Hip-baring jeans give rise to a new kind of cleavage
By Gina Daugherty
Cincinnati Enquirer
"Plumber's butt." You know, that blindingly pale patch of derriere that peeks out from between a shirt that rides up and pants that slide down. Most commonly seen when a beefy plumber or other worker reaches or squats while on the job. Most common until recently, that is. The effect is no longer just a boy's club, as women are baring their posteriors — sometimes intentionally, sometimes not — in the name of fashion. Low-rise jeans have booty poppin' out all over the place. Everyone is getting cheeky. Call it the new cleavage.
At Bee Clean Car Wash in Mason, Ohio, Annamarie Minturn and Cassie Thierauf, both 19, are baring their butts (albeit unintentionally) every time they lean over a car, bend down to vacuum or wipe down a tire. Thierauf's rhinestone-studded thong is there for all to see. She doesn't mean to, but when your pants hug your hips, it's bound to happen.
"It's not that I have them low so my thong can hang out," explains Thierauf. "It's a product of the pant."
Indeed. The space between Thierauf's navel ring and the top of her jeans is at least three inches. She says the distance is greater on some of her other pants.
The thong is an absolute must for Latresha Lane. She runs a modeling company and without the thong, she and her models would be out of business. Visible panty lines (or VPL) are not an option.
For many women, low-rise, hip-baring jeans are causing all kinds of VPL. Some jeans are so low there isn't enough room for a zipper, as is the case with Levi's Too Superlows, which feature two snap buttons instead.
Recent college graduate Marianne Pusz, 23, is unbreakable in her resolve against panty-showing, and she quickly decides only Britney Spears and Gwen Stefani can get away with it.
"Don't give me that, 'Oops I did it again, my thong is hanging out,' " says Pusz. "Unless you are Britney Spears, forget about it. If you are wearing low-rise jeans and regular underwear, you should be carted away. Panty lines plus showing your underwear is the cardinal sin of low-rise jeans."
Big shocker that Ryan Nesbitt doesn't mind, though. An 18-year-old, he has nothing against a half-inch to an inch of butt cleavage on a "Tara Reid-type" woman. "Bootylicious," he says.
But remember, fashion comes and goes, so enjoy it now, as this butt-baring thing might be outdated by fall. Don't fret, though. There's still plumber's butt, unless Joe Schlueter has anything to do with it.
The owner of Schlueter Plumbing Inc. in Cincinnati has been in the business for more than 35 years. He has worked hard to shed the plumber's "showy" stigma. His plumbers wear uniforms.
"I can't guarantee you won't see a little butt crack," Schlueter says. "Plumbing does involve bending over a lot ... But we are conscious of it, and we want to put someone in your home that you feel comfortable with."
And that's just better for everyone.
