J. Brand skinnies at RevolveClothing.com

How brave are you?  Now that white denim is back in fashion, that question has arisen in the mind of many a fashion-loving woman:

• What can I wear it with?
• Will it make me look fat?
• What if I spill something?
• What style is best for my body?

This trend has been on the Demoiselles’ radar for some time, but we haven’t given it an honest chance until now.  After some discussion and debate over celebrity photos and product pages, here’s what we’ve decided:

Here’s my opinion, short and sweet: no thanks.  From its inception, I’ve been vehemently against white jeans…but to be honest, I hadn’t really thought about why.  I just kept seeing an image of myself as a kid, in white jeans and a floral print top, and thinking about how uncomfortable I felt.

When I really started to consider why I don’t like white jeans today, though, I realized that there’s a totally valid (non-childhood-regression) reason for my disgust.  White jeans hide a woman’s shape. Take a typical blue denim – with all of its natural wear, its creases, its shades and visible stitching – and remove any sense of contrast.  What you’ll come up with is a pant that has little character, one that falls aesthetically flat.  It lacks any visual interest, or a chance to play up a curvaceous waist or well-toned legs using the shape and texture of the pant.

In my opinion, that’s exactly what you get with white jeans: denim material without the denim personality.   Every photo of white jeans I’ve seen has made the wearer – often a celebrity with sculpted calves and a tiny waist – look shapeless and almost frumpy.  With less-than-toned thighs and wider hips, why would I choose to wear them?

When I was in 5th grade, I used to love to run through my older, high school-age sister’s closet and play massive dress-up.  She had these great, vintage bell-bottom jeans that were so soft and had this dangerous, alluring ivory color. I remember putting them on, and realizing that they were skin-tight, sausage casings that you could barely put your hands into the pockets of, but yet… I still wore them to school. Mind you, at this time, JNCOs and khaki cargo pants were all the rage, so a chubby girl in white, painted on bell bottoms was… an interesting sight.

White jeans have a danger about them. They’re the forbidden fruit of fashion, so to speak. I say this because the idea of wearing white jeans terrifies me, but I also intepret it, naturally, as a dare; a challenge. Can I wear white jeans and defy the “Shamu” connotations? It’s a matter of chance and confidence. Fortunately, I know not to take a dare without some additional, specific criteria.

In short, I believe that no white denim should be hemmed above the ankle. Cropped (particularly skinny) white jeans will completely chop your legline and make your legs look like fat little sausages that end directly above your shoes, and most of the time, heels especially will narrow your ankles and the contrast between sausage legs and narrow ankles… Not so fresh. Nor so clean, clean.

So that wasn’t really “in short,” but this is: I can appreciate skinny white denim, but not for myself. I think if I were forced to take the plunge into the mysterious depths of white denim, it would have to be in the form of wide leg, extra long cigarette, or extra long bootcut in order to obtain a silhouette that was not only aesthetically pleasing, but comfortable and flattering, as well.

Do you wear white denim, and if not, would you consider it?