Denim, considered one of the hardest wearing textiles out there, has recently become one of the hardest working—and not just in your closet. From beauty to bedding, indigo tones are sweeping beyond the sartorial landscape. Two months ago, Jeep brought back the iconic blue jean-inspired interiors they first launched in 1974 (then in partnership with Levi’s) for select Jeep Wranglers. At the same time, interior designer Sarah Lederman launched a textile studio called Three Fates that includes several indigo-infused fabrics and wallpapers, allowing designers to wrap a room in deep denim-feeling hues. A month prior, in February, Chanel Beauty launched a limited edition denim makeup collection to welcome in the spring. Has the world gone blue jean crazy?

Denim is, of course, best known for its pivotal role as a wardrobe staple. But the fabric’s origins weren’t always in clothing. “Before indigo became fashion’s most enduring blue, it actually belonged to the home,” explains Susan Clark, the founder of New York City-based design gallery, Radnor. A long-time patron of textile arts, Clark notes that indigo, the dye that makes denim, dates back 6,000 years and was once called “blue gold” for its status as a rare and precious dye only available to royalty and aristocracy. “Early indigo textiles were woven and hand-dyed for domestic life—furnishing covers, bedding, and wall hangings that balanced utility with a quiet, tactile richness,” she adds.

While many might associate denim with the American West (likely due to Levi Strauss’s role in bringing blue jeans to the masses in the late 1800s from San Francisco), it’s worth noting that the roots of denim, and indigo, are far more global. “Indigo’s cultural reach is as expansive as its history,” says Clark, citing the dye’s use in the ancient Mediterranean, India, Japan, Mesoamerica, and West Africa long before the cotton twill, ‘serge de Nîmes’ was created in 17th-century France and the utilitarian fabric ‘bleu de Gênes’ was created in Genoa around the same time, setting the foundation for what would become modern-day blue jeans.

It is this storied past that makes indigo, and denim, such a dynamic addition to a space. “Referencing Japanese traditions, it always feels elevated rather than cold, with a depth and subtlety that’s difficult to achieve with other colour palettes,” says Judith Harris, head of home at British clothing and homewares brand, Toast, which has long used indigo and denim in their collections. “What unites these histories is indigo itself: a material that transcends geography and time, continuously reinterpreted across art and clothing, from the ceremonial to the everyday.”

Today, indigo has found its way back into the home through the creative use of denim and dyed fabrics, leaving its mark on the airy halls of beach homes and modern Manhattan high rises alike. “A crisp, tailored denim can feel almost architectural on a sofa, while a softer, washed indigo reads more relaxed and textural,” says Ansley Majit, founding principal at Lark + Palm, who recently upholstered a kitchen banquette in a heavy-duty indigo canvas and installed an oversized indigo sofa in two residential projects. “Coming from fashion, denim has always felt like a constant. It can be completely casual or incredibly polished depending on how it’s cut, styled, and paired.”

American fashion brands like Ralph Lauren have long been known for their denim, so it makes sense that chambrays and indigos are staples within Ralph Lauren Home’s lifestyle collections. The brand’s spring 2026 Meadow Lane Collection carries that sensibility forward, celebrating coastal living with fabrics including weathered chambrays, deep indigos, and airy sheers. (It’s worth noting that while chambray and denim look similar, chambray isn’t technically denim. Both fabrics involve indigo dye and white cotton yarns, but chambray is a lightweight, breathable plain weave, while denim is a dense, heavy twill weave with diagonal ribbing.)

Another American brand, Citizens of Humanity, collaborated with Moda Operandi on a limited collection of homewares last year, which included denim napkins and placemats. “The collection was met with an overwhelming response since launch, selling out almost immediately and underscoring the strong demand we’re seeing for a more expansive denim lifestyle,” notes Citizens of Humanity’s creative director, Marianne Gallagher McDonald, who designed the collection. Denim, it seems, works anywhere.

Many famous furniture houses have also chosen to add denim colorways to their iconic designs in recent years. In 2024, Cassina decided to relaunch the Soriana armchair, originally designed by Afra & Tobia Scarpa for Cassina in 1969, from its archives in premium quality Japanese denim. In March 2025, Knoll partnered with Supreme to launch the Barcelona Chair and Ottoman with Japanese selvedge denim cushions and polished chrome details.

Plus, as the denim industry’s environmental toll and extreme water usage become more well-known, upcycling and reworking denim for interiors has become more commonplace. In August West’s Bamboo House, a Horace Gifford-designed beach house on Fire Island previously belonging to her late grandfather, West and her collaborators from art school creatively combined pieces of 50 pairs of jeans collected from friends, family, and followers to make several furniture pieces, including a daybed, pillows, ball pillows, place mats, coasters, decorative flowers, and even a lamp shade. “It’s safe to say we went a little denim crazy,” says West with a laugh. “Denim is for everyone.”

Upcycling denim has found an even broader appeal for interior wares. In April, the legendary textile designer behind Dosa, Christina Kim, came out with two styles of handmade, one-of-a-kind pillows for Commune that reworked pieces of recycled denim Kim has collected over the past 15 years. Toast has also partnered with The Braided Rug Company on a limited collection where waste denim was gathered and woven into circular rag rugs—and most recently, the brand worked with Vinterior to reimagine a 1960s oak armchair by Swedish designer Bröderna Anderssons in blue and indigo fabrics with boro patchworking and sashiko stitching.

It’s not just denim, but indigo as well that has found its way back into the hearts (and homes) of many. David Mann of MR Architecture + Decor is an avid collector of indigo fabrics, which he employs in his home in Hudson, New York, as wall hangings and bed coverings. “These fabrics are often imbued with history, culture, and patina,” he says. In his living room, two indigo-dyed linen sofas face each other. “Indigo brings a certain depth and moodiness to a space that softer neutrals often can’t,” adds Sarah Lederman.

Indigo also works beautifully in artworks. At the beginning of May, textile artist Rachel DuVall’s solo show Through Light and Matter opened at Clark’s craft gallery, Radnor, in Brooklyn. DuVall has been using indigo in her work for the past 12 years and “finds the palette created from natural dyes to be harmonious,” noting that “the variation that can be achieved through naturally dyed fibers adds richness and detail to the work” and “natural colors and materials can feel incredibly grounding in the home.”

For someone looking to bring the sensibility of denim or the peacefulness of indigo into a space without using the fabric itself, one might look at painting or wallpapering. British paint company Graham & Brown’s aptly named “Boyfriend Jeans” paint is a dark blue with glimmers of gray, and their “Twill Denim” textured wallpaper gives the look and feel of denim, without needing to actually use the fabric. “I think people respond to the fact that it feels timeless and has presence, but is also easy to live with,” says Lederman of her indigo wallpapers and fabrics. “The indigo pieces have been some of the most immediately embraced in the collection,” she adds.

Most importantly, while denim-inspired spaces and indigo-infused interiors are nothing new, they don’t feel tired. “What’s different now is the way it’s being recontextualized,” says Majit. “It’s less about novelty and more about treating it as a legitimate textile, with the same level of consideration you’d give to a fine woven fabric.” Six thousand years later, indigo is once again “blue gold.”