The origin of the world’s most enduringly popular fabric is in dispute, as a new exhibition spotlights a claim that firmly links denim with 17th-century Italy and takes its history back 200 years.
Blue denim, that all-American symbol of informality and a life lived on the open range, is already also contentiously attributed to southern France, while modern jeans mythology still has it that Levi Strauss, a German immigrant, first came up with the idea of making workwear out of this sturdy cotton in San Francisco 150 years ago.
