Spare sleeves: they come in handy for those of you who have an extra pair of arms, you know?
In all seriousness, sleeves like these ones are the kind of thing we see fairly often on Yoox.com, and not at all anywhere else. Clearly sleeve-shoppers mostly use Yoox, then. Hmmm.
How much would you pay for these, though, assuming you were in the market for a pair of sleeves that don’t have a shirt attached to them? How about £169/ $256? Does that sound reasonable? Or are you just wondering why in the world these would cost more than an entire outfit for many of us? Well, that one’s easy: it’s because they’re by Ann Demeulemeester, obviously. Designer brand = licence to print money, you see. And once again, we find ourselves wishing we’d thought of it first…
You know that scene in a horror movie where the heroine runs away from the bad guy and he grabs her arm and rips the sleeve off her top? Wouldn’t these be handy for just that situation? I’m always thinking “oh gosh darn it that chainsaw wielding madman is chasing me AGAIN and here am I with no spare sleeves”.
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To me they look less like sleeves and more like leech socks, a leech sock being a fabric tube (not unlike Ms. Demeulemeester’s sleeves) that you wear inside your boots and over your legs whilst trekking through the wild jungles of Borneo or wherever to keep the leeches from attaching themselves to your legs. I can vouch for their total non-trendiness, having worn a pair. Generally I am in favour of explorer chic (khakis and whatever), but this seems a step too far… Unless of course the threat of leech attack is now a serious issue for today’s fashion-forward woman on-the-go?
China has this traditional rule that everywhere south of the Yangtze River does not need central heat. It is, as fas as I can tell, an entirely arbitrary rule, as the weather doesn’t drastically change at this point, and a good many places south of the river, including Shanghai, could definitely do with some heating. Basically this means that you wear your winter coat everywhere. Inside, outside, working, shopping. It gets dirty, and we all know, winter coats can be a b**** to clean. So, people buy things that look EXACTLY like this to cover their cuffs and keep them clean for longer. They’re functional, but not attractive, whether you buy them for 90 cents from a sidewalk vendor, or, apparently, 256 dollars from Ms Demeulemeester.
Sleeves like these are common here in Japan. They use them to protect their forearms from being tanned by the sun. They even have some connected to the handlebars of their mopeds and bikes for easy wearing in the sun.
It is common for Asian women (but not only them) to wear sleeves when driving to protect from being tanned by the sun.
I often wear sleeves for that purpose, only in my case it’s to avoid being burned by the sun…
Taking these along with the open-toe boots, it seems like the fashion world is looking at JRPGs for inspiration.
another use for this is for observant muslim women, who may buy those cute, more widely-available short sleeved blouses, and just wish they had it in long sleeves but usually they don’t so what to do, what to do… these sleeves solve the problem. i have seen on sale stretchy material sleeves usually in some plain colour like brown or white or black, but this shirt-type sleeve is a first.