Tagebuch: September 2007

Dear Diary,

Recently in Profil, the following item appeared:

Now, all women who can’t wear a size 27 jeans and are over 16 – in other words, the bulk of female humanity – can let out a collective sigh of relief. The Reign of Terror of the Hip-Huggers is coming to an end.

No more belly buttons in the Levis Look Book for the fall and winter seasons. The waist band has made a decided shift upwards, into the danger-free zone. Even labels like Replay, Seven and True Religion are bringing in varieties of "high waist" solutions into their new collections.

The jelly rolls will increasingly disappear from our street-scape and thus also surely reducing the incidence of kidney infections.

Only one question remains, and that is, when the men will be liberated from the curse of baggy jeans. Because the picture of grown men, who slink around the landscape in formless trousers drooping almost to the floor evokes feelings of overwhelming desolation, leaving us nearly inconsolable. Particularly as once upon a time, men’s jeans too served the purpose of displaying a well-turned derriere.

No question, a revival of bottom-friendly fashion would decidedly improve the scenery on our city streets.

-- from the Austrian news weekly Profil, 23/07/07

trans. Dardis McNamee