Torn Jeans

Generally speaking, humans wear clothing while in public.  The range of clothing styles, fabrics, degrees of coverage of various body parts is highly variable.  Culture, climate, tradition, trends and personal preferences are among factors that lead one to wear whichever clothing and a particular style. The fashion industry, now with vast networks of social media, exquisite advertising and buyer analytics data can reach the masses of would-be wearers within moments with the “right message in the right flavour” for their diverse audiences and potential customers.  As everyone knows, there really are only a few styles that can exist for the kinds of fabrics we use for clothing.  As such, styles recur in cycles of perhaps 30 years, with thin and thick ties, florals and stripes, trim and bulbous in dresses, mini to maxi skirts, pointed and blunted collar tips on shirts and blouses, broad lapels and tiny lapels, etc.. Most of what you have in your oldest closet or gave to charities from the 60’s and 70’s is now in vogue again. Never throw them out – you have a renaissance in your basement!

One aspect of style in pants, specifically in jeans, mainly blue jeans, that is “hot” now is the torn jean.  This style is a rather incomprehensible enigma.  In many ways it is aggravating. The corporate world love it of course.  The trend-setters foster it. The desperate consumers, especially the young, want to emulate and be seen as hip.  So holey jeans are in, for today. I find it amazing that the time and trouble to tear holes in jeans has become a contemporary “art form”.  When I was growing up, we felt badly if we had holes in any of our clothes.  Our parents found ways to sew the holes closed, to patch them just so, or otherwise camouflage these openings. We didn’t necessarily like the patches, but we didn’t want the holes.  Another curious thing about the current holey jeans epidemic is just how long can a well-holed pair of jeans last.  Surely, after one or two washes, one or two pull-on’s, or one or two rough outings, various holes will reach the critical limit of size or shape, and, voila, one has to either sew them and patch them, or throw them away.  Good for corporations, not good for cash starved young folks.

The holey period will pass.  What will follow for leggings is already well-along on some designers sketch book or alpha marketing. And, in temperate climes the holes would be uncomfortable on a winter’s day. What will be next? I doubt see-through tights will be the norm for males.  Perhaps leather chaps for all, although leather is not cheap, is hot, heavy, and rather constraining. In equatorial zones, no pants are the norm for obvious reasons.  Most of us are not so fortunate, and would be better off at least having a big swatch to cover our homely, bony knees.