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Extra, extra! The NYTimes caught on to cut-offs! (But only for men?)
The article offers the following advice for making homemade cut-offs, which calls into question what other kind of cutoffs could possibly exist*:
The trick, should you care to make your own for the price of a razor blade, is this: Cut just the seams and lightly score the fabric with the blade, first in front, then in back; carefully, firmly, tear along these lines. The resulting frayed edge should, Mr. Bastian said, come out perfectly after a wash. But be warned: without subtle stitching above the fray, the shorts will unravel with each wash, so you had better be happy with your quads.
*The New York designer Michael Bastian included a pair of $300 corduroy cutoffs in his first collection — for fall 2005, mind you — and they were the first article of clothing he sold.
Hey Athens, haven’t we known all along? Sad sack flares that still fit from however many dreadful years ago can be revived in the cut-off manner, and brand new shorts can be made for very few dollars after a stop at a thrift or used clothing store.
While I’d like to heckle the Times for having a cut-off epiphany now, I think their greater point - that high-end versions are being included in designers’ collections - is at once interesting and indicative of cut-off contagiousness, and also totally dumb on the designer’s behalves.
Still, one more good point:
“You definitely don’t want clam-offs,” Mr. Macko said. A seven-inch inseam, give or take, looks good, but it is best to mark it while wearing the pants.
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[…] remember all that talk about cut-offs in the NYTimes? (It’s okay if you don’t.) The New York […]
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