Distressed Knees

Shennie's degree is fashion related and she's been providing me with an education this Easter weekend. I've been trying to provide her with an education too. I'm not sure who is winning.

We did agree that this current fashion for distressed jeans is certainly better than the recent one of sagging, where jeans are worn so low that the state of your underwear is exposed for intimate public evaluation. I captured a fine example here. As you all know, I like to be on trend, but my sons forbade me from getting on board with that one. I didn't put up too much of a fight.

I'm not desperately keen to run with this distressing trend either. In truth, my only fashion philosophy is to go against trend. Shennie tells me that these pre-distressed jeans are manufactured in such a way. Surely not. Why would they go to all that effort when they can pick them up at charity shops for next to nothing, just needing to give them a good wash before selling them on at an insanely inflated price? Or when they can be given to some poor third world worker to make threadbare with honest hard work. 

It's a mighty cunning business model they've come up with here. I saw a girl last week wearing something that was nothing more than holes, ingeniously held together by a few threads and thin pieces of fabric. The cost of the raw materials would be virtually nil. 

I'm curious to understand what drives these trends. Perhaps it's born out of a shame that few of us ever get down on our knees and doing any truly hard graft any more, which certainly would be distressing. Shennie suggested that it's echoing the ethos of the punk era and tapping into the idea of rebellion. But when jeans were ripped apart by punks they were expressing their anger with consumer society. This is more like swallowing the values of that consumer society. Hook, line, and sinker. 

I prefer to think of it as an expression of individuality. I see it on the street. There is a confidence about young people such that there is a greater and greater willingness to be different from everyone else. These distressed jeans provide a halfway house between conformity and individuality. It's possible to conform to the latest trend while still standing out as individually different, through your unique pattern of wear. I understand there is quite an art to distress. It's really rather clever. I have to respect that.

PS Shennie spent the morning in the kitchen and served up the most fabulous Sunday meal. It was certainly the best food I've eaten anywhere in a very long time. Thank you for that treat.