The generational divide between myself and some 20-somethings can be boiled down to this: I like my clothes to be clean when I wear them.
A 20 year old University of Alberta student woke up one morning with a thought: What if I didn’t wash my jeans for over a year and wore them every day? What then? I recently read advice from Levi Strauss Co. that one should not wash one’s jeans more than once a month, less if they can help it.
So Josh Le wore his jeans for 15 months straight, every single mind-numbing (butt-numbing?) day. Then he and his professor tested them for bacteria and found to their surprise that the pants contained no more little bad guys per square inch than jeans worn only 13 days. Because Le had good hygiene and was in good health with no cuts or any skin conditions he wasn’t at any real heatlh risk from not washing his jeans for so long, the pair concluded.
Le admitted to taking action against the odour his jeans developed at around the 7 month mark. He put them in the freezer. The crotch also had to be stitched up 11 times over the course of the experiment, probably because Le is one of those low-riding jeans wearers where the crotch falls somewhere between the knees and takes a lot of punishment. But that’s only a guess based on his age and his enthusiasm for this experiment in the first place!
Le says that jeans wearers of his generation want “whiskers” to develop. Those are the creases in the upper thigh area that come from crouching or sitting. Sometimes, he admits, he doesn’t wash a new pair for six months. Why do I get the feeling that this experiment was launched with the sole purpose of having a comeback for a horrified parent who just wanted her kid to look like he had a home and an education! Sadly, if Le goes two weeks without washing them, apparently he may as well go a year.
It is a relief to note that Le’s personal cleanliness was not compromised and that he’s not a proponent of going back to the days of the annual bath! It’s all about fashion, after all. The experimental jeans are now relegated to weekend-only wear and Le is breaking in a new pair. He’ll be taking them to the laundromat around June, I figure, if they don’t walk there on their own.
Uuuurp! What kind of circles does this kid work/play in that he can go 15 months without changing his jeans?? I’m no Felix Unger, but the thought of that makes me cringe!
Am I the only one who couldn’t go a week without dribbling coffee/ brushing against a dirty car/ wiping his hands on/ or generally collecting life on his jeans? 15 months? That’s 60 weeks! Gad!
And putting 7 month old jeans in the freezer? To detoxify them? I’d want to throw out the hamburger patties and ice cubes that were in the freezer with them. (I may have just thrown up in my mouth, thinking about that!)
….and another thing. What does it smell like at the Levi Strauss Company offices if the company’s own ‘care and feeding of your new jeans’ instructions are to wash them “no more than once a month”. Holy Crap!
Compared to them, my groinal area must be as sanitary as an operating theatre!
Its not generational! Ever since my first pair of jeans,I’ve worn the same pair of jeans for several days and even a couple of weeks prior to them being tossed into the wash. Now if something were to happen as having mud splashed up the leg, they made it to the wash sooner. Within my family and among my friends this Jean wearing approach was and still is very common with the exception of my brother when he was younger who liked his jeans tight, so they’d get washed every couple of days.
Never understood someone who would only wear a pair of jeans once before they were tossed into the wash.
Life’s all about choices. What would you rather have your jeans do? Shrink or stink?!
You don’t have to wear jeans or any other clothing for them to stink, you need only wash them in detergent!