Shopping for jeans is a nightmare nowadays. Pants are either too tight, too short, too washed out or even worse — too ripped.

And I don’t mean ripped in a muscular sense. These pants have very frayed edges or huge holes that may or may not have material underneath.

So what is up with ripped jeans? Maybe it’s just me, but I thought most people avoided the homeless look. I also thought the whole trap-door long john thing was out of style.

Whether I understand it or not, ripped jeans are the fashionable thing to wear. It seems that according to the fashion gurus of this year, I’ve been throwing away jeans when they had just reached their prime.

What gets me even more is that some people pay sometimes up to $80 on a pair of torn, frayed and totally washed out jeans just because they are in style.

I have a much cheaper solution for you: look up in your attic, pull out those jeans from high school (kudos to you if you still fit in them), wash them a million times and take a knife to them.

Or you can put the pants on and climb some barbed wire fences, purposely letting your pants catch on the wire every once in a while.

Same look, less money.

Besides the issue of money, there are a few more reasons why ripped jeans may not be as wonderful as they’re cracked up to be.

First of all, I’m sorry to break it to you, but ripped jeans are against the Honor Code. BYU-Idaho requires us to look clean, moderate and modest — and I don’t think ripped jeans fall underneath that standard.

Since I want to buy quality jeans that are going to last me a long time, stop buying those expensive ripped jeans and come by to see me. I might have a pair of jeans that got caught in the paper shredder.

Everyone has a favorite American symbol: the flag, apple pie, a donkey, an elephant and dogs kept around only as pets. To this nearly-complete list I add one more: distressed denim — specifically, ripped jeans.

True, depending on where the rips are, distressed jeans may be completely inappropriate or even obscene. But light distressing on the knees and around seams says, “I’m an individual and so is this pair of jeans. No two pairs of jeans on that shelf are exactly the same.”

Older generations may think ripped jeans look sloppy. One of these grown-ups may ask, “Why would you want to buy a pair of jeans that looks like it has already been abused for 20 years?”

Abused. Abused? The cotton was already dead when they put it on the loom.

Wearing distressed jeans allows others around to know that important stuff has been going down in America, some of it in the past 20 years. If our jeans had to take the brunt of the work, so be it.

So have the jeans worn now actually been around for 20 years?

Well, no. Most of the 20-year-old jeans have tapered legs and super-high waistbands. That’s not American; it’s unflattering.

It’s the principle of the matter, really. Jeans can serve as a reminder of American legacies if we let them. They can be a symbol of individual freedom and hard work, the two things that make this country great.

Distressed denim reminds us of the things we’ve been through. The pointy-toed boots with them serve as a contrast and reminder that while distressed denim is an important American statement, pointy-toed shoes are downright cool.

It’s a brand-new year. Make it special by rocking a patriotic fashion statement, and I’m not talking about an Old Navy flag shirt.