Quick Scoop

Denim is at least a few hundred years old as a fabric, with roots commonly traced to 17th-century France , while blue jeans as we know them were first patented in 1873.

What that means

  • Denim fabric likely emerged in or around Nîmes, France in the 1600s.
  • Denim jeans became famous much later, when Jacob W. Davis and Levi Strauss patented rivet-reinforced work pants in 1873.
  • So if you mean the fabric , denim is roughly 300+ years old ; if you mean jeans , they’re about 150+ years old.

In short: denim is old, but jeans are the newer invention.

TL;DR

Denim is an old textile with a history going back to the 17th century , and modern jeans date to 1873.