are white jeans actually "european" or just vaguely "unamerican"?

It seems that the conventional wisdom in pop-menswear circles (GQ et al) holds that white denim is somehow intrinsically "of europe". When it's in, it's hailed as a "crisp, jaunty old-world style", when it's out it's derided as "euro-trash." Either way, its always presented as something foreign. Now, I've spent a considerable portion of my life in europe, and I swear I've never noticed white jeans to be appreciably more popular there than in the states. So what gives? am I just looking in the wrong places? My theory is that because white denim deviates from the classical mold of what jeans are (as established by the salt-of-the-earth laborers who built America, and by the wardrobe department of hollywood westerns, and by the iconography of rock & roll, etc), it gets excluded from the proud lineage of this ur-american garment, kind of like an unloved stepchild who gets shunted off to some faraway boarding school in the alps and quietly written out of the will. case in point: This month's GQ answers the gnawing question as to whether a blue blazer is fundementally italian or american with "both", saying the difference is americans wear khakis while Italians wear white jeans: Thoughts? [/jargony conspiracy theory]

I'm not sure how old you are but white jeans were popular in the US in the late 80's. My brother who is a little older than me wore them all the time in highschool.

there are other places in this world besides europe and the u.s.

the only guys i see in white jeans around here are russians and mexicans.

Originally Posted by texas_jack

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white jeans were popular in the US in the late 80's.

Originally Posted by matadorpoeta

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the only guys i see in white jeans around here are russians and mexicans.


my point exactly. Why/how did it come to pass that white jeans are regarded as quintessentially european?

It's probably one of the biggest misconceptions in the US that there might be something like a "european" style. People in the mediterranean wear different things than Scandinavians, even within the meditarranean reagion there are disctinctive differences between Italy, Greece and the Iberian peninsula, on the Iberean peninsula you'll find different kinds of clothes in Spain and Portugal and let's not speak of the cultural differences between catalan and castilian spaniards.

So I am just inclined to tell you that white jeans weren't a trend in Germany for the last couple of decades. Besides of that - no idea.

Originally Posted by Gherkins

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It's probably one of the biggest misconceptions in the US that there might be something like a "european" style. People in the mediterranean wear different things than Scandinavians, even within the meditarranean reagion there are disctinctive differences between Italy, Greece and the Iberian peninsula, on the Iberean peninsula you'll find different kinds of clothes in Spain and Portugal and let's not speak of the cultural differences between catalan and castilian spaniards.

So I am just inclined to tell you that white jeans weren't a trend in Germany for the last couple of decades. Besides of that - no idea.

+1. HUGE differences.

Last summer I was in England, Cyprus and Crete; I don't remember seeing anyone with white jeans. COme to think of it I cannopt recall seeing white jeans before...

I've spent more time in Europe than the U.S. and I have never seen white jeans anywhere over there, be it behind what was the Iron Curtain or in the more prosperous parts in the West.

Frankly, they always have been hideous and will always be hideous. The jeans that is, not Europeans. Well, most of them

Originally Posted by Gherkins

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It's probably one of the biggest misconceptions in the US that there might be something like a "european" style. People in the mediterranean wear different things than Scandinavians, even within the meditarranean reagion there are disctinctive differences between Italy, Greece and the Iberian peninsula, on the Iberean peninsula you'll find different kinds of clothes in Spain and Portugal and let's not speak of the cultural differences between catalan and castilian spaniards.

So I am just inclined to tell you that white jeans weren't a trend in Germany for the last couple of decades. Besides of that - no idea.

As for fashion/style, "European" tends to mean French and Italian in the US. Nobody here has a clue what the Polish or the Portuguese are wearing.

It has certainly been a US hipster faux white trash look for a couple of years. Andrew WK is probably the best know purveyor of this questionable style. It is also probably sported in certain english and french dior homme style sub cultures. italian, spanish and other youths may have adopted less obviously ironic versions for their street wear but i'm not really sure. Attachment 3093

Originally Posted by Teacher

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As for fashion/style, "European" tends to mean French and Italian in the US. Nobody here has a clue what the Polish or the Portuguese are wearing.

I think this sentiment is on the money. Here's a guy from The Sartorialist who manages the white jeans quite well. He's European, btw.

I don't see anything wrong with white jeans. The look is so neutral and inoffensive that I can't understand why there would be an aversion to it. I have seen them consistently among designer collections so someone must like them. Yoox has two pages of them.

Having said that, I've never owned a pair or had much of a desire to buy them.

Originally Posted by Thurston

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I think this sentiment is on the money. Here's a guy from The Sartorialist who manages the white jeans quite well. He's European, btw.

Woah, crotch stuffing gone too far.

They remind me of stone-wash jeans, really too much of the '80s to recall for one's own good.

Incidentally, I recently saw a man who probably never left the '80s with a dyed blonde mullet, stone-washed denim jacket and jeans, some form of a button-down shirt and huge Ray Bans. It was vaguely stylish in its own right.

Originally Posted by Teacher

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As for fashion/style, "European" tends to mean French and Italian in the US. Nobody here has a clue what the Polish or the Portuguese are wearing.
well we gotta fix that: http://streetconfetti.blogspot.com/ (and facehunter's in Lisbon right now) http://www.visionsofwarsaw.blogspot.com/ (June 6th = " ") not a white jean among em

Regardless of provenance, I'm very pro white jeans.
1980s UK graphic designer Peter Saville of New Order and Pulp fame:


1960s USA: