Words About Things

There’s no doubting that the denim jean came of age in the 1950′s along with the invention of the teenager and the angst that goes with feeling like an adult but being treated like a child. All the main 50′s icons wore jeans (well, the male ones at least) including Marlon Brando and the most iconic rebel of them all James Dean. But new evidence suggests that the fabric has been around a lot longer than you might imagine.

It’s a well known fact that jeans were originally created to be worn by Cowboys who needed a hard wearing fabric that was as tough as they were. Like a lot of well known facts this isn’t strictly true. Cowboys did wear jeans, they lasted a lot longer than trousers and could be worn for long periods of time without being washed, but the fabric was around a long time before cowboys existed. There are claims that Levi Strauss invented the modern jean in 1873. Again, this is sort of true but people had been wearing Denim for at least 100 years before the USA even existed.

The word Denim comes from the French phrase ‘de Nîmes‘ as in ‘of Nîmes’ (a city in the South of France. The word Jeans comes from the French Gênes which refers to Genoa in Italy. So is Denim from France or Italy? Well we don’t know for sure but some paintings which have recently come to light seem to suggest Italy:

Three paintings have come to light in which the unknown artist, believed to be from northern Italy, depicts scenes in the 1650s in which ordinary people are wearing what appears to be an early denim fabric.

In one picture, a peasant woman, wearing a skirt that appears to be made of denim, mends a piece of clothing. In another, a teenage girl wearing a torn blue skirt made out of rough fabric, begs for money. The third depicts a young boy wearing a torn jacket made from a dark blue cloth. The rips in the jacket, and in the peasant woman’s skirt, reveal that the fabric is indigo but threaded with white – just like modern jeans.

Previously historians relied on the order books of English tailors to backdate the fabric.This is the first pictorial evidence of people wearing jeans in the 17th century, the paintings were thought to have been painted in the 1650′s 300 years before James Dean made jeans cool.

Although the area around modern day Las Vegas is basically desert it’s name actually means ‘the meadows’ in Spanish. Natural wells in the area meant that it was surprisingly green. The valley belonged to Mexico before it was seized by the USA during the Mexican-American war. In 1855 the area was taken over by Mormons who were eventually driven out by the native American Paiute tribe. It wasn’t until the early 20th century when water from the underground wells was piped into the town that Las Vegas began to grow into the city it is today.

The history of Las Vegas is very interesting but it seems quite distant from what the city has become, ‘The city of sin’ as it is often called has reinvented itself. These days it is famous for its giant casinos and over the top entertainment in stark contrast to its Mormon past. Modern day Vegas has a reputation as a city where ‘anything goes’ which includes gambling, strip clubs, mass intoxication and quickie marriages. Traveling around the city you are likely to see lots of bachelor and bachelorette parties and thousands of bad Elvis impersonators.

The area around Las Vegas has lots to offer for tourists who have had their fill of gambling and drinking. The invitingly named Death Valley is about 135 miles away in the Mojave Desert. Hop in a hire car in Las Vegas and you could be sweating away in Death Valley within a few hours.

Death Valley National Park comprises more than 3.3 million acres of spectacular desert scenery, rare desert wildlife, complex geology, undisturbed wilderness and sites of historical interest. Death Valley is unique because it contains the lowest, hottest, driest location in North America. Nearly 550 square miles of its area lie below sea level.

The hotels in Las Vegas are as understated and tasteful as you might expect – not all all. The Venetian hotel contains a pool deck and a actual working canal, the Luxor hotel is housed within a life sized pyramid. Most of the big hotels in the city have entertainment facilities, health spas and casinos. Some even have wedding chapels so you can get married in between gambling away your savings and going out for dinner.

Whatever you decide to do it up to you but remember: what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

I found this interesting video about the history of Espresso and Coffee in general. Did you know that Coffee was invented by an Ethiopian goat herder called Kaldi? This video was made by Douwe Egberts and features this an other interesting facts about black gold.