UK Edition
Wearing jeans caked in mud usually means one of three things: you’re a farmer, a labourer or a five-year-old who has rolled down a hill.
If you’re wearing this particular pair, it also means you’re the height of fashion. The £350 denims on sale at luxury retailer Nordstrom come complete with mud stains.
The jeans have “a crackled, caked-on muddy coating that shows you’re not afraid to get down and dirty”, according to the marketing blurb, which adds that they are based on “rugged Americana workwear”.
The fact that they are also machine washable suggests that the mud isn’t exactly authentic. Nor is the ‘Americana’ tag entirely : although designed by New York label PRPS, they are manufactured in Portugal from Japanese denim.
The “heavily distressed medium-blue denim jeans in a comfortable straight-leg fit” are from PRPS’s ‘Barracuda’ range, and come with a matching “mud denim jacket” for the same price. Other styles are named ‘Krill’, ‘Phytoplankton’, ‘Outer Space’ and ‘Radiation’, and come with artfully designed holes and rips. One pair are doused in red paint, lending the wearer the air of someone who has either spilt ketchup on their trousers or been stabbed in the abdomen.
On Nordstrom’s own website, shoppers were quick to scoff. “Gotta love being able to look like I have fed the pigs, helped deliver a calf, and got the tractor unstuck without ever having to leave my BMW,” one wrote. Another asked if the “deluxe” model came covered in cow manure.
Mike Rowe, who presented the Discovery Channel series Dirty Jobs in which he tried out occupations ranging from demolition worker to ostrich wrangler, took umbrage at the muddy jeans.
“They’re not even fashion. They’re a costume for wealthy people who see work as ironic,” he said in a blog post. Underneath, one man had written: “Shoot, Mike, I work in the oilfield and you just helped me realise I have a goldmine hanging in my closet.”
Another said: “I am a farrier. After working under horses, at the anvil and in the mud I shall return home, carefully remove my work jeans, perhaps autograph and date them inside the front pocket (for quality control purposes), photograph and sell to the highest bidder on eBay.”
The days when ripped jeans were the height of daring are long gone. Nordstrom was ridiculed last month for selling jeans that featured clear plastic panels over the knees, although they were a more purse-friendly £49.
Topshop recently launched a pair of entirely transparent jeans, made of clear plastic, for £55. They are currently sold out. One review on the store’s website said: “9/10, would recommend but they do have a slight problem with VPL.”
The most current trend is for cropped jeans with a frayed hem - easily achievable with a pair of scissors and a ruler.
