HOLEY

 Holey, holey, holey—such is the denim jeans fad we've had way too long. It amazes me how a piece of clothing is deliberately “distressed” to raise its “style appeal” (and price). I've learned distressed denim goes back to the “punk” movement of the 1970s when torn pants and jackets expressed “punk rock” anger toward society. Many accessorized their “rebel” fashion with safety pins and slogans. By the late eighties, with the emergence of hard rock/heavy metal music, the protest fashion continued as a political statement.

Jeans have come a long way since the mid- 1880s, when businessman Levi Strauss and tailor Jacob Davis found twilled cotton could become a hardy fabric for work pants. Metal rivets helped hold the thick fabric together. It was just what rough-and-tumble workers of that era needed—be they farmers, laborers, and even gold-diggers!

As the lowly work pants evolved into denim jeans “fashion” in the next century, there came so-called "must-have" designer brands featuring stonewashed, acid-washed, ripped, skinny legs, and tapered ankles. The 1990s saw baggy jeans. The early 2000s (oh, shield my eyes), the low-cut ones. 

So where am I going with this? Maybe my concern that the “grunge” and “acid rock” eras have infiltrated our present-day culture with more than all their “anti” messages. I ask why—in a land where there is so much natural beauty—the clothing of its inhabitants should be so...tattered. And that the “tattering” commands a higher price!

In Bible times, both men and women wore simple tunics with belts and shawls. Yet there was a sense of beauty for clothing. The busy “Virtuous Woman” of Proverbs 31 was commended for her thrift and home-sewn fashion sense (“fine linen and purple”). As “fashion” became a status symbol, early Christians needed counsel about the secular culture's emphasis on fancy braided hairdos, excessive jewelry and showy clothes. The apostle Paul offered a countercultural standard: “I want women to dress modestly with decency and propriety... with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God” (1 Timothy 2:9-10).

Culture is a fluid thing. We've come a long ways from the era of gold miners donning sturdy denim overalls while they swished their pans of pay dirt in a stream. Or farmers, slugging through the daily, dirty work of crops and animals. Or mill workers in gritty factories. They mended clothes to help them last. They certainly didn't intentionally “distress” them with bleach or scissors!

I'm aware that the Christian community embraces many opinions for clothing standards. What bothers me is a cultural trend birthed in such twisted places as the “punk rock” era, that scoffs at a divine plan of beauty and order, promoting fabric messages of ruin.

Do I own “distressed” jeans? Yes, and no. I have some way-too-old “yard-work” jeans with frayed creases that I mend with iron-on patches before they become embarrassing. But I only wear them in the yard, never in public. As I kneel in dirt with claw and trowel to care for our yard, I think how the God who arrayed the earth with astounding natural beauty certainly deserves honor in our clothing choices. And maybe ripped/distressed/bleached jeans, which originated as symbols of anti-God values, just don't cut it (oops, pun intended).

BOLD ADVERTISING

Passing through the small Eastern Washington town of Colfax is like a step back in time. Drive down the main street, and you can't miss the old-time advertisements painted on buildings. With the value of today's “trendy” denim jeans depending on their rips and bleach holes, this sign was certainly an anachronism! Imagine the warranty in the sign's last line in today's culture: "A new pair free if they rip"!

Yet I was reminded how each of us is an “advertisement,” so to speak, of the Creator God. He created us “unto good works” that He planned long before we took our first breath (Ephesians 2:10). He intended us to be “letters from Christ” to our world (2 Cor. 3:3). His teachings are to be on the tablets of our hearts (Proverbs 7:3). His truth is “rip-proof.” But sin ripped up the original, perfect plan.

Christ offers the “new pair”: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

These days, instead of building signs boasting of superior craft, our towns have graffiti, typically sprayed at night, advertising disrespect. In the spiritual realm, it's not different—and it's not all that old. The apostle Peter pleaded with his “flock” to watch their behavior because it advertised the status of their hearts: “Therefore rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind” (1 Peter 1:2). Those problems weren't unique to the First Century. When I've been the victim of someone's written or vocal graffiti, God often reminds me to keep examining my heart, so that I “advertise” a gracious person, not one intent on revenge.

Every day, those who claim to be Christ-followers write ads for their faith via their behavior. It may not be spread across the top of an old brick building, but it's visible in ways we may not even realize. Especially in these times of Covid precautions and complaints, our faith is on display through what we say and do, even when we least expect it.

By the way, I could use some of those replacement guaranteed jeans....mine are chore-worn and starting to look like the $100 intentionally-ragged jeans sold at boutiques—and that's not my style! It's a fashion trend I just don't understand!