Ripped denim and politics, two sides of the same coin

The goodness of badass nails the appeal of the garment currently under the scanner of India’s culture police – torn jeans.

The recent kerfuffle over Indian women wearing ripped jeans, triggered by the comments of Uttarakhand CM Tirath Singh Rawat, brought to mind a bit performed by Finnish comedian Ismo. It’s about his confusion, after moving to the US, about the meaning of the word ‘ass’.

“If you add ‘ass’ to something it can actually reverse the meaning of the original word,” Ismo says. “For example, ‘badass’. ‘Bad’ is bad but ‘badass’ is good.”

The goodness of badass nails the appeal of the garment currently under the scanner of India’s culture police – torn jeans. It is possible that crack investigative teams are fanned out across the country, with someone saying, CID style, ‘Daya, wardrobe tod do. Lagta hai ripped jeans hai.”

The denim debate saw a coming together of two worlds – politics and fashion – that seem disparate but are closely linked. They also provide us entertainment. The analyses of politicians of anything slightly bold, or which threatens the male’s exalted position in Indian life, are often hilariously simplistic and transparent. Just as Americans add ‘ass’ to everything, our politicians tag ‘against Indian culture’, or its close variant, when protesting something.

Rawat’s culture radar started flashing when, on a flight, he encountered a woman who wore ripped jeans, ran an NGO and had two children. To Rawat, such incongruity seemed inexplicable.

“I was coming back from Jaipur, the next day was Karvachauth,” the CM said. “When I was on the plane and one sister was sitting next to me, I saw that she was wearing torn jeans. I asked her what she does. She told me she runs an NGO. She had children with her. What sanskaar is this?”

Madhya Pradesh agriculture minister Kamal Patel supported Rawat’s point. “It is our duty to save our culture,” he said. “We should maintain our dignity. Our culture never promoted ripped and short clothes. In our culture, women used to wear a lot of clothes but people from western countries used to wear short clothes or no clothes. By following western culture, people are spoiling our own culture.”

Indian politicians would be lovable if they were not corrupt and dangerous, such is their comedic element

There have been gunshot jeans and jeans run over by a lawnmower. There are jeans with paint splatters that look no different from what many workmen wear in India and elsewhere. In Japan, some five years ago, there was a short-lived but exciting experiment called Zoo jeans. Denim-wrapped tyres were left in enclosures of lions and tigers at Kamine zoo. The big cats would bite and scratch the tyre. The fabric would then be retrieved and turned into $1,000 jeans.

Such experiments are fine, and mostly fun, especially when their price tags are sensible. Worn within reason, distressed clothes look sexy too. The more complex issue has been of grunge products from luxe labels that command stratospheric prices. There was a major controversy when Italian sneaker brand Golden Goose released a shabby pair of shoes with duct tape costing about $600. They were accused of ‘poverty appropriation’. Exclusive denim brand PRPS had a pair of muddy jeans for $425. And Maison Margiela had sneakers that looked like they were chewed up by a dog for $1,425.

But at least brands don’t impose upon you their ideas of what you should wear.