Thursday, April 27, 2017

First we had intentionally ripped jeans. Now we have intentionally dirty jeans for sale.

And these dirty jeans can be yours for $425 from Nordstrom.

No, really.

Mike Rowe, who always has a commonsense take on hard work noticed this.

Finally – a pair of jeans that look like they have been worn by someone with a dirty job…made for people who don’t. And you can have your very own pair for just $425.00.

Here’s the official description, from their website.

“These heavily distressed medium-blue denim jeans embody rugged, Americana workwear that’s seen some hard-working action with a crackled, caked-on muddy coating that shows you’re not afraid to get down and dirty.”
...

"Not real mud. Fake mud. Something to foster the illusion of work. The illusion of effort. Or perhaps, for those who actually buy them, the illusion of sanity."
Rowe goes on to say that these jeans are just a "costume". And to a certain degree he's right. But so much of our clothing is to project an image. For instance, I wear a suit and tie when I meet with clients in my law office, as opposed to shorts and a t-shirt. Guys who go to the gym (even just a little) a lot wear cool workout related stuff when they're out on the town to project that image. We all know a person who ran one 5K, got a t-shirt, and wears that t-shirt all the time.

But you have to sort of be closely related to the clothes you're wearing, or otherwise you're just playing dress-up. For instance, it wouldn't make sense for me to wear a Quiksilver t-shirt around, because I don't surf. I've never surfed a day in my life. For me to wear that shirt would be to be simply playing dress-up. Nor would I wear some Army-style jacket as a fashion because, again, I would feel like I'm just playing dress-up.

So where do these jeans fall? To me, it's gauche. It's "rich guy pretending to be a poor guy" kind of thing. No one has dirty jeans because they choose to - you get dirty jeans like that from working outside doing manual labor. And here, there selling that look for an exorbitant rate so rich folks can have that "look" without going through the labor. So it's sort of a way to wear a working man's uniform without actually being a working man. What the heck?

I wonder if you have to pay extra for the dip ring worn into the back pocket.

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