Anyways, there were still a few pairs hanging on the racks when we got there. Even better though, the fit was perfect (mother approved!) and all 1969 denim was being sold with $20 knocked-off its original sale price. So again, awesome.

Indeed, everything was going good until my mother saw the $49.99 sale price pop up on the monitor. No, she wasn't expecting them to be cheaper or felt it was too much. In fact, the price in and of itself wasn't the issue. What she couldn't wrap her mind around and what would later baffle my lovable but non fashion curious father was the notion that anyone -- rich, poor, young, old -- would actually pay for someone to rip their jeans for them. And since there weren't that many holes in the jeans, it made my purchase of them ever more bizarre to my mom.

I say this because upon leaving the store she spent the next fifteen minutes lamenting on her ripped jean days -- a time when the only way to get that perfectly tattered slit above the knee was to find a pair of really sharp scissors and go to work. No paying anyone to customize your shit. No Gap 1969 premium "destroyed" jeans. No Shopbop model to sew lace on one of your pant legs. It was all you -- no guts, no glory.

Unless I hit the lottery like, say, tomorrow, the liklihood that i'll be sporting ripped denim pants that cost over $100 is very, very low because, like my mother, I have my limits, too. But for reasonably pieces like those from the Gap, well, I don't see what's wrong with indulging yourself a little bit.

So, I want to throw to you dear reader: How much is too much for ripped denim?