Satanic blue jeans from Sweden!

[unclehobart]

Satanic logo not hurting sales of Swedish jeans
Designer hopes to spread anti-Christian message; others just like the style

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - A punk-rock style, trendy tight fit and affordable price have made Cheap Monday jeans a hot commodity among young Swedes, but what has people talking is the brand’s ungodly logo: a skull with a cross turned upside down on its forehead.

The jeans’ makers say it’s more of a joke, but the logo’s designer said there is a deeper message.

“It is an active statement against Christianity,” Bjorn Atldax told The Associated Press. “I’m not a Satanist myself, but I have a great dislike for organized religion.”

Atldax insists he has a purpose beyond selling denim: to make young people question Christianity, which he called a “force of evil” that had sparked wars throughout history.

Such a remark might incite outrage or prompt retailers to drop the brand in more religious countries.

But not in Sweden, a secular nation which cherishes its free speech and where churchgoing has been declining for decades.

Cheap Mondays are flying off the shelves at about $50 a pair. The jeans have also been shipped throughout Europe and to Australia, and there are plans to introduce them to the United States and elsewhere.

The jeans’ makers say about 200,000 pairs have been sold since March 2004, and they say they have received few complaints about the grinning skull and upside-down cross, a symbol often associated with satanic worship.

Even the country’s largest church, the Lutheran Church of Sweden, reacts with a shrug.

“I don’t think it’s much to be horrified about,” said Bo Larsson, director of the church’s Department of Education, Research and Culture.

“It is abundantly clear that this designer wants to create public opinion against the Christian faith. ... But I believe that the way to deal with this is to start a discussion about what religion means.”

Other Christians, however, are calling for a tougher stance against the jeans.

“One cannot just keep quiet about this,” said the Rev. Karl-Erik Nylund, vicar of St. Mary Magdalene Church in Stockholm. “This is a deliberate provocation (against Christians), and I object to that.”

Nylund complained that Swedish companies don’t treat Christianity with the same respect they afford other religions.

“No one wants to provoke Jews or Muslims, but it’s totally OK to provoke Christians,” he said.

Some buyers have ripped off the logo from the back of the pants or even returned the jeans once they realized what the symbol means. But such cases are very few, according to the brand’s creator, Orjan Andersson, who said he doesn’t take the logo too seriously.

“I’m not interested in religion,” he said. “I’m more interested in that the logo looks good.”

Henrik Petersson, 26, said he picked up his first pair of Cheap Mondays a few months after they were launched because he liked their punk-rocker style and the logo caught his eye.

“I think it’s a cool thing. It stands out from the rest,” he said. “I haven’t really reflected over whether there is an underlying message.”

Martin Sundberg, 32, co-owner of a clothing store in Stockholm’s trendy SoFo district, said people shouldn’t get upset over the jeans.

“It’s just supposed to be a bit of fun, some kind of anti-culture,” he said.

The jeans are selling in Norway, Denmark, Britain, the Netherlands and France. Andersson, the brand’s owner, hopes to tap the lucrative U.S. market soon — and said he isn’t worried the logo will hurt sales.

“Surely, most people understand that we are not evil people,” he said. “My mom doesn’t think so, at least.”

Associated Press

$50?! ... man... even the cost of devil worship is going up these days.

 

[abooja]

The most offensive thing to me about these jeans is the potential for inappropriate wearing by less-than-skinny individuals. Other than that, I'm no longer into the stovepipe look.

 

[unclehobart]

C'mon, Boo... You know camel toe makes the world go round.

 

[Gonz]

A punk-rock style

Joey & Sid are dead. Give it up already.

 

[tonksy]

Gotta have boot cut, just gotta.

 

[Gonz]

Original shrink to fit button fly straight leg 501s (can't find 'em east of the Mississippi so I quit looking & turned to the second best thing...sweat pants.

 

[tonksy]

I can't do sweatpants unless they are yoga pants. I totally have this thing with anything tight around my ankles (shut up in advance, prof).

 

[Gonz]

At least in GA you can wear shorts 80% of the year. UP here the shorts go into hibernation around October & don't come back out until late May.

 

[Inkara1]

$50 for a pair of "Cheap Mondays"?

Original shrink to fit button fly straight leg 501s (can't find 'em east of the Mississippi so I quit looking & turned to the second best thing...sweat pants.

You can't find original 501s out there? You poor, deprived soul... although I don't wear them now because I like a looser fit in my pants.

 

[Gonz]

There are pre-shrunk. There are colored. There are pre-faded & pre-washed & pre-this & pre-that but the old fashioned purist 501s are not available here (too be honest I haven't looked in a couple of years) but according to Levi Strauss, not east of the Mississip...

 

[Inkara1]

Those are the same jeans my mom wears (31x34) and I had no trouble finding them here for Christmas.

 

[Gonz]

I can safely bet that I'd no longer put on a pair of 29x34 successfully

 

[Inkara1]

I've never been able to wear 29-anything (I'm 40x30 here... was 38x30 for ages, but now I'm more of a fat-ass than before )

 

[Winky]

I've figgered that If I return to working out
and gain 3.5 lbs of muscle I'd return to the
LBM I had when I was 36 (ten years ago)

Age 36 136 lbs 6.5% bodyfat
Age 46 136 lbs 8.5% bodyfat

I wore a 29" waist @ 125 lbs outta HS
Now I'm a portly 32"er

What a cow

Yeah button-fly 501's Rock if you can find em.

I'm with Jooba
those jeans a so fricken ugly

they ARE downright Satanic!

 

[BlurOfSerenity]

i buy whatever's cheap and cute at target . i avoided jeans for many years until this summer, though. not "goth" enough.

but yeah, if i were shopping and i saw a logo on something i didn't like, this would be my thought process:
"eek. i dont like that." *moves over to next display*

 

[Gonz]

Age 36 136 lbs 6.5% bodyfat
Age 46 136 lbs 8.5% bodyfat

That fact that you know that puts you in get a life category. Hangin with Jack LaLane again?

 

[abooja]

C'mon, Boo... You know camel toe makes the world go round.

On a guy, perhaps. One on the thin side without pasty skin, blue-black hair and excessive piercing/tattooing. Oh, and he should be packin' downstairs.

 

[SouthernN'Proud]

I bet if that cross were on the jeans in the proper position people would bitch about it and start hollerin' about their sacred right to not have it pushed into their face. But a Satanic symbol,and they never bat an eye.

There's a day acomin' folks...

 

[Winky]

Sadly, you are all too right!

This last Christmas season really pointed out the
division in our society. Merely saying "Merry Christmas"
was enough to brand you are Religious zealot.

A few years down the road, who knows?

 

[SouthernN'Proud]

IF the road has that long left...