Opinion: #Wedgiegate – A Retort
By Megan Clery on July 6, 2012 in Style
Every year there’s a trend which attracts raised eyebrows, bitchy sniggering and the upturning of noses, and this year the trend is denim hotpants. They were a common choice of attire for this years Evolution festival, which show a little more than your regular bog standard shorts. Lets be honest, it could be worse.
Rewind 15 years or so and we’re back in the 1990′s. People are leaving the house wearing a combination of clothes which may as well have been thrown together in the dark. Girls are sporting cargo pants and halter necks and boys are wearing trousers which have been designed so that the crotch sits at near enough ankle level. I mean halter necks, really? In addition their was the drain pipe trousers which I need not comment on and the double denim trend, which is never ok, by the way. Another interesting fashion statement of the past was the t-shirt over a long sleeved top, and when I say interesting, I mean god-awful.
You may have since consigned these fashion crimes to the back of your wardrobe, but at the time you probably thought you looked fantastic. So “adults”, who are you to judge?
Going back even further to the 60′s and there was the mini-skirt. It was new, controversial, risqué, and somewhere, a slightly uptight, elderly women would have been losing sleep over it. It was slated, ridiculed and more or less disgraced by the older generation, and where is it now? On the clothing racks of pretty much every high street clothing shop and in the majority of women’s wardrobes. That might not be where denim hotpants are headed, but it does show that moral outrage accompanies even the most inspired fashion trend.
“If they happen to catch the attention of the flash boy racers in the fast cars, then so what? These lads will wolf-whistle a muddy tracksuit, there’s not really much we can do”
In my opinion, wearing denim hotpants to this years Evolution festival can only be described as logical. It’s a warm day, you’re in the middle of a crowd surrounded by strangers and you want to stay cool. A skirt would originally spring to mind, but lets say the wind picks up. Do you really want to be frantically pulling the bottom edges of your skirt down back below waist level every 10 seconds? No, me neither. Shorts on the other hand are a much more suitable choice.
The point of the denim hotpant is infact far from that it shows a considerable amount of flesh, the point is that they’re practical summer wear and essentially, they look nice. If they happen to catch the attention of the flash boy racers in the fast cars, then so what? These lads will wolf-whistle a muddy tracksuit, there’s not really much we can do.
Fair enough, these particular items of clothing probably don’t suit the more “rotund” figure, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us shouldn’t be allowed to wear them. That’s like saying the Olympics shouldn’t be televised because half us can’t do a sit up.
So, the next time you think about complaining about the supposed wardrobe malfunction of teenage girls, think back to the days of your youth where the trends being followed were equally as ridiculous. Maybe I might look back on these pictures when I’m older and cringe, but at least I’ll fondly remember the 28 degree music festival I didn’t collapse at.
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Remember @robin_darke's despair at Evolution's #wedgiegate? Well, one girl thinks we're in no position to judge | http://t.co/4HQF7FNA
Remember @robin_darke's despair at Evolution's #wedgiegate? Well, one girl thinks we're in no position to judge | http://t.co/4HQF7FNA