Seeing The Writing On The Wall: On My Favorite Pair Of Jeans

One day last week, while catching up on some long overdue Facebooking, I was horrified to discover that I had been added to a 10 year high school reunion group, and that the group was actively coming to life as a ‘planning’ committee began to first plan their reunion at a local Mexican restaurant , and seeing that these events were finally unfolding, I was suddenly face to face with the time in my life that I had feared more than anything about growing older; more than getting grey hair, facing death, developing a hump in my back, or something really terrible, like having purple hair or developing a huge appreciation for polyester pants.

Of course, the immediate thrust into the consideration of where I came from, where I was headed, and most importantly, where I was now, made me take a very short walk down memory lane. For me, this is perhaps different than most. I am the first to argue that high school is the best time of your life; for me, when people said this, it absolutely petrified me; if this were true, then that meant that the rest of my life was going to be complete and absolute hell. So you have to understand when I have a bit of hesitation about taking a walk down memory lane; I only allow myself to go so far; because for me, taking a trip down memory lane in high school is like driving down the road you lost a loved one on, and spending significant time in front of that memorial cross never seems to replace what was taken from you. To put it lightly, although you may never know it, despite my good humor, ‘people’ personality, and as many perceive, good looks, intelligence, niceness, sincerity, sweet, kind, loving (insert any positive attribute here) personality, high school was terror after terror for me, for reasons that would take me much longer than a few thousand words to accurately depict; I figure it’s best saved as a chapter for an award winning memoir: if you thought Riding In Cars With Boys was good, ha!

So anyways, I pulled down a little white office box from the closet shelf, and inside it, I came across funny little mementos: a friendship bracelet that my two best friends and I had which split three ways, the water bottle label from my first bottle of liquor, the carnation from my first formal dance, pictures, and then a lot of little mementos that had now long escaped me; I no longer remembered why I had kept these things anymore, but nonetheless, I kept them because I figured one day it would come back to me. Then at the bottom of the box, I pulled out my favorite memento; a pair of jeans.

Now, you have to understand; this is not just any pair of jeans. For me, this is something that replaces the high school yearbooks and it is also something that would always help me remember if I know who that person is who is trying to add me on Facebook and whether I should accept them or not.

First of all, every generation has their pairs of jeans that are the most important: in my ‘time’ (which wasn’t that long ago even many reading this will think the identifying factors I’m about to give away will make it so) the only brands of jeans that I ever bought were either Express, Calvin Klein, Gap, J Crew, LEI, and for some, um, certain boyfriends of mine, JNCOs. (Okay only a couple of them wore JNCOs, but in my defense, one of my favorite friends who was a tomboy and one of the kindest and best hearted people in the world wore JNCOs too. And as a matter of fact, I even wore JNCOs on a couple of occasions.)

Of course now, many of those brands have been replaced with brands like Humor Jeans, Abercrombie and Fitch, and dozens of others, including some of the old classics like Express, Gap, and JCrew, but every generation has got the perfect pair of jeans that you will undoubtedly find when you check the tag of any sixteen year old’s favorite jeans.

So this particular pair of jeans had actually found their way to me after being worn by two friends of mine and then I ended up somehow with them after some kind of trade or something. I do remember that they fit me extremely well, and they were THE most comfortable pair of jeans ever. I remember giving up restrictive rules on brands after finding these jeans: though I had once stuck strictly to only a few brands, the incredibly fit and comfort of these were absolutely amazing; these jeans became my friend, my colleague, my partner in crime, my confidant, and of course, they did what a pair of jeans is supposed to do for any teenage girl: somehow make a teenage butt look even better than it already did.

Finally these jeans began to show wear in the knees. So they then became a pair of jeans to only wear at home. Well then it finally happened and they began to wear out at the butt: but I was devastated. I could not accept that these jeans and I were going to have to part ways. They had been a very important part of my life; they saw everything, they knew everything; and like many other great pieces of clothing to come in my life, I could not let them go so easily.

So I did what you do with any piece of clothing you can’t let go of. I put it on a shelf, then a drawer, then in a bag in the closet, then in a bag under the bed, and finally, one day I pulled out that great pair of jeans that fit so well and felt so amazing (and girls, you KNOW those jeans that you feel invincible in) and decided I needed them back in my everyday life. So I did the next thing you do with anything that you don’t want to let go of: I nailed it into the wall. Just like I would come to do with many things in my life.

