Nordstrom derided for selling ‘dirty’ jeans for $425 US

NEW YORK — Department store Nordstrom is getting dragged through the mud on social media for selling a pair of dirty-looking jeans for $425 US.

Nordstrom’s website says the jeans have a “caked-on muddy coating” to embody “rugged, Americana workwear.” A matching mud denim jacket goes for the same price.

Some social media users criticized Nordstrom for selling high-priced jeans that they say mocked blue-collar workers.

Mike Rowe, who hosted the TV show Dirty Jobs, said in a Facebook post that the jeans were an example of the country’s “war on work” and called them “a costume for wealthy people who see work as ironic.”

Representatives at Nordstrom Inc. did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Efforts to reach PRPS, which makes the jeans and jacket, were unsuccessful.