UTILITY

The name “denim” is derived from “serge de Nimes,” or cloth of Nimes, a French city known for its textile production. The cloth was mostly used for tents and sails until it made the jump to apparel, when it was used for men’s pants in the seaport town of Dhunga, India. 

These dungarees were similar to what would become jeans, but were baggier. From its start, denimwear was mostly synonymous with workwear. 

It wasn’t until 1860, though, that LeviStrauss was inspired by suggestions from the mining community to begin producing waist high overalls, or “pantaloons,” using the 9 oz. serge de Nimes. By 1872, Jacob Davis and Levi Strauss invent a process to use metal rivets to reinforce the overalls at stress points, to make them more durable. These “waist high overalls,” which would later be known as jeans. Designed to provide comfort, body protection and durability without restricting agile body movements, workers everywhere wore jeans. 

Overalls, a one-piece garment made of denim or canvas that incorporated jeans-style pants with a bib front and suspender straps. It was being produced in mass quantities as early as 1911, when H.D. Lee Mercantile Co. was prompted to produce its first “line” of workwear garments because of unreliable deliveries from suppliers. Overalls fulfilled the demand for durable and inexpensive workpants. The construction of the overall reduced the fraying and bursting of seams as copper rivets were placed at stress points. 

Later, Lee premiered a new overall, made with a “Hookless” fastener, or zipper. A contest was launched to find a name for the new overall, eventually choosing “Whizit.” (This may have been as early as 1911, but the date cannot be confirmed because the ability to pre-shrink the denim fabric was needed before a zipper could be used with any denim garment. The first documented process of controlled shrinkage for cotton fabrics, Sanforization, was not perfected for denim until 1934.) 

Today, the overall is used for more than just workwear—it has become fashion, as well. In Europe, it is more commonly known as the “bib ‘n’ brace,” or “salopette,” while the term“overalls” is used to designate a one-piece long-sleeved workwear garment, or cover-all. Overalls cut off at the legs and turned into shorts are termed “shortalls.”

Union-alls debuted in 1913. These new denim garments protected the wearer both below and above the waist, supposedly suggested by H.D. Lee after seeing his chauffeur fixing the car. (According to some, it was the chauffeur who was the actual inventor. This is supported in part by the fact that, after his death, H.D. Lee left his chauffeur five thousand dollars as a belated thank-you.) The Union-All was later commissioned by the U.S. Army and was the official fatigue uniform during World War I. 

Coveralls are today’s version of these union-alls. They have branched out to more fabrics than just denim, and some are coated with different chemicals to make them non-flammable and otherwise safe. 

By 1927, Lee Workwear was tailoring its apparel for specific jobs, often naming the garment after the kind of work for which it had been designed. The “Logger”dungarees are an example of this.

The term “dungarees” disappeared after the 1960s, by which time it had become a synonym for “jeans” in America. In Europe, still, it can be used as a synonym for overalls.

Carpenter pants are waist-high pants that have extra pockets or loops for tools, usually a loop on the right side of the right thigh for a wrench or hammer. They became in fashion in the mid-90s, popularized by companies like Dickies and Carhartt.

Cargo pants, named for their large cargo side pockets, have numerous associations with the military, the Boy Scouts, camping and explorers. Today, they are popular in a very baggy style. The cargo pockets, usually pleated with expandable side bellows, are very large -- some are nine inches by nine inches. The pockets are located on the front of the thighs; usually there are two but they can be doubled. Snaps, velcro, buttons or zippers have all been used as closure for the cargo pockets. Some pants are reinforced in the seat, knees and other stress points, as they traditionally were. By the late ‘90s, Skaters have embraced this style.