Don’t worry, I wasn’t done there. I’m a creative girl; I wasn’t sloppily throwing a pair of jeans up on the wall next to my Pink Floyd and Bush posters: I nailed those jeans on the wall, front facing, and stuck a few colored markers in the pockets. For the next four years of high school, those jeans hung in the same spot in my room and anyone I considered a good friend or that I felt a connection with, would sign those jeans. Eventually both legs got filled up with signatures, mostly with the signatures of my actual close friends; signing messages, short quotes of love and life and friendship (and in looking back now, tons of quotes of high school humour is on the jeans, I’m sure you can imagine) inside jokes and special tokens of friendships, and pretty tiny illustrations and drawings were scribbled up and down these jeans, even on the inside of the zipper and pockets. Now, remember that not just anyone could sign these jeans: they may have been witnesses to the signing, but just because they were there doesn’t mean they ever got to and it doesn’t mean they ever did; you had to get approval from me to sign these. Because unlike so many other things that hold meaning in high school: dances, yearbooks, coffee cups and t-shirts with your entire classes’ name on it, love notes and top secret notes from your friends passed back and forth; I had been robbed of those things, so I wanted something of my own that no one else had. Something that no one else would be pulling out years later instead of a yearbook or shoebox of notes.

So I did just that. When high school was over and I moved out of my bedroom, I took the jeans with me, and they surely saw their fair share of different boxes and dark storage places, even taking a trip across the country and back when I impulsively moved. But there they were over a decade later; beaming out at me from the bottom of that box, and you know what; even though that pair of jeans was NOT a pair of Express jeans or Gap or Calvin Klein, those jeans, for the most part, really lasted! Nowadays of course other brands have become the only ‘acceptable’ jeans, and I’m not even sure if they make this brand of jeans anymore: they’ve surely been replaced by something much more ‘cool’ like Humor Jeans, at least companies started coming up with better names like ‘Humor Clothing’ instead of ‘JNCOs’. Yes, I get that they were called JNCOs because it was a jeans company (pronounced J-E-E-N-C-O-S, it was just fun to say) but I do wish I had been wearing something like ‘Humor Jeans’ in high school; maybe it would have made the experience I had much more laughable.

I had always vowed that I would never go to one of the reunions unless I had reached extreme success and was able to confidently walk in and know that I had achieved far more than anyone there ever expected me to. I would walk in and silence would fall upon everyone as they realized that they should have treated me better so that they had a chance to talk to the extremely successful, world renowned, award winning writer, actor, entrepreneur…whatever it was I had gotten to in life.

But, the truth is, although I am a writer by profession now, and every once in awhile an actor by profession, it’s not on the great, grand scales that I once imagined. I haven’t won an Oscar or a Pulitzer yet, so am I really ready to go to a reunion? I asked myself if I would really go…and then I realized, I didn’t need a high school reunion to find out things I wanted to know. The people I wanted to know anything about and that mattered to me, I kept in contact with regularly. Sure, we’ve spread out now, and since many are married and/or have children or live in other states, I still talk to them on a regular basis, and my door would still be just as open as ever to them. However, the people that I don’t really care where they ended up? Well what kind of person would I be if I was interested in seeing where they had gone only for the purpose of seeing if they had failed?

And more importantly, what kind of person would I be if I only wanted to go because I wanted everyone to see what kind of success I’d achieved? I wouldn’t be the person that I really am; and I definitely wouldn’t be the girl who had a pair of jeans hanging up on her bedroom wall that she only let some people sign; those whom she knew had treated her with respect and kindness. I don’t need reunions or reunion planning committees at the Mexican restaurant where all of us tasted our first Blue Motorcycle…I have enough quotes, special messages, hidden jokes, and the stories of the pasts, presents, and futures of all those who matter to me; the writing on (my jeans) on the wall, right in my heart. And every couple days, every few months, and with some every few years, I get to have tons of reunions; the kind that really matter, and where all you have to wear is your favorite pair of jeans.

