Denim has long history as performance fabric
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, November 6, 2005
Atlanta — Denim has been about performance since the days when American pioneers headed west in Conestoga wagons, according to Ken O'Shields of Swift Galey.
Travelers covered their wagons with heavy, natural color denim and, at the end of the trip, the denim, by then bleached white by the sun, was recycled by the settlers for other uses.
Young entrepreneur Levi Strauss used denim to fashion tough, durable jeans for miners in the 1840s. The original indigo dye was chosen because it helped hide dirt, O'Shields said.
Denim remained popular generation after generation, moving into the workforce during World War II with Rosie the Riveter, and helping make political statements in the '50s and '60s. In the 1970s, two-stepping urban cowboys wore denim jeans, and in the '80s, designer-driven "denim and diamonds" appealed to the upscale consumer.
In the 1990s, denim for apparel was characterized by an explosion of colors like red, yellow, purple and green, and now the rage is for a sandblasted, stonewashed vintage look.
"It's the original performance fabric, and it's still here because every generation redefines the product," O'Shields said.
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