CHENNAI: He dresses prim and proper. He goes to the shop and picks up only formal wear.
He visits his friends in half slag shirts teamed up with formal pants. He goes on a date wearing cotton trousers.
And finally he triggered my curiosity. I’m talking about a friend of mine who is not a Gandhian but chooses to wear only ‘formal clothes’.
“How do you guys wear those rags in this scorching heat?” asked my friend, talking about my jeans.
It came as a surprise to me that there are people who just don’t wear jeans, even now. After a long pause, I asked my friend if he has ever worn jeans in his life, and he firmly replied, “No”.
And with utmost curiosity I asked him, how many formal pants does he have in his wardrobe? He gave an approximate count of 10.
It’s amusing to know that some youngsters prefer comfort over Fashion when it comes to picking their wardrobe. Says Kavya (name changed), “Jeans are overrated attire. Everyone has different preferences in choosing the right clothes. For many, jeans are one of the most comfortable clothes to wear, but I would definitely choose salwars or kurtis over jeans for any occasion.”
While parents pretty much run most aspects of our lives, it is hardly surprising to see some girls who allow their parents to choose clothes for them.
“Well, I haven’t worn jeans in my entire life. My parents don’t like it. I think my mom has a good taste in fashion. She finds me fat in jeans and so asks me to avoid wearing them. There are so many other Indian clothes that look stylish and beautiful on women. But again, that doesn’t mean I don’t wear skirts or T-shirts. I’m just not comfortable in jeans.”
Superstitious Kavya also believes that when you wear jeans, you will take home bad luck. “Well, I do have a silly reason for not wearing them. When I was young, I wore a pair of jeans and I went missing for sometime. So from then on, I believe, jeans have something to do with my life. I feel that I’m jinxed,” she laughs and adds that even if she is given jeans as a gift, she would politely return them.
Being scared of tight-fitting, skinny jeans, many girls avoid putting themselves through the pain of squeezing into constricting denims. Twenty-three-year-old Sukanya finds it awkward to slip into a pair of jeans.
“I wore them for one day, and oh my god! I felt like I was torturing myself. The skinny jeans are tight and you feel so sticky wearing them and walking. I have always wondered how supermodels manage to do it every day.”
While girls find skinny jeans uncomfortable, men are no different. For Moses, jeans are meant to be worn in mining communities.
“I have never worn ready-made pants. One reason for not wearing jeans is that it’s very uncomfortable and you will never get the right size. Sometimes, they don’t fit your waist or sometimes they look like sacks.”
It is easy for a girl to avoid wearing jeans as there are many choices, but for men, one can wonder how many formal pants will they shop for and in how many colours?
“Most of the formal pants I have are custom-made and I don’t wear them for years. We also have options like linen pants, cotton trousers and so on. We only avoid the ones that have pockets touching the ground,” says Moses.
While many people find jeans uncomfortable, James finds there is no necessity to wear jeans.
“When you have clean and crisp formal pants to team up with any shirts or T-shirts, why should you even opt for buying thickly woven jeans?” James who was brought up in Bihar, took a while to adapt himself to current fashion trends. “I’m not a fashion person, and I have always worn formal clothes and I stick to that even now. Though there was one occasion, where I was forced to wear jeans — for a dance competition, but after that I bid goodbye to ‘the great jeans era’ for good.”
They might be a rare breed, but the anti-jeans sect aren’t willing to sacrifice their comfort, taste or beliefs just to fit in with the latest Style trends.
One thing you can say in their favour is that as summer draws to a climax, they are the ones keeping coolest!
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