How Skinny Is Too Skinny?

We're only talking about your jeans, gentlemen

- Niraj Kakade

Millennial men in their late teens and early 20s grew up with a rather intimate bond with skinny jeans. Not out of sentimentality, but for how tightly they hugged your crotch-a sensation perhaps most Indian men are unaware of in their formative years. Although, even when the denim rubbed you the wrong way in all the wrong places, you still wore them, because everyone was doing the same. However, in recent times skinny jeans have become something of a fashion faux pas, perhaps similar to dipping fries in a milkshake-tolerable, but not something you'd want to be seen doing in public.

But fashion, by its very nature, is cyclical. Evidence of this dates to the 13th century when hose, or tights, were incorporated into men's attire for both protection and warmth, tailored closely to the body for horse riding. In the mid-15th century, a law prohibited the wearing of short tunics that exposed the male buttocks among the upper class, prompting the adoption of tights or leggings beneath their rather scandalous tunics. This trend then resurfaced in the 17th century with the popularity of slim-cut trousers among the French Royals and was resurrected again by the likes of Elvis Presley in the '50s along with James Dean and Marlon Brando in films like Rebel Without a Cause and The Wild One, respectively.

In the modern world, "Skinny jeans became a rage again when Hedi Slimane designed these ridiculously slim-fitting jeans for Dior Homme," says stylist Edward Lalrempuia, who also shared a rather interesting tidbit from the time, "Rumor has it, French boys starved themselves for days to fit in those. Even Karl Lagerfeld is said to have done the same."