新闻周刊:牛仔裤的真实成本(2)

Barring basics such as underwear and socks, blue jeans are the most popular garment ever. They are what many of the Rana Plaza¹ workers in Bangladesh were sewing or inspecting when the building came crashing down on April 23, 2013, killing² 1,134 and injuring 2,500 workers, making it the deadliest garment factory accident in modern history. Jeans were the backbone³ of American textile and garment manufacturing, until Levi's offshored those jobs. They are also hyper-polluting—in their creation, and in their afterlife.

除了内衣和袜子等基本款，蓝色牛仔裤是有史以来最流行的服装。2013年4月23日，孟加拉国拉纳广场发生倒塌事故，造成1134人死亡，2500人受伤，这是现代史上伤亡人数最多的服装厂事故。牛仔裤曾是美国纺织和服装制造业的支柱，直到李维斯将这些工作转移到海外。在创造和使用中，也是高度污染的。

Jeans embody⁴ all that is good, bad and awry⁵ in fashion.

牛仔裤体现了时尚界所有的好、坏、歪的东西。

Nothing Comes Between Me and My Calvins

没有什么能把我和我的Calvins分开

Denim⁶ remained a niche⁷ textile until the early 1870s, when a tailor named Jacob Davis asked his fabric⁸ supplier, Levi Strauss, for help mass-producing his most recent design: workpants with metal rivets⁹ at key stress points. If Strauss would cover the hefty $68 patenting fee, Davis proposed, the two men could be business partners. Today, Levi Strauss & Co. still design and sell the majority of jeans. It is one of the most successful apparel brands, ever.

牛仔布一直是一种小众纺织品，直到19世纪70年代初，一位名叫雅各布·戴维斯的裁缝请他的布料供应商李维·施特劳斯帮忙量产他最新的设计:在关键受力点有金属铆钉的工作裤。戴维斯提议，如果斯特劳斯能够支付68美元的高额专利费，两人就可以成为商业伙伴。今天，李维斯公司仍然设计和销售大部分牛仔裤。它是有史以来最成功的服装品牌之一。

And blue jeans' popularity steadily¹⁰ grew, until they received an unexpected bump in the 1970s—from all places, Seventh Avenue.

蓝色牛仔裤的受欢迎程度稳步上升，直到20世纪70年代，意外地受到来自第七大道各地的欢迎。

With the women's liberation movement and the popularity of more casual dress, New York's fashion designers dreamed up a new fashion category: designer jeans. "Jeans are sex," Calvin Klein said. "The tighter they are, the better they sell."

随着妇女解放运动和休闲服装的流行，纽约的时装设计师们想出了一个新的时尚类别:名牌牛仔裤。“牛仔裤就是性感，”Calvin Klein说。“越紧，卖得越好。”

To hammer home his point, in 1980, Klein cast 15-year-old actress-model Brooke Shields for his jeans commercial. "You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins?" she purred in her childlike voice, as she sat spread-eagle in a pair of his jeans and a taupe blouse. "Nothing." The ad was so provocative¹¹, the New York affiliates¹² of ABC and CBS promptly¹³ banned it. But it had already worked its spell: Klein sold 400,000 pairs the week following the ad's debut¹⁴, then two million a month after that. Jean sales rocketed to record heights: more than half a billion were purchased in 1981 alone.

为了强调他的观点，1980年，克莱因让15岁的女演员、模特波姬·小丝为他的牛仔裤广告代言。“你想知道我和Calvins之间的关系吗?”她穿着他的牛仔裤和灰褐色上衣，像一只展翅的老鹰，坐在那里，用孩子般的声音发出呼噜呼噜的声音。“没什么。”这则广告如此具有挑衅性，以至于美国广播公司和哥伦比亚广播公司的纽约分公司立即将其封杀。但它已经发挥了它的魔力:在广告发布后一周，Klein卖出了40万条，之后一个月卖出了200万条。牛仔裤的销量飙升到创纪录的高度:仅在1981年就售出了5亿多件。

1 plaza   

n.广场，市场

参考例句：

• They designated the new shopping centre York Plaza.他们给这个新购物中心定名为约克购物中心。
• The plaza is teeming with undercover policemen.这个广场上布满了便衣警察。

2 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

3 backbone   

n.脊骨，脊柱，骨干；刚毅，骨气

参考例句：

• The Chinese people have backbone.中国人民有骨气。
• The backbone is an articulate structure.脊椎骨是一种关节相连的结构。

4 embody   

vt.具体表达，使具体化；包含，收录

参考例句：

• The latest locomotives embody many new features. 这些最新的机车具有许多新的特色。
• Hemingway's characters plainly embody his own values and view of life.海明威笔下的角色明确反映出他自己的价值观与人生观。

5 awry   

adj.扭曲的，错的

参考例句：

• She was in a fury over a plan that had gone awry. 计划出了问题，她很愤怒。
• Something has gone awry in our plans.我们的计划出差错了。

6 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。

7 niche   

n.壁龛；合适的职务(环境、位置等)

参考例句：

• Madeleine placed it carefully in the rocky niche. 玛德琳小心翼翼地把它放在岩石壁龛里。
• The really talented among women would always make their own niche.妇女中真正有才能的人总是各得其所。

8 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。

9 rivets   

铆钉( rivet的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Straighten the rivets, please. 请把那铆钉铆直。
• Instead of rivets there came an invasion, an infliction, and a visitation. 但是铆钉并没有运来，来的却是骚扰、混乱和视察。

10 steadily   

adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地

参考例句：

• The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
• Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。

11 provocative   

adj.挑衅的，煽动的，刺激的，挑逗的

参考例句：

• She wore a very provocative dress.她穿了一件非常性感的裙子。
• His provocative words only fueled the argument further.他的挑衅性讲话只能使争论进一步激化。

12 affiliates   

附属企业( affiliate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She affiliates with an academic society. 她是某学术团体的成员。
• For example, these security affiliates participated in the floating of 19,000,000,000 of issues in 1927. 例如，这些证券发行机构在1927年的流通证券中，就提供了一百九十亿美元的证券。

13 promptly   

adv.及时地，敏捷地

参考例句：

• He paid the money back promptly.他立即还了钱。
• She promptly seized the opportunity his absence gave her.她立即抓住了因他不在场给她创造的机会。

14 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。