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Business News/ Mint-lounge / Features/  Jeanetic disposition
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Jeanetic disposition

Amitabh Bachchan's blue jeans as an older host of a popular TV show were fun. They did not divert attention from his mature persona, only added to its charm

The jeans added to Amitabh Bachchan’s charm. Photo: Courtesy Sony Entertainment Television.Premium
The jeans added to Amitabh Bachchan’s charm. Photo: Courtesy Sony Entertainment Television.

Blue jeans may be the ultimate piece of clothing from the 20th century with a permanent place in the wardrobes of this century, their wear and tear a tale of our times. But in fashion they boil down to two things: Their fit and how they are worn.

Fit suggests how a person’s body warms up to a pair of denims, creating the physical intimacy that clothes need to become fashion statements. And style—often ruled by celebrity trends—gives blue jeans their ever-evolving versatility. Given your choice, they could represent any moment, any period of your life. From a roughed-up, aged garment to the most glamorous piece in your wardrobe. Or, as they say: Blue jeans tell compelling stories.

On 17 August, when Amitabh Bachchan wore a pair of dark-blue denims with a sleek white jacket, a white shirt and a silver-blue silk tie for the launch episode of Kaun Banega Crorepati’s (KBC’s) Season 8 on Sony TV, shot in the diamond city of Surat, yet another celebrity jeans story was in the making. If you noticed, Bachchan’s jeans were mildly, artistically distressed just above his knees, especially on one side. There were no messy, see-through tatters but they had been ever so slightly tampered with to look formally casual. They were a treat to watch.

Especially because Bachchan is 71 years old. He is not an ageing superstar but an aged one. He looks enviably suave but doesn’t have a body that can fill a pair of jeans with sexy swagger. The clothes Bachchan wears as India’s most revered star match his restraint and decorum. We expect him to laugh and joke in the spotlight and astutely handle an enormous range of emotions from his fans but we don’t necessarily expect him to do so in well-fitted distressed jeans. So it came as a surprise when his designer for KBC Season 8, Narendra Kumar Ahmed, told me that those jeans were the superstar’s own.

Bachchan changed into evening formals before the first contestant got into the hot seat. But Ahmed’s choice of pairing fashion’s oldest garment with a pristine white jacket for the senior star’s first appearance on the show was smart. That he didn’t use suede or a leather jacket, making Bachchan a stud trying to look younger, was smarter. The ensemble stood out since dark denims on performing stars have been associated mostly with top rock acts, not quiz shows.

Otherwise too, in the world’s most remembered jeans campaigns and stories, youth, if not obvious sexiness, has played the biggest role. Whether it was the smouldering Brooke Shields in Calvin Klein’s “You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing" campaign or Levi’s sensational and objectionable (to many) Bare Ess Ad way back in 1970 to other jeans advertisements over the years, some which have had to be pulled down owing to controversies, campaign directors marketing jeans have focused on the body as the site of style experiments, using jeans as a potent tool.

This association with youthfulness dictates how most Indian male stars wear their denims, creating a style issue sometimes. Shah Rukh Khan’s outings being an instance of how not to look middle-aged in blue jeans. The way Salman Khan wears them totally shifts attention to his body.

Almost every global star has been spotted in jeans too but often for not-so-formal appearances. So in 2010, when Tom Cruise paired dark-blue denims on the red carpet (in fashion theory dark-blue jeans are associated with irony and intellectualism) with a denim shirt for the London premiere of his film Knight And Day, fashion watchers sat up. And when Rihanna wore dark-blue denims for MTV’s Video Music Awards last year, there were comments about her flying under the fashion radar.

In that context, Bachchan’s blue jeans as an older host of a popular TV show were fun. They did not divert attention from his mature persona, only added to its charm. The body’s age no bar.

They embodied what the legendary French couturier Yves Saint Laurent told New York magazine in 1983. “I wish I had invented blue jeans. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity—all that I hope for in my clothes."

The Body is a monthly column on the body’s language in fashion.

Also Read | Shefalee’s previous Lounge columns

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Published: 23 Aug 2014, 12:26 AM IST
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