Trending 1st June 2016 by Victoria Stokes

If You’ve Ever Wondered Why Jeans Are Called Jeans Then We Have The Answer

Call this a lesson in fashion history.

Picture credit: unsplash.com/@imaniclovis

They are every girl’s style staple. Our old faithful fashion choice. The perfect day-to-night outfit option.

Recently we found out why jeans have those weird tiny little pockets and what those random little buttons are used for, but aside from that we don’t really know anything about our fave fashion item, except that we can shimmy our way into a pair of super skinnys and feel like a bona fide goddess in seconds.

One of the biggest mysteries? Why are these form-fitting strips of denim called ‘jeans’ in the first place?

Well, according to Hello Giggles, it’s because jeans were invented in France in the 19th Century in a town called Nimes. The word ‘serge’ was used to describe the fabric used to make the jeans, and over time this became ‘serge de Nimes’ or ‘denim’ for short.

Denim became increasingly popular throughout Europe and sailors from Genoa in Italy would come to the town of Nimes to buy it in bulk.

In fact the Genoese sailors bought so much denim that they quickly became associated with the product themselves and the word ‘jeans’, which is similar to Genoa, was used as a nickname to describe the denim trousers.

Fascinating, huh?

Here are five pairs of jeans to get shopping now…