Peeking Interest

Layering is the latest variation in the ripped-jean look. Through the unbelievably tattered jeans so chic these days, one can catch a glimpse of lacy stockings or patterned leggings.

Like other hip girls, Lisa Herbert of North Hollywood has cultivated a whole look.

“If I’m going out at night to a club,” she says, “I usually wear fishnet or black lace stockings underneath. If I’m just doing day stuff, or if it’s cold out, I usually wear black and white striped leggings underneath.”

Sometimes, Herbert shakes up the torn-jeans-over-stockings-look with a boxer shorts variation.

“Sometimes I wear boxer shorts underneath,” she says. “Then you see bare knees, but the print of the boxer shorts under the rear-end rips.”

Herbert was so determined to rip her jeans the proper way--through natural wear and tear--that she wore one old pair constantly until the exhausted denim finally gave way.

“I sat down one day, and the rear end just r-i-p-p-ed,” she says. “Thank God I was already wearing fishnet stockings underneath!”

Herbert doesn’t cause too many ripples when she wears her torn-jean ensembles.

“This look is pretty accepted now--so many people are wearing it,” she says. “But, for a while, people would say, ‘Did you realize you have a rip in your butt?’ It’s usually guys who’d say stuff like that. I’d just ignore those comments and walk away.”