An independent student newspaper at Brigham Young University-Idaho recently ignited a debate on, of all things, skinny jeans. In an article last week that has spawned hundreds of comments and more than 12,000 Facebook Likes, The Student Review focused on BYU-Idaho administrators acting as fashion police and banning students sporting the popular pants from taking required tests and exams.
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As the buzzworthy piece begins, “Trends come and go, but the skinny on BYU-Idaho’s most recent addition to the honor code shows one trend going more quickly than some students would like. Students at Brigham Young University, Idaho recently encountered a new sign in the university’s testing center that read simply, ‘No skinny jeans.'”
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The sign was apparently an offshoot of the general “dress and grooming standards” suppressing “form-fitting” clothing on all BYU campuses. The central question, according to the Review: “[A]re skinny jeans the gateway style to more scandalous attire, or a legitimate clothing option with a bad rap?“
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The short feature has sparked national attention, with related “Here’s the Skinny” reports running over the past few days on the AP wire, ABC News, Huffington Post, and Gawker.
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It also prompted a school response stating that skinny jeans specifically are not banned at BYU. Yet, students told the Review the restrictive sign was definitely up in the BYU-Idaho testing center prior to the controversy and that some staffers there are known for being overly critical of student clothing they consider indecent or sacrilegious.
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Below is a screenshot of the sign that led to the Review article.
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College Media Matters 