Susanne Ljung: This is how Jennifer Lopez is trying to save her career

Can a pair of crappy jeans save Jennifer Lopez’s career from going down the drain?

It’s a question that has been raised since she was recently photographed in a pair of bras in which she appeared to have been gardening.

That she was on her knees and digging in flowerbeds is clearly not what this superstar wanted to convey with her choice of jeans whose faded dirt-like stains are deliberately made to Is fashionable correct effect.

Just these are probably a pair of Super baggy fit jeans from Acne studios, for just over 600 dollars. But there are many brands that, once again, have launched jeans that look like they have been dragged through mud.

It’s a recurring trend that arouses about as much enthusiasm and revulsion as jeans with designer rips and heave the fabric to give them a sort of pre-fixed patina, so-called “ripped†€ or †distressed†jeans.

A look that is usually favored by a somewhat younger target group than the one to which Jennifer Lopez, 54, belongs. But, of course, that’s the point. Because J.Lo needs to appear as if she actually still has her finger on the trend pulse.

Many have questioned that thing in recent times. Articles have had headlines like “Why is everyone suddenly hating on Jennifer Lopez?†and “When did it all go wrong for J.Lo?â€

It’s not just her latest album, the first in ten years, “This is me … now†, that has flopped. Ticket sales for her upcoming tour are going badly. But worst of all is perhaps the hour-long film, “This is me … now: A love story†, which was released in conjunction with the album. A bombastic mix of extremely expensive rock video, melodramatic musical, acrobatic dance number and astrological hocus pocus starring J.Lo as herself. Or rather as herself in the role of a woman who has finally found the great love. So that no one would miss that point, she also released a documentary about how the album and the film were made, “The greatest love story never told†.

Even those closest to her advised her against the projects, without being listened to.

And yes, even the object for her big love, Ben Affleck, expressed concerns that audiences could be overwhelmed by both seeing and hearing her sing, talk and ramble about their amazing love story and how “Bennifer†reunited after twenty years.

“It feels like you’re trying to prove something instead of just living and enjoying†, as Jane Fonda says in the documentary, pointing out that †¥ every other picture you are seen kissing and hugging†.

But even before all these public, and often seemingly forced, displays of love bliss (consider pictures of Ben Affleck and see a guy who’s not really in the game) J.Lo had started get lost in the present.

In 2021, she launched her beauty line “JLo Beauty†, with a slogan that read “beauty has no best-by date†. The skin care products would contribute to a complexion as radiant as hers, despite the fact that she has spent thirty years in the spotlight.

She did several interviews in which she claimed that her supple face was due to frequent use of olive oil and sunscreens, in addition to her own products of course. “I have never used botox,†she said.

In that case, it would have made her an enviable unique.

No one believed her. JLo Beauty doesn’t do anything more these days either. But that obviously hasn’t stopped J.Lo from continuing to maintain the illusion of an eternally young woman who has become as madly in love and happy as when she was thirty plus.

And that is the light in which you can view her choice of jeans. As an attempt to remain relevant.

Susanne Ljung is a journalist and presenter for the acclaimed fashion and culture program “Style†on Sveriges Radio. She lives in Stockholm and New York and contributes to Lördagsmagasinet every two weeks.

Read more style reviews by Susanne Ljung.