It’s been a fashion in some circles off and on for some years. It seems to go and come, save your ire for something more important. I agree that it seems silly though. (I just had to read “what the hell” in you Q to know it ws written by you. :-) )

Well gee, thanks for the vote of no confidence. LOL

I was going to say: seems like this is a fad that’s been going on for some time and it seems to go in cycles (it didn’t make any sense when it started and it doesn’t make any sense now). When I was in high school, skinny jeans were all the rage, but now young people think skinny jeans are for old, obnoxious millennials. I’m sure they’ll be back soon enough though…

When I was in Greece, around 2003, a friend of mine, told me that when he was 16 (some 13 years before he told me that story) his grandpa had washed his cloths for him.
When he got home he noticed she had “fixed” his jeans; the torns around the knees were neatly closed….
So that was somewhere in 1990.
I guess it comes and goes.
The only difference is that every time it’s in fashion again you seem to get less and less jeans for more and more dough.

This “fashion fad” has been a thing since at least the 90s. Think grunge rockers. So many people have been wearing this looks for so long that it doesn’t seem out of place to me. I figure as long as no private parts are showing, and this type of attire is not worn to church, or a wedding, or a fancy dinner or event, then it’s OK.

I do think it’s silly to purchase jeans at a regular store that are created with holes already in them. I earned my comfortable holey jeans by wearing them for years.

In my day the school would send you home for wearing jeans, never mind jeans with holes. For a grandfather oohing and aahing is the way to go, and is easily done, because if your granddaughter’s pleased then you are pleased. Remember too what Kahlil Gibran said:

Your children are not your children
They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself
They come through you but not from you
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you

You may give them your love but not your thoughts
For they have their own thoughts
You may house their bodies but not their souls
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow

Which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams
You may strive to be like them
But seek not to make them like you
For life goes not backward, nor tarries with yesterday.

@flutherother I like that. But I still think jeans with holes in them are a racket.

I am wondering if this ever transfer to cars with different color doors and hoods, or perhaps door dings becoming popular.

We did in the 70s. But we didn’t buy them that way at the knres. They got that way, naturally,, over time. It was cool.
I have a picture of me sporting jeans with holes at the knees. I was 16 or 17 at the time.

The hole in the jeans is way popular with the young women up here as well, I was talking to one teenager and she said she paid a hundred bucks for her pair .
OMG if I had a pair that looked like that I would have thrown them away.
I DON’T GET IT EITHER!

It is strictly a fashion statement. People pay a bundle for designer jeans with
holes in them. Go figure.

@SQUEEKY2 Great minds think alike Bud : ) @Dutchess_III Yeah, but as you say, you had worn the holes in yours, you didn’t pay money for them from some racketeering store. Crazy.

Well, not bragging but my grand daughter is a fashionable child, with good dress sense. As a rule. But the raggedy jeans are an atrocity. But I kept my thoughts on them to myself. Guess I’m just an out of touch old fart.

I hate this so-called fashion statement. I rank pre-faded, pre-torn jeans along with hobo costumes and black painted faces. To me, these are examples of how those who are relatively well-off make fun of those who have struggled and are struggling to survive.

Well, on the part of the manufacturers and stores, yes. But I can’t lay that at the door of little pre teen girls. They just roll with the flow, whatever happens to be the latest fad.

@Nomore_lockout That’s true.

I’ve seen pre-ripped jeans for sale for many years now.

They’re trying to be “as cool as” jeans that have been worn so much that they got ripped, alluding to cool people who had cool experiences which show in their jeans.

By being pre-ripped by a machine and sold ripped, I would think that anyone who got why ripped jeans were supposed to be cool, would or should think that manufacturer-ripped jeans are the opposite of that kind of cool. I don’t particularly think battle-worn jeans are cool, but I do think manufacturer-ripped jeans are lame, and a form of built-in obsolescence, which I think should be discouraged.

I have worn ripped jeans, but I wore them because I didn’t feel like replacing them. And I wore them a bit past the point where they would be considered cool, partly because I kind of enjoy seeing some people disapprove.

My sister has Ralph Lauren white jeans with rips on the legs.

One of my daughter’s friends has jeans with ripped holes that are so big, the jeans are gaping open the legs.

