The Joy of Going Pant-less

I have fully embraced the freedom of China fashion! I would never in a million years thought I would leave the house in jeggings, but they are now my non-pant of choice. Jeggings are jean-leggings on Chinese girls look almost exactly like skinny jeans. They never caught on in the US but they are the norm here and I love it! I now own 3 pair and wear them proudly, even in the US!

Roz and I have both recently gotten the confidence to rock the jeggings and even took it a step further. We developed a system of rating your pant-less-ness from a scale of naked to real pants. 0 is naked, un-acceptable in public. 1 is pantyhose, I know you are thinking that is underwear, but in china this can serve as outerwear for those brave enough. Pantyhose with a mini skirt or shorts is a 1.5, in the US we assume that butt covering is a requirement but this is not always the case in china. 2 is leggings, basically thick pantyhose that you can’t see through. These rarely require the mini skirt or shorts for additional coverage. So far my closest to public nakedness is the 2.5 leggings and mini skirt. 3 is jeggings which require no additional coverage but a longer shirt is suggested for non-chinese. There is a distinction between regular leggings and jeggings because jeggings are trying really hard to be real pants.

Let’s take a minute to discuss some china fashion inconsistencies. When I came to China I was told to dress very conservative because Chinese people don’t wear low cut shirts or revel any cleavage. I assumed conservative dress meant nothing too tight and not showing a lot of skin. However, it is only the chest that needs to be fully covered. Chinese girls won’t show their collarbones, but they have no problem wearing booty shorts and skin-tight, bear-midriff turtlenecks.  To explain how short the shorts are let me just say that when they wear pantyhose under the booty shorts, you can clearly see the control top of the hose wear the sticking has the band to keep them up hanging out of the shorts. I guess you have to show off what you got and the average Chinese frame doesn’t have much to show off up top, so their legs have to do the talking.

Also, a public service announcement: Attention Men of China: Underwear is not outerwear; you still have to wear pants. Boxer shorts have the term “shorts” in the name but that in no way makes them shorts. It seems the only male underwear option is tighty-whiteys; so on the rare chance that boxer shorts are in the wardrobe, people mistakenly wear them as shorts. Not ok, even for China!

Another staple of China fashion is the anything-goes color combinations. I have bright purple, white, gray and black leggings that I have rocked proudly. I have seen women in plaid paired with stripes and animal print all at the same time.  Any of the above fashion statements can be combined with extremely bright colors. One explanation is that the children go through their whole lives in school uniforms that they often try to stand out with bright shoes or loud jackets or sweaters. This lack of fashion in their formative years seems to have had a lasting effect. I feel so 80s and wild in my bright purple and yellow top, but no one here even looks at me like anything is wrong. Last year people looked at my Rainbow Bright Halloween costume and asked why I wasn’t dressed up!

You don’t usually think about China as the land of freedom, but there is something extremely freeing about going around at a 2.5. I really do feel I can do whatever I want here. I say whatever I think, assuming no one understands my insults.  And I can certainly wear WHATEVER I want. I feel unstoppable running around with no pants. It’s just like when you are a little kid and someone lets watch Urika’s Castle when you know your mom says it’s not allowed. I often have the need to kick-box the air and have done so on a occasion with minimal negative attention.

 Now if I could only buy clothes and shoes in my size…