Is it OK for men to wear white jeans? I think white looks good under a blazer, and throwing white jeans in the washer after a few wearings is easy and inexpensive compared with a trip to the dry cleaners. But I see only women wearing them in ads and catalogs. — Al, Winter Park, Fla.
You clearly have not been watching the back catalog of French New Wave movies. Onscreen, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon are practically poster boys for men in white jeans, especially on the Riviera.
Which may be why, despite the fact that white denim was introduced by Lee in the 1960s as part of its Lee Westerner collection (the material used was officially called “white cotton satin”) and made appearances in the much celebrated 1990s collections of Helmut Lang and the wardrobe of the British graphic designer Peter Saville, it has become a perennial style statement among French and Italian men.
I know at least three Frenchmen in fashion who have made white jeans their personal signature: the photographer Gilles Bensimon, the Purple magazine founder Olivier Zahm and the showroom impresario Christophe Desmaison, who told me he wears white jeans pretty much “365 days a year.”
When I asked him why, he said: “They look equally good with a dress shirt, blazer and dress shoes as a polo and boat shoes. They are the most versatile basic in my wardrobe — a bit casual, yet elegant and certainly more distinctive than khakis.” By the way, he gets his jeans at Polo Ralph Lauren but also recommends Todd Snyder, Sid Mashburn and Levi’s 501s.
This brings up an issue regarding white jeans, however. As much as any other single item in a man’s wardrobe, they flirt with stereotype. National and otherwise.
Jacob Gallagher, our men’s wear reporter, called white jeans “the pants equivalent of a shiny going-out top. Something that can come off as too intentional, too contrived, too forced caszh.”
“The exception to this are the French,” he said. “In Paris you see guys wear them without care or thought. This is a self-fulfilling cycle. Because white jeans are a more quotidian style for men in France, they don’t come off as a contrivance. But for American men, they too easily make you look like you’re ‘doing a thing,’ which is perhaps the ultimate men’s wear no-no.”
The exception to this rule is, of course, the annual White Party given by the Fanatics founder Michael Rubin, where everyone has to wear white and white jeans proliferate; and the yacht club, where white pants, including jeans, are part of the shtick. (Indeed, white jeans are the only jeans allowed in the club houses of many yacht clubs.) But white pants bring with them a host of associations and preconceptions about elitism, privilege and, in the case of boating, retrograde Boston Brahmin values, that anyone considering a pair of white jeans may want to consider.
(All of this is less true for women, who seem to benefit from the halo effect of white gloves and wedding dresses.)
Such are the risks, anyway. As for the benefits, Tonne Goodman, Vogue’s sustainability editor and a woman known for her white jeans chic, said: “Given the reality of atypical weather, and the cultural advocacy for gender equality, men can certainly wear white jeans, not only in the summer (before Labor Day) but all year round. The crispness elevates almost any look, provided they are paired with classic pieces, like a blazer.”
Whatever you decide, remember there’s only one universal rule when it comes to white jeans: Cleanliness is next to, if not godliness, pretty much everything else.
Your Style Questions, Answered
Every week on Open Thread, Vanessa will answer a reader’s fashion-related question, which you can send to her anytime via email or Twitter. Questions are edited and condensed.
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