The term denim is a corruption of the French serge de Nimes, a type of twill fabric made in the town of Nimes a few centuries ago but the term jeans comes from the sailors of Genoa, Italy, who were amongst the first to popularise the new fabric. Made entirely of cotton, indigo blue (which was extracted from plants in the US) became a familiar colour.

The American Gold Rush in the last century was responsible for the first wave of denim fever with miners looking for hard-wearing work clothes. It wasn't until 1902 that the two backpockets were added.

Jeans made a huge impact in Europe during the second World War when off-duty US soldiers showed them off. Back in the US, such was the popularity of the garment that some school administrators tried to have denim banned. Nevertheless, in 1964 a pair of Levi jeans entered the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.

US jeans manufacturers, showing themselves to be a deft hand at Cold War propaganda, regularly displayed thousand of begging letters for their products from people in Communist countries.

Into the 1990s and any label worth its own shop-space was making its own brand of jeans as denim became a global leisure-wear uniform. From straight leg to baggy, indigo blue to scarlet red, loose cut to "body cut", button fly to zip fly, every conceivable variation of the original "waist overall" was available. Somewhat ironically, the denim industry is offering more, when people evidently want less.