Nordstrom's $425 Muddy Jeans Inspires Howls

First a leather-shrouded rock, then jeans with "windows"—now pre-muddied pants? Nordstrom's latest eye-roller, per CNNMoney: PRPS' Barracuda Straight Leg Jeans, "heavily distressed" denim with a "crackled, caked-on muddy coating" that "embody rugged, Americana workwear"—all for $425. Cutting through the PR speak, they just look like a pair of really dirty jeans. Comments about the jeans were taken down from the Nordstrom site on Tuesday, CNET notes, but there are plenty elsewhere. Nordstrom also sells a PRPS Barracuda jacket with the same look, for the same price; Neiman Marcus and Saks sell similar Barracuda products. Some reactions:

• The Washington Post rounds up a few gems, with comments ranging from "pathetic" and "fake" to GOP Sen. Ben Sasse's comment that "America was nice while it lasted." Meanwhile, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has some of the comments from the Nordstrom site, including: "These jeans are built Ford-tough for the hipster who is built Prius-weak."

• Robin Shreeves points out the obvious for Mother Nature Network: These jeans are "hysterical," and offers a multi-bulleted explainer, noting the price ("they cost more than the seasonal wardrobe budget I give each of my kids"), the fact that they can't go in the clothes dryer, and that this "Americana workwear" is actually made in Portugal.
• Fox & Friends' Steve Doocy pointed out that "Nordstrom took the Ivanka dresses out of the store to put these jeans in." Ainsley Earhardt, meanwhile, noted, "If I had known they were going to go for that much, I would've saved all of my brother's jeans and sold them on eBay."
• Calling it a "ludicrously self-sabotaging men's style piece," Tim Teeman writes at the Daily Beast that those who'd wear them would never get anywhere near a manual-labor worksite. "The only mud you've ever gone near is at the beautician's," he chastises. He also notes people who wear them in the city would look "ridiculous," people in the country would be deemed a "total fake," and "in both places you would look like an ass."
• Even Mike Rowe, host of Discovery's Dirty Jobs, weighed in. Rowe says he's been "lost" ever since jeans started sporting holes and acid washes, but his real beef with Nordstrom is with "authenticity," not aesthetics. "They're a costume for wealthy people who see work as ironic—not iconic," he writes.

(How about $100 for completely see-through pants?)