Sterile Monk Denim

Latin sterilis, barren / not-fertile — sharing root with Greek steiros (barren). As a color modifier, sterile implies a clear-and-medical-clean-and-stripped quality, the crisp color of operating-theater surgical-environment white-and-stainless-steel surfaces. Sits at the crisp-and-clean end of the grid, parallel to sanitary and hygienic in usage.

Latin monachus, solitary-religious-man. As a color modifier, monk implies a Cistercian-and-Benedictine-monastic quality, the visual register of Cistercian-and-Benedictine-Monk hand-spun robe-and-cowl-and-scapular Cistercian-and-Benedictine-and-Trappist-monastic surfaces under Cistercian-and-Benedictine-Trappist-monastic hand-spun-robe candlelit-cloister light. Sits at the modifier-and-cultural end of the grid, parallel to friar and nun in usage.

The diagonal-twill cotton fabric originally woven in Nîmes, France — serge de Nîmes, contracted to denim — and dyed with indigo since at least the eighteenth century. The color refers to a worn but un-faded pair of raw denim jeans: a saturated, slightly muted blue with the matte finish of cotton fiber that has absorbed dye through generations of weft and warp. Cooler than royal, warmer than navy.