The word dungarees is a relic of the British colonial presence in India. Dungri was the name applied to a durable cotton cloth exported from India to England in the 1600s, and used to make sails and tents. Dungaree comes from the Marathi term...
The fabric called denim originated in the town of Nimes, France, hence the name. The fabric known as jean, originally from Genoa, Italy, was popular long before Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis and teamed up in 1873 to make durable work trousers using...
Someone should write a love letter to a new book called Letters of Note. It’s a splendid collection of all kinds of correspondence through the ages: Elvis Presley fans writing to the president, children making suggestions to famous...
You have a pair of gloves, and there are two of them; you have a pair of shoes, and there are two; a pair of socks, and there’s one for each foot, right? So why do we have a pair of jeans when it’s only one item? This is part of a...