Down with denim — the jeans backlash

Let me be clear, right from the start — I like jeans. I wear denim pants almost every day: at home, at work, camping, lounging, out … they are a fabulously versatile clothing choice, and I have many pair that I can match with different tops to create a multitude of looks. Of course, I mostly stick with middle-of-the-road looks, but I know that a dark pair of jeans, a shirt and a blazer is a much different look than jeans and a T-shirt. Jeans are comfortable, yet able to stand up to a lot. I know that, if I wear jeans, I can end up tearing down street signs or something weird late at night, and not be overdressed.

Jeans are my go-to.

Sometimes, though, I feel underdressed. As the recession pendulum swings, I’m sure it will have sartorial consequences. Just like there was a backlash against khakis and polos after the dot-com boom, I think there will be a trend towards dressing up for a few years, as more and more people look towards suits and ties to differentiate themselves from the hordes of other job-seekers.

It starts, by the way, with two recent columns bemoaning the denim trend. Let’s see what the Wall Street Journal says:

Denim, for instance, is an essential co-conspirator in the modern trend toward undifferentiated dressing, in which we all strive to look equally shabby no matter what the occasion. Despite its air of innocence, no fabric has ever been so insidiously effective at undermining national discipline …. Denim is the SUV of fabrics, the wardrobe equivalent of driving a hulking Land Rover to the Whole Foods Market. Our fussily tailored blue jeans, prewashed and acid-treated to look not just old but even dirty, are really a sad disguise. They’re like Mao jackets, an unusually dreary form of sartorial conformity by means of which we reassure one another of our purity and good intentions.

Yikes! Riffing on that, though, George F. Will in the Washington Post takes it even further:

Denim is the infantile uniform of a nation in which entertainment frequently features childlike adults (“Seinfeld,” “Two and a Half Men”) and cartoons for adults (“King of the Hill”). Seventy-five percent of American “gamers” — people who play video games — are older than 18 and nevertheless are allowed to vote. In their undifferentiated dress, children and their childish parents become undifferentiated audiences for juvenilized movies (the six — so far — “Batman” adventures and “Indiana Jones and the Credit-Default Swaps,” coming soon to a cineplex near you). Denim is the clerical vestment for the priesthood of all believers in democracy’s catechism of leveling — thou shalt not dress better than society’s most slovenly. To do so would be to commit the sin of lookism — of believing that appearance matters. That heresy leads to denying the universal appropriateness of everything, and then to the elitist assertion that there is good and bad taste.

And me? Well, I like to wear a nice-fitting pair of pants every now and then. But I can’t deny the basic utility of a pair of jeans. They serve me well in my day-to-day life — when I never know when I might end up picking up lumber at Home Depot or popping into my basement to jack up a beam, or picking a few weeds in the yard. I don’t want to change my clothes five times a day.

Dressing up in nice suits is great for people who do one job, then come home and have supper on the table. But this ain’t the 50s. I multi-task. I need pants that can stand up to my changing duties.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need quickly wash my car and go to work.