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2 Jul 2008-07-02 16:09

Fashion gone berserk

Okay, this is just ludicrous.

Too lazy to paint a house yourself?

Too lazy to paint a house yourself?

That’s right kiddies, JCrew sells pre-paint stained jeans. For those people too lazy to paint a house, now you can look like you’ve actually been working too, but without all that pain in the ass “labor”.

I understood the patched jeans fad. The scuffed torn thing, I got. The wrong size thing was weird to me, and god help me I even understand stone-washed. But this is simply too far out there for me. Not because of the look, although they look terrible, but because of the price.

Those jeans cost $285.

That’s right. Take one $60-$80 pair of jeans, add $1 worth of white paint, and charge $285 for it.

Note the salesmanship tactics they use in the description. Emphasis is mine:

A hand-crafted collector’s item in authentic selvedge cotton denim from one of Japan’s oldest and most renowned mills. We spend hours on each pair to create a unique jean for the most discerning denim connoisseur, so we have only a handful available—and no two are quite alike. Each one is made with denim woven on the original 100-year-old narrow looms. Each pair is stonewashed, hand-distressed, hand-splattered with paint and hand-finished, giving it the kind of character only individual attention can impart. Button fly. Traditional five-pocket styling, with reinforced back pockets. Import. Machine wash. Catalog/jcrew.com only.

My questions about this copy are two-fold:

  1. Who the hell considers themselves to be a “discerning denim connoisseur”?
  2. I wonder if this sort of sales pitch really obscures the fact that you’re paying damn near $300 for a pair of pre-ruined jeans?
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Posted in Linkery, Thingery | -

5 Comments

  • tamara Says:

    Yet another reason I haven’t shopped with J. Crew for at least five years.

    You should have a category for asshattery.

  • Кевин Says:

    If people will pay $285 for this crap then I’ll get myself a tin of crappy focus own brand white paint and 35p tesco value jeans, apply paint and add torn effects and then I’ll sell my painted & torn jeans for $385.

    Any takers? Just check out the site http://www.imsogulliblepleasejusttakemymoney.com
    and for a LIMITED TIME ONLY with every purchase a Nigerian Prince will offer you his fortune.

  • Shirley Says:

    Yes, I’ve been off of JCrew for a while now too… I can’t believe that people would buy this. I mean, where could you wear it… I suppose if a guy were trying to impress a girl, he could say that he was out working on a Habitat house, but outside of that?

    Hey Кевин, we should partner up. I’m planning to open my own exclusive denim shoppe. :-)

  • Upfi Says:

    Hai Otto,

    cayme across u at teh lolcats and laiked ur commints on ninja ineffishuncee in grate numburs and thought ai’d
    click ur bloo linkie. Ai layk ur random thingies bery mush, but ai won’t buy u a beer. U R welkum 2 cum and C mee
    in Munich (Jermanee), hoam of teh beer brooers, and ai’ll gladly buy u a beer dere. Kthxbai.

  • mccormicky Says:

    I’m kicking myself for tossing all my art school days jeans.I threw out a gold mine!And my jeans had more paint colors on them than just titanium white.
    Who was it that said “noone ever lost a buck underestimating the taste of the American public”, PT Barnum?

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