Denim Fabric
Ever since the late 18th century, the denim as we know it, refers to a heavy duty and rugged twill textile made from cotton.
One of the things that makes denim so durable is the way it is made. During the manufacturing of denim fabric, the ‘weft’ fiber is passed under two ‘warp’ fibers. What that really means is that the way denim fabric is woven is what makes it so tough. The ‘weft’ and the ‘warp’ woven design can be seen on the inside of denim and results in the familiar diagonal ribbing pattern.
And how did the word ‘denim’ come about? Well, the original sturdy fabric used to make denim was called ’serge’ and it was made in Nimes, France (Tulle fabric also originated in France). So the fabric was originally known as ’serge de Nimes’ (for serge from the city of Nimes). This was shortened over time to ‘denim’.
Denim is tradionally dyed to a dark blue color using indigo dye and voila you have ‘blue jeans’. Interestingly enough, the word ‘jeans’ originally referred to a lighter weight and less durable fabric. It was manufactured in Genoa, Italy and the French word for Genoa, is ‘Genes’. Put the english spin on Genes and your get jeans.
So the ‘blue jeans’ as we know them today were originally a much lighter weight fabric.
A similar cloth to denim called ‘hickory cloth’. Hickory cloth uses the same weaving technique as denim fabric but usestwo different colored threads, usually blue and black threads. The familiar diagonal pattern can be seen on the reverse side of hickory cloth too.
When you purchase ’stone washed denim’, you are buying new denim fabric that has been processed to give it a old, and some would say, worn out look. Along with the faded, worn out look comes a fabric that is more faded and considerably softer.
The stone washing process literally uses large stones to process, or roughen up the new denim. The stone washing machine in textile factories is a long horizontal enclosed machine. Kind of like a huge horizontal washing machine. The machine is then filled with large rocks. As the machine rotates around its axis, the large rocks are pulled up by paddles on a large conveyor mechanism. As the rocks fall off of the paddles, they actually beat the new denim fabric between them. Thus softening and fading the fabric. The stone washing is a wet process, if the process were done without any water, it would be similar to a ball mill.
There is a type of denim fabric which is designed so that the natual edge does not unravel. This is called ’selvage denim’ or ’selvedge denim’. It is normally sold in its raw or unwashed state. The selvage edges are typically not noticable unless cuffs are turned up, revealing the selvage fabric.
Some people refer to selvage denim as the same thing as unwashed denim, but they are not necessarily the same thing. The existance of selvage typically denotes a higher quality denim fabric. The most desirable property of selvage denim fabric is that the edges cannot fray like regular denim. This is accomplished by a weaving process using the weft and warp threads in a very specific weaving pattern. The process takes longer but it does produce a denim fabric that has a tighter weave pattern and is a heavier weight than standard denim fabric. Selvage denim fabric will easily outlast regular denim fabric, but it is much heavier too.