A couple of months ago, I invested in my first pair of jeans after years. I just wanted to ensure that the uncomfortable skinny jeans were done and dusted for good. A much talked about study by Sourcing Journal saying that skinny jeans had finally run their course prompted the move. So, there I was—comfortable and deliriously happy in my high waist, carrot fit jeans. Little did I know that something sinister was brewing in the denim department. Before the high waist jeans enthusiasts could tell, a long-forgotten (and much abhorred) denim style was sprinting its way back into the vogue.
For those of you who haven’t guessed it yet, low rise denim is back in fashion and I am legit panicking. The abomination has made its way back to the fashion circles with the resurgence of Y2K fashion trends that are raging hot right now. For everyone who thought that the low rise denim was officially dead, we hate to break this but the monster was merely hibernating. The 20-year-rule in fashion has proven to be true yet again and I have a lot of thoughts about it. Here’s why low rise jeans sound like bad news to me:
Are We Ready For It?
Remember 2020 when all of us switched to the pyjama girl life? Yea, I doubt if any of us have been able to fully recover from that and that’s okay. Among a myriad of ways in which the pandemic has changed us, comfy fashion easily features on the top of the list. We have finally begun to accept that style and comfort can not be mutually exclusive. And yet, low rise jeans are back again which veers as far from the idea of comfort as possible. Plus, we cannot be forgetting the body image issues that they led to when they first exploded in the early 2000s.
A 2002 book called No Body’s Perfect by Kimberly Kirberger shed light on how the teens and youth were struggling with body image issues while forever chasing that “perfect” body at the beginning of the millennium. The book carried candid confessions by teenage girls who talked about bulimia and how it ruined their very lives. Now, compound this with the way the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our mental health. This example is not a stretch. Low rise jeans have done ample damage in the past. They hang so low that they make you automatically analyse your entire body, especially the belly and the butt. We do not want that right now. We can not be doing this to impressionable young girls and our own mental health which is already hanging by a thread as we look at a fourth wave in the face.
The Pandora’s Box Has Been Left Open
So, here’s the thing—low rise jeans come with their accompanying evils. The whale tail trend is one of them and can already be spotted on celebs like Lizzo and Kim Kardashian. The trend basically refers to jeans that sit so low on your hip bone that your thongs or G-strap strings are on display. In an update, the straps are now being sown to the denim. We saw a rendition of the same in the hit TV series Euphoria where Maddy Perez shows up at the school carnival in a risque outfit that features cut out details on the trousers.
Yup, this is just the beginning. Wait till it gets whackier.
Time To Switch Back To Relaxed Trousers
I abhor uncomfortable bottoms so much that I literally stayed off jeans for almost a decade and relied on relaxed trousers, culottes, and formal pants instead. If low rise jeans are really here to make an impact as they did back in the 2000s, I fear that every other fit will be swiped clean in no time. I am not here for it. I am not ready for being constantly uncomfortable and butt-cracks.
What about you?
Featured Image: Instagram
