I have high standards for my low-rise jeans. And when my mother has already test-driven a pair from back and the day, I know that they are going to be of a clothing caliber worth my wear.
I tend to look at different eras of fashion coming back in style…through the Jinous Vartan lens: especially since I have permanently borrowed many pairs of her sunglasses (thanks mom!).
“J” in the ‘80s was the teen on the maximalist scene. Think a skintight prom dress in royal blue and white, that gathers into subtle ruffles on the hemline. In the ‘90s, mom rocked a chic skirt suit, like this red wool one. The double-breasted jacket is adorned with crested gold buttons.
But mom’s Y2K style is something forever imprinted on my schoolgirl brain.
As I wore a Peter Pan collar shirt and plaid Catholic school skirt in sixth grade, mom showed up to pick me up in the coolest jeans I had ever borne witness to. The waistline dipped below her belly. On the light-wash denim canvas reminiscent of the sky, an embroidered dragon that a Targaryens would ride, flew up one leg. Its wings were made of gold and brass thread. My mom was actually born in the year of the dragon, and has always had the fierce fire of fashion and creativity within her. And the image of those flared jeans are forever burned into my consciousness.
Wearing my mom’s Calvin Klein dragon jeans, fifteen years later with a vintage gold metallic tank from the sixties is a surreal experience. You see, the last time the low-rise jean was popular, they didn’t work on me. But people grow up, tastes change, and a certain pair of jeans can fit you just right—in form and personality.
Recently, I started to open my mind more to the low-rise fit after interviewing the hard-rock godmother of them, Daniella Clarke. The fashion designer helped pioneer the low-rise jean movement in the early 2000s, when she founded Frankie B. Jeans. The brand’s namesake: Clarke’s daughter, Frankie, which she shares with her husband and Guns N’ Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke. The sunken waistline, operates by the rockstar philosophy of “anything goes.” As Clarke once told me, “musicians are really free people, especially with the way they dress.” As a TV personality by day and creative writer by night, it’s fun pushing the boundaries with clothing off-air. These pants achieve just that, plus mom approves!
Keeping it Krischic,
Kristin Vartan
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Keeping it Krischic 