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M$1 February 05, 2009 08:39 PM

Why are most jeans blue?

Why was this color chosen for jeans? Do you see this trend ever changing, why or why not? What color of jeans do you wear on a regular basis?
What is the distribution and percentage of most popular jeans to least popular color of jeans? For instance, blue is the most popular color, but what percentage of jeans worn are blue, what percentage are black, etc?
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February 05, 2009 08:52 PM
Denim (from the French "cotton de Nimes) has long been a tough cotton fabric for work clothes. In the 17th century forward, blue was the "official color" of the working class, ie. "blue collar workers", etc. Mechanics and painters wore overalls made of blue denim. Working men in general, including those not engaged in manual labor, wore more tailored trousers made of jean.

Research shows that jean and denim were two very different fabrics in 19th century America. They also differed in how they were used. In 1849, a New York clothing manufacturer advertised topcoats, vests or short jackets in chestnut, olive, black, white and blue jean.

Fine trousers were offered in blue jean; overalls and trousers made for work were offered in blue and fancy denim. Other American advertisements show working men wearing clothing that illustrates the difference in jean and denim usage.

Since indigo blue dyed thread was the cheapest of colors to work with, denim was originally woven with two threads of the same blue dye and jean was woven with one thread of indigo blue and the other thread the cheaper white.

So, denim and jean material, being the most durable material for heavy or prolonged work between washings became the material of choice for "the working class" whose official color was blue. But because denim was more expensive to produce than jean, thrifty American weavers blended the two weave techniques and, you guessed it, they became known as denim jeans.

Over the decades denim jeans began to show up in different colors, simply for fashion's sake.

The first jeans from Jacob Davis and Levi Strauss came in two styles, indigo blue and brown cotton "duck." Unlike denim, the duck material never became soft and comfortable so it was eventually dropped from the line. Although denim pants had been around as work wear for many years, historically dating back to England in the 1600s, it was the first use of rivets that created what we now call jeans. "Waist overalls" was the traditional name for work pants, which is what these first jeans were called. The word jeans became more popular around 1960 when the baby-boom generation adopted the term for its favorite type of pants.

Denim is unique in it's singular connection with one colour.
The warp yarn is traditionally dyed with the blue pigment obtained
from indigo dye. Until the introduction of synthetic dyes, at the end of
the 19th century, indigo was the most significant natural dye known
to mankind, linked with practical fabrics and work clothing. The durability
of indigo as a color and it's darkness of tone made it a good choice,
when frequent washing was not possible.
I personally wear blue jeans with nice washes for work and black jeans for my theater work. My co-worker buys VERY expensive jeans ($400 a pair!) that are made of tougher material and wear better over time


Source(s):
Site on the history of jeans and denim:
http://www.designboom.com/eng/education/denim2.html

Wikipedia entry for jeans:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_jeans

History of the modern jean:
http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/bluejeans.htm

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/128793

Asker's Rating:
• Good answer, but you weren't able to find a percentage?


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February 08, 2009 11:58 PM
I hunted for a while trying to find jean color distribution numbers. There are some marketing firms that require an account with them for those numbers. I imagine it's a guarded industry secret that's based on sales numbers. I did find this one thread that had some interesting data though:

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/59364.html

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February 05, 2009 08:50 PM
At this point it is just a cultural thing. Blue Jeans rose to popularity as a counterculture symbol rejecting the uniformity of the 50's and 60's in the US. Now it is a cultural norm and is the expected color.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeans
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeans
http://inventors.about.com/od/sstartinventors/a/Levi_Strauss.htm
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/history-of-blue-jeans.html
http://www.jeans-and-accessories.com/history-of-blue-jeans.html


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February 05, 2009 08:51 PM
What is the distribution of jean colors?

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February 05, 2009 09:02 PM
Apologies - I meant to add a tag about the color distribution. I can't find any hard data that doesn't require paying for a marketing report or other research.

Personally, I wear Grey/Black jeans about 90% of the time.

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February 05, 2009 08:54 PM
prior to the introduction of synthetic dye, indigo was the most significant natural dye known to mankind and it was used for multiple fabrics, not just denim. Since it resisted fading after multiple washings, it was often used for work clothing.
Source(s):
http://www.designboom.com/eng/education/denim2.html


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February 05, 2009 09:08 PM
Jeans is made of denim cloth.

Indigo dyeing was the only dyeing process, which worked earlier, which produced good quality colour retention. Indigo dyeing can produce only blue colour.

Newer Sulphur Dyeing (also called Color Denim) is produces black colors and other colors like Pink, Grey, Rust, Mustard, Green and Red

http://denimiscool.wordpress.com/2008/01/14/natural-indigo-dyeing-process/

Personally, I like black, which is the second most popular colour. Blue will be tough to beat. Black or grey might beat it someday!
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeans
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denim


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February 05, 2009 09:24 PM
We fear change.

Levi's were our first Blue Jeans and since then most jeans are still blue. It's tradition. We occassionally branch out to black, sometimes brown, or even white. But those crazy wild pink jeans are quite a bit more rare.

We like to be unique together so we will always wear blue jeans.

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February 05, 2009 10:52 PM
Because cowboys don't look right in pink.

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