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About In which I am, perhaps, shallow

Previous Entry In which I am, perhaps, shallow Oct. 5th, 2011 @ 10:37 am Next Entry
The other day, my housemate told me about a story he'd seen on the BBC news website (I think), where the headline was: "Should We Stop Buying Stone-Washed Jeans?"

Apparently the stone-wash effect is achieved by sand-blasting them, often in Turkey, in factories where the health and safety standards are a bit, well, sub-standard. (He suggested they should rebrand them as "Silicosis-Washed Jeans".)

The thing is that the explanation of why buying stone-washed jeans (in Britain, possibly everywhere) is immoral is somewhat superfluous. And by somewhat I mean completely. It's been more than twenty years since the 80s ended. The answer to the question, "Should we stop buying stone-washed jeans?" is, quite clearly, "Yes. Yes, you should."

What's next, a push for fair trade shoulderpads and neon stirrup pants?
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From:[personal profile] willow
Date: October 5th, 2011 06:52 am (UTC)
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Uhmm did they mean acide washed jeans? Cause I went to a jean factory as a child, and I saw the actual 'stones'. I forget what chemical they're made up of. But it's stones and an industrial washing machine; at least back then.

And what?

I haven't seen stone washed jeans in ages. So there has to be some other thing he's talking about; faded jeans? That pissy yellow tint colour on jeans? What?

Health issues for workers being extremely important. But what in France was this man really talking about?
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From:[personal profile] sami
Date: October 5th, 2011 07:08 am (UTC)
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What I suspect is that it's cheaper to get jeans sandblasted in Turkey than to wash with stones, and that Britain is full of fashion failure.

Seriously. Although, yeah, that picture doesn't really match my vague recollection of what stonewashed jeans looked like when I was a kid, either.

I recall stonewashed as the ones that looked like the dye was sort of worn off only on the surface.

Health issues for workers are important. But it's kind of mindblowing to me when it gets to the point where it's for completely unnecessary degradation of clothing.
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From:[personal profile] willow
Date: October 5th, 2011 07:22 am (UTC)
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The first two at this link look like I remember acid wash:
http://www.awesomehq.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/stonewash.jpg

The last looks somewhat stone washed at the top.

This one also looks stone washed as I remember it.
https://donaonca.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/rihanna-stone-washed-jeans.jpg?w=550&h=591

All this time I've been thinking the jeans as the one you liked to as being 'pre worn' style.

And yeah, people are suffering so 'fashionistas' can have jeans that look as if they've been comfortably worn in? Just throw it in the wash yourself for a cycle or two in hot water.

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From:[personal profile] sami
Date: October 5th, 2011 08:28 am (UTC)
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The last one on that first picture almost looks tie-dyed to me, down at the leg. The second picture looks most like stone-washed as I remember it.

I think the English are calling faded jeans stone-washed because they're just not very good.

If you want your jeans to look faded only on one side, you could also just leave them lying in the sun for a bit.
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