Blue-jeans now have a dedicated international festival

The choice of Genoa is not insignificant. Indeed, contrary to common belief, denim was not born in the USA, but in this harbor city, capital of Liguria, where the first traces of the fabric were found as of Medieval times. What we call denim fabric, with its typical blue color elaborated thanks to the use of indigo formerly extracted from the indigofera tinctori, was already used as a canvas for famous paintings of the Passion exhibited at the Diocesan Museum of Genoa and created during the 16^th Century from linen fibers. They are considered as the jeans’ ancestors due to the blue color found in the scenes of the Christ’s Passion, used during Lent, before Easter.

This was the first sign of the jeans’ existence, even though one could not yet at this stage consider it as clothing. The famous blue trousers in moleskin called genoa blue, worn by harbor workers, and sold in all of Europe for their comfort and practicality, appeared during the 19th Century. The word jeans might also be derived from a mispronunciation of the word Genoa.