Nights in white denim
Bundle your blue jeans off to the charity shop - Liz Hurley's favourite trousers are finally fashionable again. Caroline Roux reports
[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Friday May 20, 2005
The Guardian
[/font][font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]In the mid-1980s, anyone who was anyone had a pair of white jeans. The real addicts even had the matching white jean jacket. All you needed was a pair of Dr Martens and you could go anywhere, but especially Barcelona, which had suddenly become the coolest place on earth. (I have a photograph somewhere of myself combining the two, white jeans in the Parc Guell, but that's for another time.)
But in fashion terms, the mid-1980s are ancient history. White jeans have become, in recent years, something of a fashion joke. In a highly scientific game of word association with friends and colleagues, two words crop up time and again in relation to white jeans: Liz and Hurley. One of Ms Hurley's most recidivist practices has been the continuous wearing of white jeans through a long period (1990 to now) when they have not been in fashion. At all. She rarely leaves the house without them, teamed with a brightly coloured cardigan, a fancy handbag and, occasionally, a large baby. White jeans for women are evocative of all things wrong in fashion: the heavily ironed gentility of Ralph Lauren (white jeans, navy blazer); the all-white overstatement of Donatella Versace; the hooker-in-the-hotel-bar style of a spray-tanned bottom rippling beneath white denim stretched to its Elastane limit; middle-period Samantha Fox. Donatella even brought out a perfume called White Jeans in 1997. You couldn't get more wrong than that.
So it is with some difficulty I have to inform you, ladies, that white jeans are back. "I'm wearing them right now," says Anita Borzyszkowska, spokeperson for Gap, which has introduced lots of new styles for the summer, including one that Joss Stone wears in the American advertising for the store. "We sold out every pair last week," says Yasmin Sewell, womenswear buyer for the hip Browns Focus boutique in London. "You don't have to be a size eight to wear them now. With all the well-cut makes - Seven, For All Mankind and so on - you just need to find the one that suits you." For those of you left unconvinced, I say to you: Kate Moss. She's been wearing Frayed Misfit by Sass + Bide, a skinny, unforgiving drainpipe. I rest my case.
These are not the white jeans of the mid- to late 1980s (think Wham! - George Michael was an enthusiastic early adopter circa 1985), or of the Eurotrash matching-jeans-and hyperbleached-teeth set. Not the metro-country style of the lovely Hurley. Nor the tight, white, make-mine-a-camel-toe variety. They might be skinny, or cropped, or roll-up (Marc Jacobs), or with a sailor-style bib front (Topshop online), and they are a good way to tone down the flounce and decoration of much of summer's fashion.
For men, white jeans have never been far away. David Hemmings gave them enduring credibility as far back as 1966's Blow Up. Peter Saville, the much feted ice-cool graphic designer responsible for many seminal record sleeves from Joy Division onwards, has worn white Helmut Lang denim almost daily since the 80s, often teamed with a black cashmere sweater and Chelsea boots. The effect is more lounge lizard than male Liz. Hedi Slimane has super slender ones at Dior Homme. They are a Paul Smith staple. Perhaps more significantly, Gap has brought out three new styles for the summer - its first shot at men's white jeans for years. "They're very different from the 80s ones," says Borzyszkowska. She suggests boys wear them with a pair of Converse and a bright polo shirt.
"I've never been without them, not since I was 20," says Jasper Conran, who does a classic baggy cut which this month has been selling fast. "I was wearing them in New York once, and someone said you shouldn't wear white before Labour Day. I thought, bugger that. You should wear whatever makes you happy. And white jeans make me happy every time."
Robert Elms, author of the recent The Way We Wore and self-confessed fashion addict and laundry obsessive, can't quite bring himself to put on a pair. "I'd have a panic attack if they got a mark on them. I'd have to go home and change." But he does agree they seem right for the moment. "It's time for people to care again," he says. "We've had enough of the slovenly look; underwear as outerwear; tracksuits. Sportswear is for sport."
White jeans do suggest a high-maintenance lifestyle (and a high-maintenance body, if worn skinny). "They are partly about our obsession with cleanliness," says Dean Aslett, VIP executive of Selfridges (the guy who looks after the celebs). "And the fact that white as a colour is back with a vengeance. People on the pulse of fashion are buying them. Nicky Haslam was here two weeks ago." You might think twice about making like Nicky, but he does know what's going on, even if he insists on wearing it all at once.
You may or may not agree with Richard Gray, spokesperson for Harvey Nichols in Leeds and London, who says that for women, "White denim works with a gypsy top and gold high heels." Doubtless it does if you also iron your extended hair and can fit all your possessions (including your glass-finish lipgloss) into a clutch bag, but this is not a look for everyone. Gray makes the point, however, that white jeans are a way of dodging fashion's pronouncement that in catwalk terms, the jeans-as-eveningwear look is over. "Women have found a perfect uniform in jeans, heels and sexy top. It makes them look good, and they're not prepared to move too far on. But they do want to look more modern. Dark denim has been around for ages now. White looks fresh and new," says Gray.
"We need an alternative to combats and cargo pants and ironic snow-washed denim finishes," says stylist Simon Foxton, who remembers the very first time he used white Levi's, for an i-D shoot in 1986 teamed with MA1 flying jackets. "White denim is the clearest option, and with so much colour around, it's a relief as well." But perhaps longstanding fashion PR Mandi Lennard sums it up best. "There's a glut of blue jeans now. Your granny wears jeans. And when your granny wears jeans, you can't. You have to find an alternative." So here it is, with the jeans walking out of the stores like they can do it on their own. And the Liz factor? "You seem to have overlooked the fact," says Conran, "that many women would give their eye teeth to look like Liz Hurley." And do you know what, I had.
It HAD to happen .
But do we have enough for the dry cleaning bills or packets of the VERY best detergent ?
[/font]
Bundle your blue jeans off to the charity shop - Liz Hurley's favourite trousers are finally fashionable again. Caroline Roux reports
[font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Friday May 20, 2005
The Guardian
[/font][font=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]In the mid-1980s, anyone who was anyone had a pair of white jeans. The real addicts even had the matching white jean jacket. All you needed was a pair of Dr Martens and you could go anywhere, but especially Barcelona, which had suddenly become the coolest place on earth. (I have a photograph somewhere of myself combining the two, white jeans in the Parc Guell, but that's for another time.)
But in fashion terms, the mid-1980s are ancient history. White jeans have become, in recent years, something of a fashion joke. In a highly scientific game of word association with friends and colleagues, two words crop up time and again in relation to white jeans: Liz and Hurley. One of Ms Hurley's most recidivist practices has been the continuous wearing of white jeans through a long period (1990 to now) when they have not been in fashion. At all. She rarely leaves the house without them, teamed with a brightly coloured cardigan, a fancy handbag and, occasionally, a large baby. White jeans for women are evocative of all things wrong in fashion: the heavily ironed gentility of Ralph Lauren (white jeans, navy blazer); the all-white overstatement of Donatella Versace; the hooker-in-the-hotel-bar style of a spray-tanned bottom rippling beneath white denim stretched to its Elastane limit; middle-period Samantha Fox. Donatella even brought out a perfume called White Jeans in 1997. You couldn't get more wrong than that.
So it is with some difficulty I have to inform you, ladies, that white jeans are back. "I'm wearing them right now," says Anita Borzyszkowska, spokeperson for Gap, which has introduced lots of new styles for the summer, including one that Joss Stone wears in the American advertising for the store. "We sold out every pair last week," says Yasmin Sewell, womenswear buyer for the hip Browns Focus boutique in London. "You don't have to be a size eight to wear them now. With all the well-cut makes - Seven, For All Mankind and so on - you just need to find the one that suits you." For those of you left unconvinced, I say to you: Kate Moss. She's been wearing Frayed Misfit by Sass + Bide, a skinny, unforgiving drainpipe. I rest my case.
