james_nicoll

Well, the usual name for the fabric is certainly French, but there was also a fabric produced in Genoa ("blue jean" comes from "bleu de Genes" = "blue material of Genoa"). See here for some of the background, including some 17th Century Italian paintings of poor people wearing blue denim clothes.

(So, maybe it's "European-pre-industrial-working-class-authenticity-craving coastal elitism"?)

Of course, the iconic work-pants-made-with-denim-and-copper-rivets that modern jeans descend from originated with Levi Strauss[*] in California.

[*] Who was, of course, an immigrant from Bavaria; the idea of reinforcing with copper rivets came from Russian immigrant Jacob Davis. (Very Californian, really.)