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Indigo : the colour of jeans

Indigo that was extracted from fermented indigo leaves was imported from India for a long time. The indigo trade continued to thrive until the day when German chemists Baeyer and Heumann developed a process for its synthesis in 1890. Today, BASF is still exploiting this process and provides 40% of the global production of indigo, which is mainly used to dye blue jeans. This name originates from the blue tinted fabric made in Genoa since the 16th century, which was called blue of Genoa. The English pronunciation of Genoa led to the term blue jeans. These timeless, remarkably strong trousers were born in America, at the time of the Gold Rush, when Oscar Levi Strauss had the idea to use tent canvas to make a work garment in 1853.

Laboratoire de photophysique et photochimie supramoléculaires et macromoléculaires, CNRS-ENS Cachan