Q: In reference to “Mutton Dressed as Lamb” [August]: I am a woman married to a gorgeous 40-year-young man with two children. How dare you answer that reader with a blunt “yes” when he inquired about wearing low-rise bootcut jeans when his wife was against it? What does she look like? She’s most likely jealous. At 45, I love seeing a man who is confident enough to pull off pure boyish charm! Age is only in the soul of the beholder, and as this gentleman stated, he feels young. Granted, if he looks like a fool in these he needs to take a second look, but damn it, if he looks good in them, wear them! By the way, my husband has lowrisers on right now, and he looks awesome!

A: This was perhaps the most touching of the dozens of outraged, angered and horrified responses to my shortest answer ever. Many other readers mentioned the fact that 40-year-old Johnny Depp was dressed quite youthfully on the cover of the August issue, in which I suggested that if a 35-year-old man’s wife said he was too old for his short-rise slim-cut jeans, maybe he was. Fair enough. If you look like Johnny Depp, you can wear anything you want.

Quite a few readers suggested that I am probably old, fat and/or someone who doesn’t like jeans or fashion. Please allow me to brag that I was tested at 15 percent body fat, and I look good in most of the eight pairs of jeans I own. I also love fashion, which is why I am critical of it.

I do promise to try to avoid one-word answers in the future, but I’m not going to retract my opinion. If your wife, your girlfriend or your boyfriend tells you something doesn’t look good, there are two possibilities: They are right or they are wrong. I think it’s obvious that other people see us more completely and objectively than we see ourselves. I listen to my wife’s fashion advice more than anyone else’s, and believe it or not, she has probably made me dress with a more youthful style. She certainly has me wearing things tighter than I used to, which is probably why people stop me and ask for directions when I’m in Europe.

And I do agree with my offended readers that what you wear shouldn’t necessarily have to do with your chronological age. If you are athletic, you can certainly wear jeans, tees and other items associated with youth. Clint Eastwood still looks good in jeans, but I doubt that he would wear low-rise. I don’t think anyone looks good in low-rise jeans, including Gisele Bündchen and Caroline Murphy.

Youth culture, as it has been transformed by the marketers now running it, is a distraction from the real business of being an adult with mature concerns. Don’t confuse fashion with style. If it looks good, wear it. But there is something pathetic about a man trying to impersonate a boy. I never liked seeing scoutmasters dressed in scout uniforms. Gave me that same feeling as priests in dresses. But I love seeing little boys dressed up in blazers for special occasions. It’s good to be a man.

November 2003

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