Problem is, I’m still wearing maternity clothes post-partum, and my jeans don’t look that good on me right now.

Sorry, I think all this “let’s dump on George Will” crap is a shuck, and absolutely nothing more than inverted snobbery. I’ve been a blue-collar guy my whole life, and I still like khaki pants and people who aren’t ashamed to look nice.

warbaby on April 17, 2009 at 9:04 PM

…could be, could be….

I’ve never felt comfortable in Dockers, etc. They always meant “work” for me. I wore ‘em in the Army for many years, when I wasn’t wearing fatigues, the Army version of jeans. I wore ‘em after nearly a generation in the Army, as a computer repairman, usually supporting folks in “professional” circumstances. I’ve actually had to snake cable under desk units in cubicles wearing a tie.

I prefer to the sort of work I’ve done, and the sort of people I’ve met working, while wearing jeans.

When I was growing up, we wore jeans because khakis, what we’d call “slacks”, were “good clothes”, and you didn’t run about and play in ‘em. By the same token, as a comment on today, you didn’t let ‘em get all full of holes, so’s your knees were showing. That was a sign of slovenliness and a lazy parent.

I join Mr. Will and you (I suspect) in thumping on posers. They wear “distressed” jeans, pre-worked, tumbled in machines with lava pumice, soaked in acid to give them that “looks worn, but I’m too rich to have worn them this badly” look. There’s a trend not only in britches to make clothing items look worn. For instance, there’re John Deere logo ball caps which are made to look faded on the crown and tattered on the bill, as if the wearer has spent months a’plowin’. Take a look at the soft-handed wearer, and the illusion is blown.

People should be who they are, and aspire to be the most civil and most thorough example of that person, whoever that is. They also shouldn’t disdain their roots. Furthermore, people should endeavor to be very, very specific even in jest when picking out a class of people to disparage. Mr. Will’s mistake is to take adult jeans-wearers as a class and, from my reading of his column, to style them as overgrown adolescents. Jeans are not a part of some pre-pubescent “uniform” which we outgrow, like onesies and pants with snaps along the inseam.

Jeans are an option.

It seems that, in jest or not, Mr. Will was judging by appearances. As I remember, Mr. Reagan, when he arrived at his ranch in Santa Barbara, usually shucked the suit and changed into jeans. It was a cowboy thing for an ex-cowboy star, and appropriate. We can’t forget the cowboy connection to denim, and the deep undercurrent of cowboy in many of us. I don’t mean “play cowboy”…or “urban cowboy”…I mean, as the old story goes, replying to the dude who asks the hired hand where his “master” is, that the son-of-a-bitch hasn’t been born yet.

…besides, tippy-tapping this to you from Texas, as I’ve observed either here or on the other thread on this subject, jeans the essential foundation of a properly dressed person often times ’round here. Jeans, silve in conchos on the belt and hatband, a snap-closing shirt with darts that can cost as much as a car payment, and a hat that proclaims ones prosperity as well as one’s “best foot forward”, as folks here’ve said about dressing for church…the more X’s stamped on the sweatband, the more certainty that you’ll need a mortgage to afford the thing.

There’s an entire culture to denim. It’s regional in some cases. Posers need not apply.

I still don’t care for his writing which makes too many assumptions

Denim is the carefully calculated costume of people eager to communicate indifference to appearances.

if Will chose to wear denim I would assume it was carefully contrived

I would not assume it for others. Right now a lot of folk in the lower classes don’t have much more

But yes, it still after so many years is the badge of protest for the arugula crowd. That is because the Boomers are not dead yet. Soon it will all change.

Will could then find a new symbol of indifference if he can outlive his generation

I used to see a lot of denim on the hymies of the pampered crowd that spent time in Ann Arbor being expensively educated on their family’s dime. They were one with the masses they were trampling

But the appearances that people choose to present in public are cues from which we make inferences about their maturity and respect for those to whom they are presenting themselves.

Not a cue. A clue. It is best to measure actions

I agree that taking care to make a show of respect is worthy.

gawd,I hope Kini doesn’t read this!!haha:)

canopfor on April 17, 2009 at 6:52 PM

The Age of Obama

and now the fashion police George Will.

Sheesh! :)

- weddings
- golf course
- opera/symphony/ballet

Unfortunately I have seen more instances than I care to remember of people wearing jeans at each event.

Sorry if I was unclear. I meant unqualified agreement with your statement.

warbaby on April 17, 2009 at 11:39 PM

No problem. Thank you.

This doesn’t even make for an interesting blog post, let alone a nationally-syndicated column from an erudite political commentator. This is a Seinfeldian “What’s up with all the denim?” piece of elitist fluff.

