Love Island is an institution, and like any institution, it has its symbols and trademarks. For the women, it's fake eyelashes and wedge heels they can barely walk in. For the men, it's patterned bathing suits, biceps, and as Sharon Gaffka poignantly put it on Season 7, white jeans. The first two aren't a problem for her and the other women — they want a fit, put together man to be with them on the outside of the villa after all. But Sharon might have singlehandedly put an end to the era of white jeans on Love Island (and possibly the world) forever, and all of us should bow down to this insightful queen.
Sharon told host Laura Whitmore that her turn offs were "White jeans and an ego," causing all of the women, Whitmore included, to crumple into laughter. It's funny because it's true!
Listen, there's nothing wrong with white jeans, per se, but there is a certain kind of British man who deigns to wear them and a lot of them are scaffolders from Manchester who fancy themselves aspiring models. As Sharon explained, "It takes a type of guy to pull them off. Every guy I've seen wear white jeans is bringing an ego. It's a no from me!"
She even went as far as to not step forward for Jake when he came out because she thought he looked the type. That doesn't necessarily mean a man who wears white jeans is a bad guy. Or that they look bad in them. It turns out that many a Love Island man can, in fact, pull them off. The question really is ...do we want them to?
Who can forget back in Season 3 when Dom, Kem, and Chris all spent a night lounging in a day bed together wearing the same pair of white skinny jeans and green t-shirt? All decent guys, but they looked ridiculous.
So many people agreed with Sharon when the episode initially aired in the UK in early July that Aldi, a popular department store in Europe, even joked that they would stop selling them. But Sharon wasn't the first to hate on the jeans. Fans have been wondering why the Love Island men rock them for years. Just look at these old tweets:
So far, none of the men have pulled any white jeans out of their suitcases in Season 7, but you just know that each and every one has a pair folded up in them somewhere. The most savage thing they could do now is not pass along the message to any of the new boys and send them straight to the fashion police by the fire pit.
Images: Hulu