My new jeans just arrived in the mail and my husband rolled his eyes at me. "How many pairs of jeans does one person need?" he wanted to know."You can never have too many jeans," I told him. But it got me thinking about jeans, and how jeans have defined parts of my life.
One year for school (6th grade) I told my mom I wanted "French" jeans. She bought me a pair of Sassoon jeans before anyone had ever seen them mentioned (along with Oo-la-la) in a commercial. The next year I got a pair of Calvin Klein jeans and I can remember how they'd stretch when I put them on because they had spandex in them. Those were my designer years, when jeans felt "formal" and special. And even though nothing came between Brooke and her Calvins, underwear came between me and mine.
In high school, my sophomore year, I got the greatest pair of Girbaud jeans. They were amazing. I wore them with flats. I went to a high school with a dress code that didn't include jeans, so on the weekends all I ever wore to parties were jeans. That pair of Girbaud saw lots of life in their three years of high school. I felt so contemporary when I wore them.
My first week of college I bought a pair of Levi's. I thought they were too dark, so I also bought a bottle of bleach and soaked them in the bathroom sink until they were a nice pale shade of blue with some patches of dark where they didn't get covered. I wore those jeans into the ground. Jeans in college were all about comfort and feeling good. Even when they eventually ripped (I really did wear them ALOT) I sewed blue bandannas into the knees and kept wearing them (I went to college in the late 80's so the look was totally acceptable).
After college I bought Gap jeans. Skinny ones. They never made me feel as good as the Levi's.
Now I have 12 pairs of jeans in my closet. The newer ones are bootcuts (from Abercrombie), which I never thought I'd wear because I never thought I was a bootcut kind of girl. I have some with tab pockets in the back, which look cool but sort of make me feel like I'm trying too hard. And I have a few old pairs that for some reason I keep even if I haven't worn them in years. And I still have that faded pair of Levi's from college (and they still fit). It's not like I ever plan to wear them with all their holes and bandannas sewn all over the place. But I can't bear to get rid of them. They remind me of college and hanging out with friends and writing on my jeans in class when doodling was more fun than taking notes on Plato's Republic. If those jeans could write a book, let me tell you, it would be a comedy and a drama and one heck of a read.
What about you? Do you have clothes in your closet that tell your story?
Posts
3 comments:
When I was in high school, Guess was the thing. I had one pair of Guess jeans. They were an average blue. I wore them until they were almost white. Both knees had big rips. I wore them anyway. Eventually the rips went all the way across the knee and made the hem drag the ground on both legs, so I cut them off and made them shorts. I wore them that way for another year, and finally they gave up the ghost when I ripped the whole butt out of them climbing over a fence. Don't ask.
I agree, one can never have too many pairs of jeans! My favorite pair in high school was my Levis that I let a couple of artist friends draw all over with a purple Sharpie. The ink never washed off and I wore them forever. I was also a huge Girbaud fan in high school, followed by Gap jeans. I have never ordered a pair online, though. Maybe that's next!
I was a teen in the bell-bottom era. Yes, I'm THAT OLD! I wore hip-huggers that dragged the ground until they were ripped and filthy. Then they were perfect!
Post a Comment