Trends Reviews and Recaps

In some segments of our society, “completely natural” apparently is code for “smells really, really bad”:

This is how “vintage” jeans happen: Troy Pierce buys a pair of new Levi’s and wears them six days a week for more than a year. He rides his motorcycle in them, commuting from his place in Williamsburg to work in SoHo. He eats his Subway lunch on them. He works in them, loafs in them, D.J.'s in them. And he washes them, in cold water by hand, but only twice. “They are really gross,” he says. “But that is the whole idea -- I wanted them to be completely natural.” He knows the biography of every tear, from the tattered hem of the leg (“that’s from slipping off the kick-start of my bike”) to the shredded back pocket (where the zipper of his wallet cut it up) to the imprint of his favorite pen.

(“Not Fade Away,” the New York Times Magazine, December 1.)

He washes them twice a year? Knock yourself out, Troy.