These are not the white jeans of the mid- to late 1980s (think Wham! - George Michael was an enthusiastic early adopter circa 1985), or of the Eurotrash matching-jeans-and hyperbleached-teeth set. Not the metro-country style of the lovely Hurley. Nor the tight, white, make-mine-a-camel-toe variety. They might be skinny, or cropped, or roll-up (Marc Jacobs), or with a sailor-style bib front (Topshop online), and they are a good way to tone down the flounce and decoration of much of summer's fashion.
For men, white jeans have never been far away. David Hemmings gave them enduring credibility as far back as 1966's Blow Up. Peter Saville, the much feted ice-cool graphic designer responsible for many seminal record sleeves from Joy Division onwards, has worn white Helmut Lang denim almost daily since the 80s, often teamed with a black cashmere sweater and Chelsea boots. The effect is more lounge lizard than male Liz. Hedi Slimane has super slender ones at Dior Homme. They are a Paul Smith staple. Perhaps more significantly, Gap has brought out three new styles for the summer - its first shot at men's white jeans for years. "They're very different from the 80s ones," says Borzyszkowska. She suggests boys wear them with a pair of Converse and a bright polo shirt.
"I've never been without them, not since I was 20," says Jasper Conran, who does a classic baggy cut which this month has been selling fast. "I was wearing them in New York once, and someone said you shouldn't wear white before Labour Day. I thought, bugger that. You should wear whatever makes you happy. And white jeans make me happy every time."
Robert Elms, author of the recent The Way We Wore and self-confessed fashion addict and laundry obsessive, can't quite bring himself to put on a pair. "I'd have a panic attack if they got a mark on them. I'd have to go home and change." But he does agree they seem right for the moment. "It's time for people to care again," he says. "We've had enough of the slovenly look; underwear as outerwear; tracksuits. Sportswear is for sport."
White jeans do suggest a high-maintenance lifestyle (and a high-maintenance body, if worn skinny). "They are partly about our obsession with cleanliness," says Dean Aslett, VIP executive of Selfridges (the guy who looks after the celebs). "And the fact that white as a colour is back with a vengeance. People on the pulse of fashion are buying them. Nicky Haslam was here two weeks ago." You might think twice about making like Nicky, but he does know what's going on, even if he insists on wearing it all at once.
You may or may not agree with Richard Gray, spokesperson for Harvey Nichols in Leeds and London, who says that for women, "White denim works with a gypsy top and gold high heels." Doubtless it does if you also iron your extended hair and can fit all your possessions (including your glass-finish lipgloss) into a clutch bag, but this is not a look for everyone. Gray makes the point, however, that white jeans are a way of dodging fashion's pronouncement that in catwalk terms, the jeans-as-eveningwear look is over. "Women have found a perfect uniform in jeans, heels and sexy top. It makes them look good, and they're not prepared to move too far on. But they do want to look more modern. Dark denim has been around for ages now. White looks fresh and new," says Gray.
"We need an alternative to combats and cargo pants and ironic snow-washed denim finishes," says stylist Simon Foxton, who remembers the very first time he used white Levi's, for an i-D shoot in 1986 teamed with MA1 flying jackets. "White denim is the clearest option, and with so much colour around, it's a relief as well." But perhaps longstanding fashion PR Mandi Lennard sums it up best. "There's a glut of blue jeans now. Your granny wears jeans. And when your granny wears jeans, you can't. You have to find an alternative." So here it is, with the jeans walking out of the stores like they can do it on their own. And the Liz factor? "You seem to have overlooked the fact," says Conran, "that many women would give their eye teeth to look like Liz Hurley." And do you know what, I had.
It HAD to happen .
But do we have enough for the dry cleaning bills or packets of the VERY best detergent ?
[/font]
and i found a gorgeous straight pair at Zara but in the end i feel although i'd love to wear them, everytime i put them on i just feel like they're too much for me at the moment 
