The world of fashion is often baffling to ordinary women. And every so often a trend comes along which seems utterly ridiculous, yet catches on. Take the current obsession with ripped jeans.

You can barely walk down any High Street without being assailed by bare knees, calves and thighs — all protruding through swatches of tattered denim.

Celebrities, it seems, can’t get enough of it. Yesterday, Jodie Whittaker, the actress cast as the new Doctor, flaunted her ripped jeans on a trip to the supermarket, while War And Peace actress Lily James sported a threadbare pair at the weekend.

The denim market is worth an estimated £1.5 billion annually in the UK alone — and ‘distressed’ styles make up a huge part of that, with prices ranging from Gucci designs at £725 a pair to Lidl’s at just £7.99.

So why is everyone wearing ripped jeans?

WHERE DID IT ALL START?

The first pair of jeans were designed in the late 1870s by Loeb Strauss, a German businessman who changed his name to Levi and founded the denim brand.

Using twilled cotton cloth, he created a durable trouser that would suit the working man. Indigo — a dye extracted from an Indian plant — was used to turn them a dark blue, which was thought to be more practical for the working environment.

The ‘ripped’ trend came later, emerging in the cultural punk movement of the Seventies.

The rips signified rebellion: early punks tore apart consumer goods as an expression of their anger towards society, and denim became a key part of this political statement.

Celebrity devotees included The Sex Pistols, Iggy Pop and Bros, while stars such as Bananarama and Madonna helped popularise the trend for women. Fans began to copy the look by ripping their own jeans at home, and denim manufacturers soon caught on.