On Nov 28, 2010, at 10:30 AM, albert...@aol.com wrote:
Of course, what is this fabric we call "denim"? A heavy-ish cotton
twill dyed indigo. It seems quite logical that an old and common
weave used with a old and common dye would come up sooner than later.
True.
I think the other major distinguishing characteristic of what we call
"denim" is that it has colored threads in one direction and white
threads in the other. Offhand I don't know which is warp and which is
weft, though. Anyone?
And of course paintings can't tell us what fibers were used for this
very jeans-like material. The fabric in the paintings could well have
been either linen (which takes indigo dye pretty well) or wool (which
you'd expect for outer garments). Although cotton certainly existed
and was used (especially in Italy) I'd want to find out more about
_how_ cotton was used before I'd conclude that this is identical to
modern denim. Cotton thread strong enough to use for weaving is a
different thing than cotton batting used for stuffing (for which I
think we have better pre-1800s documentation).
____________________________________________________________
O Chris Laning <clan...@igc.org> - Davis, California
+ http://paternoster-row.org - http://paternosters.blogspot.com
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