I was sitting on the bus and noticed every single person was wearing jeans. They couldn't possible have had jeans hundreds of years ago (I think), so that made me wonder when and how jeans became the most popular type of pants.
What type of pants did people wear before jeans? When and where were jeans first invented? What did people initially think of them? How did they become so popular?
For the further back history, jean cloth has been around since the 16th century. It's just a particular twill weave of cotton and linen fibers (now only cotton) considered a fustian. The Cotton Trade and Industrial Lancashire, 1600-1780 mentions that the two kinds of fustians most used in England were know as 'Holmes' and 'Jean' fustians in the 16th century. By 1833 E. Perkins writes that "Jeans are made of cotton, and are twilled; are made in white and in many colors, also striped. Satteen Jeans are made of the same material, but of a very superior kind, not twilled but exhibiting a soft and smooth face; they are considerably stronger than the former, and are to be had in white, black , and many colors; when coloured, they are usually prepared for summer trousers, in which case they are calendared."
Cotton, linen, silk, and wool were all common fibers with numerous weaves and mixes to produce thousands of fabric options even before synthetic fibers were invented. There's a wonderful book called Textiles in America 1650-1870 that has over 200 pages of just descriptions of fabric types from that era.
hi! these posts may not answer all of your questions in detail, but you can get started on these; hopefully a fashion historian can fill in any missing bits.
When did jeans become a huge part of fashion?
When/Why did men wearing suits all the time go out of style?