Skinny: The New Regular

Posted: March 23, 2012

Dear Lee, Levis and other denim folks, it may interest you to know that I have been trying to buy a pair jeans this last one month. I visited your stores. Once. Then once again.

I have been told by your helpful sales staff that skinny is what is in this season. Therefore row upon row of skinny jeans grace your shelves. Skinny in every colour – and a few different waist sizes too. In fact, at one store, a salesperson even showed me a skinny and a super skinny, and suggested that I could perhaps squeeze myself into the regular skinny, even if I couldn’t quite manage super skinny.

Unfortunately, my body has become decidedly un-skinny ever since I crossed 30. I know you must have a bevy of fashion analysts, trend forecasters and whatnots who decide what each season’s ‘hottest trend’ should be. Maybe they even look at the runways in Paris, Milan and New York and get those happening, fashionable trends down for the benefit of us humble folk

I know that’s how the fashion magazines tell us that this summer, fuchsia, cyan, primrose and scarlet are in, while in winter, nothing will do but for all of us to be covered in azure, cerulean, khaki and indigo. But you see, bodies don’t yo-yo like that.

I mean, even with all the dieting that us virtuous women are expected to do, I don’t quite see how I could shave enough off my well-constructed thighs to ever fit into your skinny jeans. My body continues its own ‘out-of-fashion’ journey, and really, is it so hard to continue making stuff for me while selling your skinny to whoever wants it?

It’s not just me either. Talk to every other Indian woman, especially those of us who are past our twenties, and you will hear us crib about jeans that don’t accommodate our bodies. And lest you think it is our bodies that are the problem, no, not really. Our bodies are fantastic as they are, thank you.

So, if the customer is king (or queen in this case), could you start making stuff we could use comfortably rather than having to think how our bodies might be remolded to fit your fashionable skinny?

Thank you.

Pic credit: Santiago Alvarez (Used under a Creative Commons license)