From the Runway, to the Silver Screen, to Your Closet?

14May08

One trend in men’s wear that’s been floating around on the runways for awhile now is the rising hem line of pants.  Below are a few examples from Louis Vuitton, Subscript, and Valentino Spring 2008 collections respectively:

Just last night I tried on a pair of jeans that were too short, they came up above my ankle.  I felt weird in them and my girlfriend gave the ol’ eww look.  Perhaps rising men’s hem lines is just a State-side phobia?  I’d be curious as to the public retail reaction if Daniel Craig, in his next James Bond movie prominently sported a pair of high hemmed pants, or dare I say…”man capris”?

The reason I ask is because while I see all the the runway photos and print ads from high fashion design houses of men in short pants (not to be confused with shorts) and then not seeing them migrate to the streets reminds me of an interesting story about the white T undershirt.  The story goes that in the year 1934, in scene from the movie, It Happened One Night, Hollywood actor Clark Gable removes his dress shirt to reveal that he was not wearing the typical undershirt as most men did in those days.  A radical style statement given the era.  Apparently the following year sales of white undershirts fell nearly fifty percent, attributed directly to the revealing of Clark Gable’s lack of undershirt and bare chest.  With this example of how Hollywood can influence style I can’t help but wonder, “what if?”  What if Daniel Craig in his next James Bond movie, or Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, or heck…Harrison Ford in the next Indiana Jones flick wore a pair of high-hemmed pants?  I chose these characters is because they play to particular male archetypes, smooth, action, adventure; men’s men.  Men I think most guys would fancy themselves being like.  If these characters did, would there be any kind of measurable increase in the acceptance of short-pants among the American masses?

So…in the spirit of Mike Meyers as Lind Richman in his classic SNL skit Coffee Talk: Please, discuss.

-S

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Tags: fashion, hem, Hollywood, jeans, Louis Vuitoon, pants, shorts, Spring, Subscript, Trends, Valentino