What’s up with Will? I used to idolize this guy and read him avidly in the early 90′s but lately he seems to be creeping towards becoming the Andy Rooney of the right.

aengus on April 17, 2009 at 10:15 PM

Sorry if I was unclear. I meant unqualified agreement with your statement.

My “nice” clothes stay nice as long as I scream at the kids “don’t touch me!!!” before we go out.

Some really impressive homeruns.

But too many strikeouts.

warbaby on April 17, 2009 at 10:03 PM

I’m unable to tell from your comment whether or not you are agreeing with me or making fun of me.

When I was growing up the only people who were interested in dressing down were rich hippie degenerates as if it were a badge of honour.

My kids are generally late for school if I can’t be wearing actual daywear at the dropoff.

Let’s also discuss how the comfy jeans situation is now giving way to track suit/pants wearing in what I would consider professional situations, like parent/teacher nights, dental appointments or restaurants that have table cloths.

Let’s at least LOOK like we’re trying out there folks!

aengus on April 17, 2009 at 9:51 PM

Aengus!!!

Brilliant. I might add that the current stream of ugliness includes an extremely ugly undercurrent of class resentment. The irony is that hip conservatives don’t realize that their “individuality” was in this case dictated by the Left.

I was born poor, and have been much of my life. In my ’40s for a few years I had the reason and the wherewithal to wear nice clothes everyday. Nothing felt better than to wear new clothes and good shoes for the first time, and nothing hurt worse than to feel the resentment of people who treated me like the white man oppressor simply because I dressed well.

I’m quite aware (since the third post) that Will himself intended it as a grand joke. Like Lileks, he is attuned to post-modern irony.

Still, I haven’t changed my position which is that it would be nice if adults dressed their age, instead of aping adolescents by wearing shorts and novelty tshirts.

Jeans are a bad example because they are near enough to trousers and not as a clear indicator of infantilisation as what is oftentimes worn in pubic.

In any case, the post-sixties era of casual clothing has coincided with an era of ugliness in art, architecture, music and every other human endeavour. Ugliness is now the standard it seems.

Spiritk9 on April 17, 2009 at 9:29 PM

Are you, or were you ever a fan of punk rock?

Who the hell cares what anyone else WEARS. I think it’s a stupid style but I don’t run around screaming about the kids here wearing pants that are too big and hanging around their knees, showing the world their glorious red underwear…and by the way, those aren’t jeans either.

To anyone that thinks I need to adhere to anyone’s idea of fashion, here’s a middle finger for you.

Also, in Will’s defense, I have been feeling pretty curmudgeonly about the latest fashion for young women, which is apparently to wear pajama bottoms in public.

Teenage girls have been doing that for about a decade.

Puritan1648 on April 17, 2009 at 8:17 PM

I don’t disagree that George Will lives in a different world than I do – albeit I’ve lived around that one as the poorest guy around, too, and I vastly prefer it to the one where people resent me for wearing khaki pants. The denim world, as amply evidenced by the contents of this thread, is full of inverse self-righteousness and reverse snobbery.

I did, as a matter of fact, read his piece a few days ago, and winced at the line about owning one pair of jeans, which he apparently bought for a Jerry Jeff Walker concert. Any Senator that would hire Jerry Jeff Walker for a rich-folks’ party couldn’t possibly imagine what the band thought of their host. Phony is phony, it’s just that people who think funky clothes make them “authentic” never think to apply the adjective to themselves.

Just to be clear, I’ve been a part-time musician much of my life (for income, not for cool), and playing country music for rich people in weekend cowboy clothes is every bit as offensive as singing for wannabe anarchists wearing prole clothes while living on their parents’ money. You’d be amazed at what you can see from a bandstand.

On the other hand, I’ve been an oratorio soloist in front of orchestras, too, and I’ll promise you, if I could have spent my life among people who own tuxedos I never would have looked back; if for no other reason, people’s manners are nicer in country clubs, even to the hired help.

Sorry, I think all this “let’s dump on George Will” crap is a shuck, and absolutely nothing more than inverted snobbery. I’ve been a blue-collar guy my whole life, and I still like khaki pants and people who aren’t ashamed to look nice.

On any American street, or in any airport or mall, you see the same sad tableau: A 10-year-old boy is walking with his father, whose development was evidently arrested when he was that age, judging by his clothes. Father and son are dressed identically — running shoes, T-shirts. And jeans, always jeans. If mother is there, she, too, is draped in denim.

The kid has a mother and a father! Seems like a lucky kid to me.

Focus on what matters.