My freelance writer/journalistic take:
It used
to be that the denim, traditionally looked down upon as a workman's or cowboy's
wear, is pigmented blue, the shade of the sky using indigo dye. In the Philippines,
the advent of the denim in the early '80s, now called "blue jeans,"
signified Filipino youth's vote of confidence in the coolness factor of
American casual wear, though wearing a pair was much limited to the males.
Every Juan and Pedro wore one to school, to parties and outings. It became all
the rage during my time as a teenager, and because we Filipinos almost blindly
followed what American fashion dictated, any development in the evolution of
the denim would eventually reach our shores: Levi's, Lee, Wrangler, and
ready-to-wear local brands came up with pants of various fits: loose, slim
fits, flared, tapered, tight fits, straight cuts, and so on. There, too, were
changes in the colors used: there were navy-blue jeans, baby-blue jeans, black
jeans, and gray jeans. Soon, girls took to wearing jeans as well. There was a
time when some of the girls wore embroidered and painted jeans. Maybe the
height of jeans-wearing came when some of the men braved wearing traditionally
feminine-color jeans: chiefly, greenish, reddish, and purplish. Even though the
coloration was muted to the point of pastel, the wild fad, as wild fads went,
did not catch on long enough to make a real mark on local pop culture.
It goes
without saying that today's gaudily colored jeans, which have caught on among
the younger men, really are nothing new: they have existing forefathers. What
is unprecedented is the level of gaudiness, with the wearer looking more like
parrots and macaws of the Amazon than human beings. Who would have thought that
jeans would someday rival cheap candies in colorfulness even among wearers when
they are not TV variety-show dancers?
The
origin of this latest evolution, or more like devolution, is presently sketchy.
The reports we have gathered from various sources are varied. One based in
Japan speculates the idea may be originally Japanese, or maybe Korean. Another,
sounding more certain, claims the Koreans -- South Koreans, that is -- should
be the ones credited for the invention. But a male reporter claims it is a
Dutch invention. Someone reporting from England refuses to make a claim, but
observes that colored jeans are currently hot items in London, particular now
that spring is near. It is also currently a trending item among young Japanese
men, says the Japanese correspondent.
No
matter, the effect of neon-colored jeans among the darker-skinned Filipinos is
iffy at best and trying-hard at most. As what happened in the '80s, I hereby
predict the reign of colored jeans to be as short-lived as a telenovela that
bombs.
My
postmodern take:
The denim
has evolved from "an essential channel of comportment" (Strauss, Lee,
& Wrangler, 1798, pp. 56-57) among the more oppressed sectors of the
proletariat to an item of whimsy among the progeny of the bourgeouisie in
the urban subcultures if not something totally nugatory, its meaning of
redemptive value only when perceived in the framework of the Western-to-Eastern
infusion of cultural preferences or orientations post-Empire. As per
Wittgenstein (1987) and Derrida (1988, 1993) or even Barthes (2010) and
Baudrillard (2011), the canalization of its interpretation in the bifurcating
realms of (ill-)fittings and (dis-)coloration may only be impactful when
considered in the contextualization of gender-centered differences, if not
histo-geographic and psychosocioeconomic ramifications, i.e., in terms of the
extant, palpable modes of preferences.
What I
really wanted to say:
Today's
colored jeans shock, if not traumatize, with their untold ugliness, and are
particularly unbecoming for men past adolescent age. Me, I won't even try. I
especially hate the colorful "jeggings" (jeans + leggins, get it?)
because they give me sore eyes.
Actually
I am just envious because I am too old now to wear them.
(Wait,
there must be an app for this, translating plain language into postmodern
unintelligibility. Tee-hee!)
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