March 4, 2002
DOWN HOME:
How apples and jeans are alike
___Just the other day, I experienced the fashion equivalent of Isaac Newton's apple.
___You know the old science story, about how Sir Isaac "discovered" gravity one day as he sat under a tree and an apple fell on his head.
___I discovered Knox's Prime Law of Gender Fashionability as I sat on the couch in our den.
___Here's how it happened: Molly walked through the room.
___That's it. In the 15 years and four months she's been my daughter, she's walked between the TV set and me approximately 5,392,471 times. But this time, I noticed something I'd never seen before.
MARV KNOX
Editor
___Molly's jeans caught my eye. I noticed how they fit her perfectly from the waist all the way down to where they began to flare at the knee.
___In an instant, I realized, "My jeans don't do that."
___I stood up and looked down. My jeans grabbed me on the hips, but otherwise, they went every which direction.
___"This must be the reason girls require so much time for jeans-shopping," I thought. "Girls' jeans must fit in an infinite number of places not required of boys' jeans."
___Like Sir Isaac, who is said to have gone around dropping apples on other scientists' heads, I tested my hypothesis. At dinner that night, I tried it out on Joanna, my wife, and on Molly and her sister, Lindsay.
___They looked at me as if I had just said I'd discovered the sky is blue.
___"Well, yeah," Molly replied when I said, "I've discovered why you need to spend 11 hours trying on jeans and I can order them out of the catalog. Your jeans fit you every place."
___"Of course, Daddy," Lindsay added. "When you buy jeans, if they fit in the waist, you're good to go. But when a girl shops for jeans, they have to fit."
___(She said it just like that, too: "... when a girl shops for jeans, they have to fit.")
___I was pretty proud of my discovery. I figured I'd probably win the Super Spandex Award from the Academy of Fashion Technology.
___But no. The girls in my life informed me I'd just stumbled upon the most obvious bit of wisdom women have known instinctively since Levi Strauss first used rivets to stitch work pants out of denim sailcloth. Altogether now: "... when a girl shops for jeans, they have to fit."
___Lindsay figures if she ever makes the big time, she's going to shop at this store where they take all a woman's measurements and sew custom-fit jeans for their customers. That would be a luxury. Or at least it would save her several hours in numerous changing rooms every time she decides to buy jeans.
___The particularity of girls' jeans reminds me of the custom nature of the gospel. Like jeans, it's provided for everyone who will accept it. But like a tailored garment, it's customized--personal good news--for just the right fit.
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