Faith in jeans
By: Leonie Barrie - 28 March 2006 15:32
This must be a contender for the most bizarre fashion launch of 2006: a new jeans line that helps Muslims to stay comfortable while they pray. No, it’s not an early April Fool’s joke but a perfectly serious range with a high waist, wide legs to enable the wearer to bend down repeatedly during prayers, and lots of pockets for holding all the accessories Muslims have to take off while they worship such as watches, bracelets and glasses. For good measure the jeans even have green seams – green being the sacred colour of Islam – and are made by Muslim hands at a plant in Pakistan.
According to the Italian company that designed the Al Quds jeans, a year of research and testing went into the product. Models even tried different versions of the jeans while they prayed. French retailer Carrefour SA has been selling the jeans, but is keen to distance itself from any religious connotation and instead praises their “excellent quality-price ratio” – which is another way of saying cheap (the jeans retail at around $22).
I’m not sure how making jeans that are comfortable to bend over in counts as a new idea. Or even whether Muslims feel they need to be singled out with a specially designed pair of jeans. But the concept has certainly generated a shed-load of publicity, and if it really fills a new niche then that’s a stroke of jean genius.
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