On a high with low-waist jeans
Dolly Sagar

I prefer low-rise jeans which are loose fitting, although low-rise bootcuts are equally popular in Mumbai," says Rajan, who owns about seven pairs of jeans, all low waist, and belts in all colours — green, yellow, white, red. Says Ragini Kumar, a college student from Mumbai: "I love low-waist jeans as they fit me perfectly and my stomach doesn’t feel trapped in it."

Jane Vaz from Mumbai, who just got her belly button pierced, opines that low-waist jeans are a boon. "I can show off my piercing, all thanks to my jeans. Earlier, the zip would just cover my piercing and it was uncomfortable.’’ But she cautions: "Girls need to be careful while sitting down. In college I see benches of ‘rear cleavage’ in all shapes and sizes." What should one do to hide it? Wear a longer top or put on a belt," she advises.

Most people are happy to hear that more women opt for low-waist jeans compared to men. "I would not like to see a guy’s underwear, that would just be disgusting. I like low waist-jeans as it lets you show off accessories like chunky belts," mentions Radhika Sagar, a media professional.

Low-waist jeans have been a hot item for many years after the standard five-pocket jeans. Many people still seem to think that "low-rise jeans and its blood relative, the ‘dangerously low-rise’ variety, cling tenaciously on in India". Why would anyone want to show so much flesh is a sentence that can be heard in a lot of urban Indian homes. This is applicable to boys as well as girls.

Let us check up as to what, as per fashion experts, is really low. The ‘rise’ of trousers or briefs is the distance from the waist to the bottom of the crotch. Everyone has a different rise, but readymade clothing manufacturers want to keep things manageable. They, therefore, offer different ‘rises’ in pants and underwears. Bikinis have the lowest rise; low-rise jeans should have more. Before the craze for low-rise came, anatomically speaking, crotch-to-waist measurement, or rise, on a standard pair of jeans was between 10 and 12 inches. Early low-riders had a rise of about seven inches. Over the past couple of years, the rise has dipped to as low as three inches.

"Girls call us up to enquire about the latest jeans in the 544s’," says Ramesh Sanghavi, manager at the Our Jeans store in Bandra, Bombay. If you didn’t get the 544-part, it’s the latest low-rise jargon — Supra-lows are the L567s, while 544s are the Ultra-lows. For those uninitiated with the dangers (of being called outdated) of wearing regular high-rise jeans, here’s what you need to check out: the zipper length (or its equivalent distance) in a low-rise should be about 5-6 inches, 8 inches in a mid-waist and 9 inches in a high-rise or regular fit. The high price of a good pair of low-rise jeans does not deter young collegians from going all out for them. – MF