Denim—now a world-famous material—owes its creation to the traditional Italian textile industry. In 1873, Levi Strauss and Jacob W. Davis were inspired by the celebrated cotton corduroy of Genoa, Italy to create a twill fabric that would be strong and durable enough to be worn by workers. Through trial and error, the pair arrived at the material used today to make jeans.
The unique coloring of denim was originally achieved by coloring the warp threads with organic indigo dye and leaving the weft threads white. That way, the outside had a blue coloring and the inside remained white.