I think my legs would be cold.

These people pay a lot for these clothes. Personally, I think it’s stupid but as long as people are buying it, manufacturers are going to keep making it.

That is very true if some one will buy it, they will make it no matter how dumb it appears to the rest of us.
Same with blue,or pink coloured pop.

They think it looks cool.

What bothers me is rips in areas where there is no wear.

Me in 76 or 77.

They didn’t let you
in school with those did they? PS if you paid money for those, someone saw you coming down the side walk like a big lolipop ; )

@Dutchess_III I can see some W C Fields type guy with a top hat and cigar, saying Right this way young lady, have we got a bargain for you, yeasss. Lightly worn by my grand ma otherwise in mint condition. 200 bucks for any one else, but for a lady if taste and refinement like you, 199.99!

I did as a kid but it was no fashion statement. It was “normal” wear and tear.

I haven’t seen anyone say why that is a thing, only condemning it for its obnoxiousness.

The jeans are supposed to imitate “gangsters”. It’s cool because it makes you look more like someone with “life experience” and is honest and straightforward. The romanticized gangster life also adds to the appeal. Ideally, the jeans should be worn with a ragged T-shirt.

At least that is how it rolls here.

Not that I like it though. Too many people think they are automatically cool for wearing them.

Fashion.

@Nomore_lockout, yes they let me in school.
This picture was taken in the smoking area of my High School.
No I did not buy them this way. To my knowledge they didn’t sell preripped jeans in the 70s. They got that way through wear and tear.
Not at all sure how to address your “lollipop” comment.

I think the holes are silly. But I sort of get it. It’s the instant gratification of your favorite beat-up pair of jeans.

But it sort of defeats the purpose for me. As part of the nostalgia of your old beat-up jeans is about how you got those paint stains painting in studio freshman year or that hole from when you face-planted in front of your crush.

Haha…okay may not that last one.

When jean shorts were the rage, we’d meticulously pull individual threads from the bottom of the jeans until we got that frayed look we wanted.

@Dutchess_III The lollipop thing was a joke. Like in the old cartoons where someone is walking down a street, and some crook looks at them and they turn into a sucker, or “lollipop”. Meaning folks would be suckers who pay for jeans with holes. No offense was intended.

Buying jeans with holes for 300 bucks is silly to me. Especially if my own wallet is involved.

Buying jeans without holes for 300 bucks is silly to me. :P

1. @Zaku said it all perfectly. Unfortunately, I never had ripped jeans until about 2 years ago. I sat down and they split crosswise over my thigh. Gotta admit I kinda liked it. LOL
2. When I was young, like under 14, if I had jeans with holes in them I would have been embarrassed.
3. Seems to me it’s just another reason you have to shave your legs.
4. @flutherother Love that Kahlil Gibran piece.

Celebrities such as Cher try to prolong their status as ‘Stars” by finding ways to identify with the changing demographic by copying what younger generations typically dress like to garner more sales of there product .

Music, clothing lines, artwork and so on thrive on this upgrading regularly.

Wherever the money can be had is where they concentrate the most efforts.

In the 1960’s Cher even tried to use her native heritage and dressed in native costume’s the famous Chief headdress was one of the iconic images remembered.

Later as she aged it got harder to get the attention of the younger generations so she also
jumped the wagon by appearing in “holey” jeans, the poor mans clothes to identify with and cater to everyone no matter what station in life that they were in…..a great way to get even them to purchase her music, clothing lines and so on.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c1/9e/d9/c19ed9137f55f88a86d11c8ddc07cc22.jpg

Anything to get attention is what this statement dress emphasizes, at bit narcissistic.

^^With celebrities, “anything to get attention to get a million”? :)

I always like Sonny and Cher. Shame what happened to old Sonny. Off topic I know, just sayin’.

I’ve accepted that fashion is bigger than my comprehension, and have ceased to criticize it. I generally reject more modern conventions, because I’m just not that kind of consumer. I’ve always hated the cachet people can purchase with clothing, and the judgements we make around clothes are often wrong. I try to just appreciate fashion aesthetically, now, without ascribing to many judgements on the wearer.

I saw a pair of jeans last week with holes from about 6” above the ankle to basically the pockets. Thought they looked pretty cool…