Sunday, November 02, 2014

highwaters will never die


In Seoul, nerd fashion lives on.

Take highwaters, for example—the sort of pants that would get a student laughed out of the classroom in the States: they're called "highwaters" because they look as if they were designed to stay dry in flood conditions. The pant legs go down no farther than the ankles. In the States, this is also often an indication of poverty: Mom and Dad weren't rich enough to buy Junior a pair of pants that kept up with his growth rate, which led to classist sneering in the classroom. But in Seoul, it's not obvious that highwaters indicate poverty: in this monied, fashion-conscious town, they're more likely a deliberate fashion choice, which makes them all the more execrable and worthy of scorn.

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