Takes all types

There’s something rugged and dark in the world of jeans or you can lighten up for the impending summer – if you dare. Georgia Lewis reports on the jeans that could be adorning your lower half soon.

February 2008

When Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis invented jeans back in 1873 as workwear, he certainly didn’t have high fashion in mind. Indeed, before they were called jeans, they had the distinctly unfashionable name of ‘waist overalls’ and were definitely not selling for several hundred bucks a pair.

But what started out as a hard-wearing, practical, generic item of clothing has evolved over the years to the point where every season, there’s something either new in the world of jeans. Or the designers just go and revive a trend from a past era if it all seems a bit too much to think of something new and different.

This season, there is no one overwhelming, all-powerful jeans trend. There’s something, it seems, for all types and there are plenty of different interpretations on the garment formerly known as waist overalls.

The good news for men who don’t want to be too kooky and out-there with their denim is that there are plenty of dark days ahead. Solid, dark denim will, most likely, never be out of fashion.

Dark days ahead

If you’re after a classic pair of dark denims that’ll pretty much never date, we highly recommend investing in Dunhill’s dark indigo, straight-leg selvedge jeans. They come in two cuts – classic fit and slimmer fit for those blessed with Mick Jagger hips and bags of confidence.

If you don’t look upon jeans as an investment and prefer to take a more disposable approach to getting kitted out in denim, there’s always Splash and its multiple labels all in the one shop. Their Nexus and Yishion labels are doing the simple dark thing at the right price while the Retro label has relaxed fit dark jeans with a vintage look. Splash’s own label has added a few more details for more of a nightclub look, especially when teamed with fitted shirts and cool hats.

Paul Smith has launched a series of photos of men in tents – before you start thinking Brokeback Mountain, the PR blurb says the jeans are inspired by the age of the explorer. The jeans are in earth shades and there have even been adornments such as hemp rope, weathered wooden toggle and leather drawstrings. Very outdoorsy indeed. Along with the jeans, Paul Smith is urging you to further embrace the outdoor vibe with duffel coats, double-pocketed officer’s shirts and cinched-back explorer trousers with mismatched pockets.

Seeing the light

Over at Lacoste, things are all sweetness and light with a summer collection that actually looks summer. Screaming ‘day at the beach’, Lacoste sent models of both sexes down the runway in bright orange shorts, T-shirts and polo shirts and plenty of white. Amid the clothes that required sunglasses, there were some jeans to be found in a very pale denim indeed. If you’re still having flashbacks of 1981 through 1991 at the thought of such pallid pants, there’s a pair in a darker blue – but not nearly as dark as Dunhill. We’re talking a straight cut, conservative, high school goody-goody cut that Lacoste suggests you team with a checked shirt. That or a polo shirt is probably about the only appropriate match for these jeans. And for the truly brave – or those who are just mad about summer – Lacoste interprets jeans as jean-cut cotton trousers in bold shades such as red, white and black, if you’re feeling a bit conservative.

As a contrast to the skintight and saucepot jeans they generally reserve for the women, Diesel mixes it up with dark jeans cut to hang loose as well as rather stitched up jeans in pale greys. They’re scrunched over boots for a combative look.

Reiss also goes for grey with straight cut ankle-freezers – and these are the more conservative of the collection. Trousers with a jeans cut, like Lacoste’s summer strides, are also the order of the day at Reiss. Again, white makes an appearance as does a rather fetching shade of pale chartreuse.

Kenzo, as ever, strays away from the mainstream as well – although the crazy prints and plaids make way for neutral colours to offset the spring/summer collection’s fabulous array of jackets and hats.

If you’re after a basic pair of blue jeans this year, you might have to look a bit harder, but if you’re feeling adventurous, there’s plenty on offer. Just remember to consider your body type when you experiment with different cuts and if you’re not sure about either going straight and skinny or baggy and combative, for the love of all that is good, please ask someone you trust.