and the visible rows of running stitches, known as 'sashiko' appeal to me and connect with my theme.
Here is another pieced denim jeans quilt, but it's presented in a more orderly manner.
I loved her freedom and hope she did go on to create lots more.
Now, back to Junya Watanabe Comme des Garcons, and more of his cool ideas with denim jeans. His 2004 F/W RTW collection really appealed to me. He came up with amazing denim low-riding jeans skirts and good ol' loose fit jeans.
Apart from the denim aspect, this collection also delivered cool knitwear and padded jackets
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| This is my take on the purple knitwear work from the collection. The beige garment is attached to the striped garment at the neck area, and I used popper tape for my fastening feature. |
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And this is my take on the wonderful padded jackets Junya came up with. There is a story to this creation. I purchased the orange fabric from a cool fabric shop I used to visit in Ladbrook Grove, London. My first idea was to create this cool Issey Miyake 'futon' design...
I cut it out, sewed it up but did not like the end result.....so I got out my un-picker ....separated sections and re-cut it into this Issey Miyake design....
and this time I had to use other fabrics I had on hand (which matched the padded character of the orange fabric) for the lining pieces that were required
A black quilted fabric and a khaki padded fabric
I put a pocket inside the garment, as I knew it needed a warmth and placement function for my hands
then, I stitched a note onto the pocket. It came from an Issey Miyake collection that was going at the time, and as I was using the same colours I really connected with what Issey was on about.
And the coolest thing was, I wore it to CdG Dover Street Market one day and this delightful sweet French shop assistant thought it was one of Junya's styles. What a buzz!
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Do you remember making jeans skirts?...70s, wasn't it...I remember Buddy Gilbert's very cool little jeans skirt when we were in the 7th form. I still love the concept of taking jeans (or any trousers actually) and reclaiming them into a skirt.
This is a good website for instructions on how to go about it. Really clear steps to interpret.
Now take a look at what Junya Watanabe does! Mind you, I think he's created the skirt right from the word go. Amazing isn't it.
And, check this one, what a creative approach to up-cycling a pair of worn out jeans.
I think I finally have the inspiration I need for reclaiming a well worn pair of Levis...watch this space!
Here are some other ideas for cool revamping of a pair of jeans
This is Junya Watanabe Comme des Garcons S/S RTW 2009. It featured a wonderful African theme, fabulous headwear. Junya achieved a marvellous balance between tribal references and one of his classic signatures...inspiring faded patchwork denim pieces in the way of fishnet skirt style.
Fishnet..or fishtail..a denim mermaid...great concept...great image...
and what about shape/silhouette using denim...the stylist is having fun...
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| bumps denim style |
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| a denim crini, using jeans off the rack |
There is so much fab. stuff to make from denim.....like masks, for instance......here is an absolutely astounding mask, conceived and created by Shin Murayame, a Japanese Mask Minder.
This mask is an 'Amadeus Mask'. It was created as part of "The Believers", a project by LaFortuna Studios, that aimed to unite a new environmentally conscious community of designers who promote sustainability in fashion with travelling exhibitions of unique pieces, editorials, films, & an online platform.
Murayama fused the desire to create a Mozart mask with the concept of wearing a statue using jeans & denim jackets. Far out! I love the structure, the strong sculptural dimension with all that top stitching...very cool.
Take in another mask...I like how the waistbands make up a strong aspect of this creation.
The creator of this mask is Delphine Mille. She embraces what she thinks is her inability to sew perfectly, and creates crazy results. Try this web site for some instructions to make one of her masks. It comes from a cool book 'The Parisian Sweat Shop Book'. I really like her strong belief in collective practice.
It makes you realise all the cool creative ways you can utilise well worn denim jeans, in some shape or form. There is no need to throw them in the bin....do something creative with them ...it's gotta be good for your soul. Even just grab a piece of denim and fold it into a face..have fun
For anyone who watches 'QI' you'll know how Alan Davis has a favourite answer "The blue whale".
This website has a tutorial for making one from an old pair of jeans. I think it's rather cute.
This has been a fun 'love denim jeans', and what they offer us in our lives
An everyday working fabric which inspires so many creative ideas. Fantastic.
It's that time again
SLTSLTBsigning off.
P.S.
Earlier on, I commented on Junya Watanabe being a part of the CdG "universe"... well, here is a cool visual presentation of the CdG Universe. This was designed a few years ago now, 'cos some aspects have changed, e.g. Tao CdG. I can't get a handle on who actually designed this, but it is very effective, well done who ever you are.
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