Blue Jeans Bubble


There was an interesting article on the market bubble of designer denim on slate.com. http://www.slate.com/id/2124237/?GT1=6772

Recently, I have considered purchasing a pair of custom-made jeans. They are not cheap. This is a total luxury purchase and one that for someone whose body changes pretty frequently, might not make that much sense.

For me this purchase or I guess investment, has to do more with owning custom-fitted jeans more than anything else. My history of jeans goes back to the stiff and itchy as hell Toughskins my Mom bought us from Sears. No matter how long you wore them or how many times you washed them, the only place that these jeans wore in and became soft were the knees and that was because we were constantly rolling around on the ground. So inevitably the jeans remained course and stiff-legged with white circles on the knees, until we outgrew them and got new ones.

Hand-me-downs didn't work in my family because my brother Terry and I were both kind of chubby and our younger brother and sister, Katie and Ian, were both rail-thin. We were all stuck wearing these.

My mom got a pair of Gloria Vanderbilts when I was about 9. She would send them out to be drycleaned and pressed! I remember her wearing them out to parties with a thin sweater or satin shirt, a gold and silver fish scale belt, and high-heeled boots. My mom used to purchase her designer jeans from a woman that sold them out of her home. Looking back, it seems really weird but it was a lot nicer to try on jeans in your mom's friend's bathroom instead of the changing room of Strawbridges department store.

My experience with designer jeans began in jr. high. Jordache was a fashion essential in 1982. Initially, I was too chubby to fit into Jordache and was stuck wearing Gitanos, which had a more generous cut. I made up for it though with my Jordache purple sack purse. That was until I was 13, that summer I lost a lot of weight and could finally fit into Jordache. I would lie on my bed and suck in my stomach to get the zipper up. It was like a denim girdle.

The history of denim, from its utlitarian beginnings to its high fashion status of the past 30 years, is fascinating to me. http://www.designboom.com/eng/education/denim2.html It's fascinating to me the different ways fashion has dictated how denim should be worn. And how we are more than willing to go along with every trend.

Have you tried to wear a pair of jeans from the 70s or the 80s? The waists are really high! We can't even conceive of wearing pants that hit our natural waist, even though for many years that's what was in fashion. I've talked to kids who have no idea of what their waist size is because they wear pants that are oversized. I still have problems wearing jeans with a considerable low-rise. It's just too uncomfortable and too exposing, both front and back.

I'm hoping that with a pair of custom-made jeans, I can settle with a pair that will stay with me for at least the next five years. I don't know if that is possible but I'm hoping for a design and fit that will ride out whatever trend is handed out.