I remember pulling on the pair I got for Christmas and complaining with equal parts disdain and mortification, “Why are they stretchy?”
She calmly told me they had spandex in them. Most indignant, I blurted, “Well, that’s swell, but why is it in my jeans?”
She insisted that is how jeans are made now. No way that’s right, I thought to myself, you’re just going to the wrong stores! I have not gone shopping for jeans in a while, but I cannot imagine good old fashioned, non-stretchy, 100 percent cotton denim has been rendered obsolete.
Sure it’s interesting that spandex is made of a long chain polymer called polyurethane and that it is produced as a result of a complex chemical process where a polyester reacts with a diisocyanate.
But why is it in my jeans?
When it was first introduced by Du Pont in 1960, spandex was used in bras and girdles. In the 70’s, it was used in women’s underwear and swimsuits, then in biking shorts, leotards and women’s hosiery.
Why is it in my jeans?
An article in lifestyle magazine, The Atlantic, suggests, “…elastane fibers give jeans a softer feel and help ease the adversarial relationship between the durable rugged textile and tender bits of the human body.”
Pfffft. I’ve got news for you, none of the bits on this human body are that tender and I would prefer they stay that way.
The fashion universe may be unfolding as it should, but my jeans are not.
I will definitely have to purchase my next pair of jeans myself and my first, emphatic, question to the sales clerk will be, “None of my bits are tender so, please, where are the jeans that don’t stretch?”
I’ll straighten this out.
Women may have embraced softer, form-fitting, spandex-laced skinny jeans from the beginning, but I am not there.
My wife may have been under the impression I prefer being on the cusp of fashion trends, but, by now, she has most certainly realized that’s a bit of a stretch.
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