Posted on 04/20/2002 5:10:32 PM PDT by Pokey78
REBECCA TYRREL reports on how waistlines have sunk so far that even calling them hipsters is less than accurate
Over at YKK in New York, where every year they make 1.5 million miles of zips, Bernie Rubin, the senior vice-president of global marketing, says zips are definitely getting shorter.
And why is that? Because of the very fashionable hipster, otherwise known as the low-cut jean and the super-low-cut jean and the surely soon to be marketed "so-low-you-will-be-arrested-for-indecent-exposure-if you-leave-the-house-wearing-that" jean.
"How low can you go?" the pundits are asking. A shockingly short three-inch rise has been talked about, the rise being the distance between crotch and waist. (The standard rise on a pair of traditional jeans is 12 inches.)
Bernie Rubin must be out of his mind with worry: the shorter the rise the shorter the zip, the smaller the profits for YKK and the greater the takings for the bikini-waxing businesses.
But at YKK they are taking it in their stride. "Though these low-rise garments are newsworthy," says Bernie patiently, "the bulk of denim and cotton twill pants use normal-length zippers, as in the past."
By pants, Bernie of course means trousers. Pants as we know them, i.e. knickers, and the question of how they should be worn with the low-cut jean, are providing another subject for heated debate that last year led to Becky Dainton, a credit controller from Bedford, being banned from the Northampton branch of Kentucky Fried Chicken for exposing her underwear - a black G-string.
"I have never heard of anything so ridiculous," says Becky. "Thousands of girls wear hipsters and it is hard to hide the top of your knickers."
Becky is right. Thousands of girls are wearing hipsters. So many that the jeans companies have invented a whole new vocabulary to deal with the phenomenon.
"This season," says Gary Berman of Levi's, the American jeans company established in 1837, "we launched the 544 super-low-rise and in August we will launch the 555, which is an XX low jean - twice as low as the 544.
But the thing about the XX low jean is that it will have a tilted seam, which means that while they are low at the front they are higher at the back. This keeps your bum in the right place so you don't have that horrible panty line coming up over the top and you don't have your bum cheeks showing."
Over at Lee Cooper, the UK jeans and casual wear label, a spokesman says: "We have three hipsters: the 'skimmers', which skim the hips; the 'so lows', which come just below the hips; and the 'way lows', which show as much as you can possibly get away with.
"We also launched a range of jeans called 'Butt Couture', which exposes bum cleavage."
The interesting thing about a pair of Butt Couture jeans - this range has, not surprisingly, received a lot of press coverage - is that the waistband parts company with the rest of the denim when the wearer sits, thereby leaving a gap that exposes the buttocks.
"This was stylishly done and is a big-seller," says the Lee Cooper spokesman with conviction, "and this year we are launching a range called hipothesis that shows off the hip, because our research shows that this is the most sensual part of the body."
The hip perhaps, but the buttock? The bare bottom? The builder's cleavage? Even on a supermodel? Lizzie Disney, a British designer known for her low-cut trousers, controversially raised the cut of her hipsters in her collection for the French fashion house Jacques Fath this season.
"The trend for lower cuts has been going on for seasons and seasons and I got bored with it," she says.
"And there is a limit. If it is too low it really can be vulgar, although just at the right point it can be very sexy. I think seeing just a bit of the hip bone but hiding the bum is very flattering."
Tom Ford, who as long ago as 1995 designed the Gucci velvet hipsters worn by Madonna, has also had enough.
This season he revived the higher waist, widened the legs and dropped the crotch, which, odd thought it may sound, suddenly looked rather modern. Good news for YKK then.
Apparently not. Daniella Clarke, who three years ago launched Frankie B, the stratospherically trendy jeans company that within two years was making $1.5 million in sales, insists: "Low-rise jeans are here to stay. They are the perfect jean because they are sexy and comfortable."
Daniella, who is married to the former Guns 'N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke, says: "They are really flattering and really forgiving. How I design is, I look in my closet and say, 'What do I want now? I want some low-waisted sweats.' "
Low-waisted sweats? Super low-waisted sweats? Super-sweaty-low-waisters? Presumably these are suitable for wear in the gym, somewhere with which the devotee of low-cut trousers will, with all that exposed torso flesh, by necessity become very familiar. Such is the expanse of skin on show that the word midriff barely seems to cover it these days.
Nicky Lawson, a personal trainer at the gym Holmes Place, warned of the dangers of focusing simply on the stomach.
"If you overwork the abdominal muscles without doing any core exercises you could end up creating a muscular imbalance that could lead to lower back pain," she says.
The waxing required to wear such low jeans can also cause transitory dermatitis. Not that anyone determined enough to go sheep-like into the throng - or should that be thong? - will pay any regard to the health warnings that traditionally attach themselves to controversial fashion moments.
The whisper on the street, meanwhile, is that a fashionable jeans company is about to launch an even lower-slung jean than ever.
Rumour is that it will be called the "what-do-you-think-you-look-like-no-daughter-of-mine-is-going-out-looking-like-that-for-heaven's sake-go-and-cover-yourself-up-girl!" jean.
No question, she is going comando...
Its nice to have the luxury of this being an issue. :-).
What beach? I'm there!
I'll bring you Pina Coladas....
I thought they were called zippers.
I come to the FreeRepublic for good articles and discussions of politics and liberty. And I'm not disappointed.
But all that heavy-duty thought process is more fun when there's an occasional article on new women's fashion.
On a related topic, does anyone know what happened to that thread from a few days ago about the Catholic shool uniforms in Canada? That one might have gotten pulled just as it was getting good.
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