jean-etics

Catalystic Jeans art work in St. Andrew's square as part of the Science Festival. I think the denim soaks up pollution or someit?

In my own smarty pants way I think they missed a trick and should have displayed them as X and Y chromosomes. I was meeting my cousin Anne who's a medical student and we started discussing what we think we have inherited and what's an adaption or environmentally formed.

Spoiler alert - I don't resolve such issues in this blip or go on to pick up a nobel prize. I mainly just whitter on..

Denim does make me think of my parents though. My dad had the same pair of blue jeans forever. Probably because he still thinks he's 18. They were washed out and marked with every indentation of his wallet in the back pocket. Mum however I never really saw in jeans so much as a denim maternity dress that haunted my sister's pregnancies as a benchmark of the body horror to come. This fear wasn't just about the retro 70's dungaree tailoring, it was the "bad mood" Mum who would occupy the dress, understandably knackered and irritable, for 9 months. I remember my oldest sister Larissa converted a bleached denim jacket to have leather cuffs and collar to go out clubbing in the early 90's. I remember thinking that was so cool. My Dad wasn't too impressed with the holes left in his leather jacket, but she was number one daughter and forgiveness was infuriatingly easily granted.

Me? I spent most of my teenage years ripping up old jeans handed down to me or scrounged from charity shops, before a brief flirtation with shorts, cords and flares at uni. After that I think I ended up as a standard skinny fit kinda gal with a size that is freakishly between sizes. How monstrous of me. I also have an impudent curvy shape that demands, despite all my longings otherwise, a big enough entry point for my bum and, as I get older, my fabulous running calves, as well as somehow still gathering at the waist enough to prevent habitual loop tugging over the hips. Oh yea and actually be long enough to decently cover my ankles. Anyone else remember the euphemism that your budgy had died? It was a real eureka moment when I learned jeans can come with 2% Lycra woven in, making them a helluva lot comfier and flexible for extreme day to day activities such as sitting down crossed legged, drunken yoga and random tree-climbing.

These days I've went the whole hog into jegging territory but not the nasty cheap spray on kind. No sirree. Topshop do a good range that are fairly thick and have pockets, zip, texture etc... liberating comfortable fashion is an important moral principle for me. As is charity shop over high street, organic/fairtrade over sweatshop (if I can afford it) and vintage over new. All very worthy and boring, wish cash flow allowed me to adhere to them more often.

Like no other item of clothing jeans probably are unique to you in shape, colour, origins etc... What do your's say about you?