新闻周刊:牛仔裤的真实成本(3)

The perfect pair

完美的牛仔裤

Until the 1970s, a good many jeans sold had been made of stiff, shrink-to-fit—or "unsanforized"—denim¹. To soften² them, you simply had to wear them. A lot. It took a good six months to properly break in jeans. After a couple of years—years—the hems³ and pocket edges might start to fray⁴, or a knee would split open. The fabric⁵ faded to a powdery blue with some whiskering—the sunburst-like streaks⁶ that radiate from the fly. Time and dedication⁷ were required to push your jeans to peak fabulousness⁸.

直到20世纪70年代，很多出售的牛仔裤都是用坚硬的、经过收缩以适应环境或未经打磨的粗斜纹棉布制成的。要软化它们，只需要穿上身。很多次。我花了整整六个月才把牛仔裤穿得软硬刚好。几年之后，边缘和口袋边缘可能会开始磨损，或者膝盖会裂开。织物褪成了粉末状的蓝色，带着一些拂动——从苍蝇身上放射出的晒斑般的条纹。把你的牛仔裤穿到极致需要时间和投入。

That is, until the popularization of stonewashing in the 1980s. Unsanforized jeans were thrown into industrial washers with pumice stones and tumbled until the denim was sufficiently⁹ abraded¹⁰. (The L.A.-based casualwear company Guess famously had a system that stonewashed jeans for seven hours—a marathon now considered an environmental horror.) Sometimes jeans were further distressed¹¹ with acid, sandpaper, rasps and files to mimic¹² the previously¹³ hard-won wear and tear. The entire operation was christened "finishing" and conducted in "washhouses," sprawling¹⁴ facilities that now process thousands of jeans a day.

直到20世纪80年代石磨的普及。未打磨过的牛仔裤用浮石扔进工业洗衣机里，不断翻滚，直到粗斜纹棉布充分磨损。(洛杉矶总部位于美国的休闲服装公司Guess有一个著名的系统，就是把牛仔裤打磨七个小时——现在看来，这是一场马拉松式的环保灾难。) 有时，牛仔裤还会被酸性物质、砂纸、锉刀和锉刀弄得更旧，以模仿之前的磨损。整个过程被命名为“整理”，在“洗衣房”里进行。洗衣房占地面积很大，如今每天要加工数千条牛仔裤。

Some washhouses—especially those in Los Angeles, America's jeans-finishing center—are highly technical and follow strict worker safety and environmental norms. But a lot do not, as I saw in Ho Chi Minh City on a steamy April morning in 2018.

一些洗衣房——尤其是美国洛杉矶的那些——是高度技术性的，并且严格遵守工人安全和环境规范。但很多都不是这样的，正如2018年4月一个闷热的早晨，我在胡志明市看到的那样。

A largely agrarian¹⁵ economy only 15 years earlier, by 2018, there were roughly 6,000 textile and garment production companies in Vietnam, employing 2.5 million workers, and accounting¹⁶ for about 16 percent of the country's exports and more than $30 billion in revenue. Experts believe that last figure will jump to $50 billion by 2020.

就在15年前，越南还是一个以农业为主的经济体。到2018年，越南大约有6000家纺织和服装生产公司，雇佣了250万名工人，占越南出口的16%左右，收入超过300亿美元。专家认为，到2020年，最后一个数字将跃升至500亿美元。

1 denim   

n.斜纹棉布；斜纹棉布裤，牛仔裤

参考例句：

• She wore pale blue denim shorts and a white denim work shirt.她穿着一条淡蓝色的斜纹粗棉布短裤，一件白粗布工作服上衣。
• Dennis was dressed in denim jeans.丹尼斯穿了一条牛仔裤。

2 soften   

v.(使)变柔软；(使)变柔和

参考例句：

• Plastics will soften when exposed to heat.塑料适当加热就可以软化。
• This special cream will help to soften up our skin.这种特殊的护肤霜有助于使皮肤变得柔软。

3 hems   

布的褶边，贴边( hem的名词复数 )； 短促的咳嗽

参考例句：

• I took the hems of my dresses up to make them shorter. 我把我的连衣裙都改短了。
• Hems must be level unless uneven design feature is requested. 袖口及裤脚卷边位置宽度必须一致（设计有特别要求的除外）。

4 fray   

v.争吵；打斗；磨损，磨破；n.吵架；打斗

参考例句：

• Why should you get involved in their fray?你为什么要介入他们的争吵呢？
• Tempers began to fray in the hot weather.大热天脾气烦燥。

5 fabric   

n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织

参考例句：

• The fabric will spot easily.这种织品很容易玷污。
• I don't like the pattern on the fabric.我不喜欢那块布料上的图案。

6 streaks   

n.（与周围有所不同的）条纹( streak的名词复数 )；（通常指不好的）特征（倾向）；（不断经历成功或失败的）一段时期v.快速移动( streak的第三人称单数 )；使布满条纹

参考例句：

• streaks of grey in her hair 她头上的绺绺白发
• Bacon has streaks of fat and streaks of lean. 咸肉中有几层肥的和几层瘦的。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

7 dedication   

n.奉献，献身，致力，题献，献辞

参考例句：

• We admire her courage,compassion and dedication.我们钦佩她的勇气、爱心和奉献精神。
• Her dedication to her work was admirable.她对工作的奉献精神可钦可佩。

8 fabulousness   

寓言

参考例句：

• The problem is that most people are awestruck by your fabulousness. 问题是大多数人对你只是肃然起敬。

9 sufficiently   

adv.足够地，充分地

参考例句：

• It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
• The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。

10 abraded   

adj.[医]刮擦的v.刮擦( abrade的过去式和过去分词 )；（在精神方面）折磨（人）；消磨（意志、精神等）；使精疲力尽

参考例句：

• Much of the skin on her arm was abraded. 她胳膊上的大片皮肤被擦破了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Their gossips abraded her into restlessness. 他们的流言蜚语使她心烦意乱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 distressed   

痛苦的

参考例句：

• He was too distressed and confused to answer their questions. 他非常苦恼而困惑，无法回答他们的问题。
• The news of his death distressed us greatly. 他逝世的消息使我们极为悲痛。

12 mimic   

v.模仿，戏弄；n.模仿他人言行的人

参考例句：

• A parrot can mimic a person's voice.鹦鹉能学人的声音。
• He used to mimic speech peculiarities of another.他过去总是模仿别人讲话的特点。

13 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

14 sprawling   

adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着）

参考例句：

• He was sprawling in an armchair in front of the TV. 他伸开手脚坐在电视机前的一张扶手椅上。
• a modern sprawling town 一座杂乱无序拓展的现代城镇

15 agrarian   

adj.土地的，农村的，农业的

参考例句：

• People are leaving an agrarian way of life to go to the city.人们正在放弃农业生活方式而转向城市。
• This was a feature of agrarian development in Britain.这是大不列颠土地所有制发展的一个特征。

16 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。