If Humor jeans weren't being exported to stores all over, and if you couldn't find many online sources to buy Humor jeans from, then celebrities would undoubtedly be making a mad dash all the way to Denmark in order to grab up some Humor clothing; particularly Humor jeans, which are becoming popular among the celebrity crowd. There are even tons of television shows now that are regularly showing their characters sporting this hip new line that could adequately be called the 'melting pot' of different styles and ideas. With a mix of 80s inspired looks, Danish designs, and a hip-hopp influence, the Danish have certainly hit the spot with celebrities.

Of course, no clothing brand ever really reaches success until celebrities start wearing the apparrel regularly; and that has certainly happened. Aside from being sported by some of the most wealthy people in the world, artists like JLS have become huge fans of Humor clothing, and all were recently spotted wearing Humor jeans in their music video, "One Shot." Then, at the Brit Awards, they were wearing their favorite jeans again as they played their current number one single, "Beat Again."

R&B artists aren't the only ones donning the look that's anything but 'funny' and only a new venture into style. Grime scene master Tinie Tempah was wearing a pear when he performed "Frisky" on the KoKo Pop show. Additionally, Humor themselves even sites that rock and roll culture is one of their influences when designing this growing men's brand, which can easily be spotte by its individual styles, designs, colors, prints, patterns, and shapes.

Five Fashion Trends To Make Your Humor Jeans Really POP!

1.) Match a perfect bottom half with a perfect top half, and you'll be making quite a statement with Humor clothing on. Check out one of the colorful shirts or sweaters that Humor makes, and don't be afraid to be a little bright! If you feel self-conscious about wearing so much color (as a lot of Humor Brand clothing is super colorful) then try toning the look down with a solid staple item in a 'safe' one color item, such as a worn brown leather jacket or shoes that are more toned down: you don't want to go too overboard, so having nice staples like that to anchor the colors will really help it all come together!

2.) Don't be afraid to experiment! Right now fashion, for men and women, is all about trying new things and having fun for once! What this means more than anything is that you should get rid of any previous, strict fashion 'rules' that you used to abide by! If there's one thing that Humor clothing teaches us, it's that you CAN take all the things you love and combine them into one! Humor managed to successfully make a line of clothing that mixed traditional Danish looks (or rather, Scandinavian traditions), Japanese Shibuya, hip-hop, rock, and good old fashioned 'street' looks and roll them all into one successful style. So follow in the Humor fashion and try combining some of your favorite looks or even some new fashion risks and pair it Humor jeans...who would have thought that you could take what looks like a cozy little Scandinavian print, make it in an oversized button up sweater, and put it over a funky long sleeved striped shirt. Things like taking two contrasting prints and putting them over a pair of Humor jeans that serve as a great anchor to set the 'this isn't supposed to be traditional or boring' look will look anything but dorky or nerdy like it used to.

3.) Even though Humor hasn't come out with a female line yet, boys can still accessorize- try getting a white leather belt and wearing it on your favorite Humor jeans with one of Humor's popular plaid button up shirts, the white picking up some of the print of the plaid and really making for a fun, 'just thrown together,' but not look. Don't stop at a belt though: feel free to experiment with some other accessories as well, like different hats, or even getting either a more 'colorful' pair of shoes or a pair of shoes that grounds the whole look if you have a lot going on above. Accessories are no longer just for chicks now...guys can enjoy superfluous accessories too, and with Humor clothing, almost anything goes.

4.) Take a cue from the ladies by remembering that at times, simplicity is the hottest thing you can do. While you can have a lot of fun experimenting with bold prints and colors and accessories, you can also show off the extremely unique design of Humor jeans, which have a very different silloheutte than anything that's been designed before for men's jeans. With the detailed lines and design of Humor jeans, sometimes just a plain colored tee will suffice as well, paired up with one of the Humor brand Scandinavian sweaters or just your favorite sweater or jacket.

5.) Although Humor jeans are setting new fashion guidelines for men's clothing, and although they're designing clothing that's all its own and not blatantly a ripoff of retro clothing, or anything from the past for that matter, they make the PERFECT background for real retro items: retro looking shoes, accessories, hats, and shirts do a nice job of blending the old with the new. Pair up your favorite retro looks with Humor jeans and bring in the new with the old!

With all those said, don't be afraid to layer as much as you want!! Wear a long sleeved cotton tee with a retro t-shirt over it, covered by a Denmark inspired cardigan, with a 'quieter' yet noticable accessory like a scarf.