Editing Jeans (section)

=== Dyeing ===
{{See also|Azo dye}}
[[Image:Indigo skeletal.svg|thumb|Chemical structure of [[indigo dye]], the blue of blue jeans]]

Traditionally,{{Vague|reason=This isn't a question of "tradition". We should be able to get a date, e.g., "until 1875, most jeans were dyed with natural indigo" or whatever|date={{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTYEAR}}}} jeans were [[dye]]d to a blue color using natural [[indigo dye]]. Most denim is now dyed using synthetic indigo. Approximately 20&nbsp;thousand tons of indigo are produced annually for this purpose, though only a few grams of the dye are required for each pair.<ref name="Steingruber_2004">{{cite book |author-first=Elmar |author-last=Steingruber |chapter=Indigo and Indigo Colorants |title=Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry |date=2004 |publisher=[[Wiley-VCH]] |location=Weinheim, Germany |doi=10.1002/14356007.a14_149.pub2|isbn=3527306730 }}</ref> For other colors of denim other dyes must be used. Currently, jeans are produced in any color that can be achieved with cotton.

For more information on dyeing, refer to [[denim#Dyeing|denim]] and the discussion there of using pigment dyes.