first impressions

My last post about jeans got me thinking about the denim styles that made an impression on me while I was growing up, and a standout memory for me would be the various ad campaigns run by Calvin Klein in the mid-90s, especially the ones for the ckOne perfume.

I know these are styled images, photographed by Steven Meisel, but there was something very loose and effortless about the whole thing - the models they used were cool (Kate! Stella! Trish! Jenny! Kirsten!); the clothes were very basic, and the make-up was barely there. I still find these images timeless, and I would wear everything in those ads, even now.



Admittedly, there are caveats. It's not easy to pull off perfectly straight-leg jeans - they can be hard to pull off for anyone who doesn't have narrow hips, or are short. I like them cropped at the ankle best - I have curvy hips and I that find a cropped leg seems to balance everything off nicely, especially if you wear flat shoes. When I travel somewhere a bit nippier, I just put on some socks - thin wool ones.

(Also, I think I'm past the age where I feel ok walking around in a denim mini, but that's not saying I don't love it on others.)

Below are some more great images - from US Vogue, in 2000 - which made an impression on me, jeans-wise. I hate to be one of those people who talk about how great things were "back in the day", but imagine, 16 years ago, Annie Leibowitz was capable of photographing models for Vogue in all their natural beauty, without photoshopping the images to death:




My favourites? Shalom's and Carolyn's jeans.

Images from here and here