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The camera
How low is too low?
Here in America, the way people wear their jeans is a lot different from back home in Turkey. Here, people are more concerned with comfort than anything else. In Europe, people want to look fashionable. Jeans are hardly ever worn with sneakers, and never with flip flops, mostly high heels/dress shoes. The purpose of jeans is to look proportional, to make you look good. I noticed here that most jeans are tapered, but back at home, jeans are always boot cut to make a woman appear curvier. For the same reason, nearly all jeans are low-rise. It makes people look better, both men and women. Female, 18
In Hawaii, people wear low-rise jeans all the time. When I came to Stanford I thought that being in California, people would also wear them, but I was wrong. Back at home, it’s hot, people don’t want to wear as much clothes. Most importantly, people just have good bodies that they want to flaunt. It’s all about the image. There is no controversy about whether anything is too revealing. Female, 18
As these testimonies demonstrate, different jeans are acceptable in different locations. In Europe, jeans are worn to look presentable and attractive. People want to take pride in their appearance and make sure that they look the best that they can possibly look. At the beginning of the year, I noticed all of the international girls in my dorm always went to class in their best clothes and makeup. It reminded me of the times I’ve been to Mexico, where every outing is an event. To go out, even if it is to class, in sweats and a hoodie is a social taboo.
Whereas jeans in Europe are worn to look attractive, in Hawaii, people find another meaning to comfort. Loose and baggy is not comfortable; low-rise is what is considered comfortable. As my interviewee mentioned, people in Hawaii are comfortable in wearing little clothes. They are taught to embrace the island nature of freedom and expression, and to love their bodies. If every body is beautiful, why not show it to the world?
Low-rise jeans are meant to wear quite low on the hips. They are cut lower along the waist, covering less of the body. These jeans usually lie at about three inches lower than the belly button. The “rise” of a traditional pair of jeans, which is determined by calculating the distance between the crotch and the waist, is around 10-12 inches. The earlier low-rise jeans had a rise of about 7 inches, but recently that length has plunged to about 3 inches. “Gasoline, a Brazilian company, has even created Down2There jeans, which feature a bungee cord that allows the wearer to lower her pants as she sees fit” (Fortini http://www.slate.com/id/2089623/). Low-rise jeans give the illusion of shorter legs, but a longer torso. For this reason, low-rise jeans look best on people with a short torso and long legs, in order to elongate the body while keeping a proportional look. Also, the buttocks is supposedly said to appear smaller in low-rise jeans. For the jeans that look best on you, go check out: http://www.mejeans.com/
So what’s all the controversy about?
Legislator Derrick Shepherd of Lousiana attempted in 2004 to outlaw the fashionable low-rise jeans. In particular, he wanted to stop the display of underwear, claiming that it was perceived as disrespectful and obscene. People still spotted with their visible underwear would be fined $500. This bill, known as HB 1703, was ultimately rejected by the Louisiana House. A similar bill was attempted in Virginia, it would place a $50 fine on anyone deliberately displaying their underwear. This bill was rejected in February 2005. Further conservative reactions come from schools, putting a particular dress code on their students, not allowing them to wear pants below a certain area of their body, or displaying underwear.
I went to a Catholic private high school in which we had to wear a dress code consisting of khakis and polo shirts. When we had “free dress” days nearly everyone wore jeans, and nearly all the girls were sent home for indecency. Teachers would report girls and have them sent to the Deans’ office to be checked if their jeans were too low. However, the same girls never learned from their past mistakes. “Despite the several objections from law, schools and parents, the fashion of low-rise jeans continues to increase in popularity, while the pants themselves continue to decrease in their ‘rise’ height” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowrise_jeans).
Back in Turkey, I remember the government, after adopting an extremist, conservative Islamic view, saying that it would create a law against low-rise jeans because such extreme exposure is considered offensive and improper. However, it was never really enforced. Female, 18
Aside from issues of decency, low-rise jeans are said to cause health problems. In 2001, the Canadian Medical Association Journal published a medical report by Dr. Malvinder S. Parmar claiming that low-rise jeans could in fact create health issues. A condition called 'meralgia paresthetica' tends to occur when wearing tight fitting jeans. It is characterized by a numbness or tingling in the thighs, because of the pressure of the jeans pinching a nerve located at the hip. If left untreated, the numbness can become permanent. The problem tended to be resolved by not wearing the constricting jeans after 4 to 6 weeks.
Is it still fashionable?
Perhaps as Herbst and Burger claim, “consumers accept fashion in order to overcome boredom. Consumers get tired of wearing, seeing and living with the same fashions and then they seek changes in their lifestyles by buying new clothes” (40). As Newsweek mentioned in a recent article, “Hollywood tastemakers, too, say the low-rise look has run its course. ‘These days, I can see as many cracks at a nightclub as I can on the paint of an old building,’ says celebrity-stylist Jeanne Yang. ‘It's tired.’ And manufacturers are ready for something new” (Tyre http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11902222/site/newsweek/). Maybe people are tired of the low-rise fashion. However, it all comes down to wearing what makes you feel good. I mean clearly, 40-year-old mothers are not going to feel comfortable wearing these jeans, but younger generations are. In America, most men do not wear low-rise jeans, but in Europe, it’s as common as wearing baggy jeans here. Every person chooses what makes his/her feel the best. As long as people subscribe to their own beliefs, low-rise jeans can never really go out of fashion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowrise_jeans
http://www.slate.com/id/2089623/
Parmar, Malvinder S. Hiphuggers' tingly thighs CMAJ 2003 168: 16-a
Tyre, Peg. "Jeans Rising." Newsweek. 23 Mar. 2006 <http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11902222/site/newsweek/>.
herbst.pdf