I've had the same jeans on for four days now

[venta]

I'm sure I have dozens of LJ posts stacked up in the back of my head, but now that I am sitting at a computer with ten minutes to spare, I can't remember any of them. So, you may have my thoughts on jeans.

Many moons ago, I worked in an office where The Book People used to swing by and leave piles of books. Mostly they left cookery books, and misery memoirs, and novels of dubious merit. Once they left a book written by Victoria Beckham on the art of dressing well. It's amazing what you'll pick up and read while you wait for the kettle to boil.

Anyway, in among a bunch of actually-quite-sensible-sounding advice on clothes ("if you are between two sizes, buy the larger one") I read Ms Beckham's thoughts on jeans. Many people, she said, will splash out large amounts of money on an outfit they will wear once or twice to weddings, but will not spend money on the jeans they wear every day. And yet spending money on jeans does get you measurably better jeans, and if you wear them every day this is Money Well Spent.

Yup, I thought, sounds reasonable. And do you know what? I carried on buying dirt-cheap jeans, and never being very comfortable with how they fitted me.

Note for boy-shaped-persons: the world is different for girl-shaped-persons. The thing that determines whether your jeans fit you is whether they fit around the waist and around the hips. Yet most jeans are sold either by waist measurement, or by dress size. If you conform to the body shape du jour then hurrah! you win. If you don't... well, tough. You will never get trousers that fit well.

I would not say, in the grand scheme of things, that I am a particularly curvy person. But generic cheap jeans are designed for someone considerably more straight-up-and-down than I am. The result is that I buy jeans that fit around the hips, and then they gape in an ugly manner at the waist. You can only achieve so much with a belt, especially with these modern-fangled hipster jeans that are all you can buy a present.

Now, back in Whitby in November Elaine was singing the praises of the Levis "Curve ID" jeans. For each waist size, they come in three different hip sizes. I'm sure there will still be people for whom they are a poor fit, but it's a start. The downside? A brand new pair comes in at around £85. This is still way cheaper than many designer pairs, but if (like me) you regard the £38 pair you bought last as a bit on the pricey side, it's a lot to swallow.

However! Elaine waxed lyrical about having jeans which fit nicely, and which are made of nice, soft fabric. And so I pottered along to the local Levis store and bought myself a pair of lovely jet-black straight-leg jeans. That fit. And she was right: I've more or less lost interest in wearing the other pairs I own now. I can bend down and pick stuff up and the waist stays, like, round my waist!

Take home lessons:
(a) if you wear jeans a lot and can afford it, it really is worth forking out for better jeans
(b) Elaine is more convincing than Victoria Beckam.

Comments

[lnr]

:) though I tend to find if you try every pair of black jeans in M&S some will eventually fit, more or less (and I find my waist is too big for many pairs - so opposite end of spectrum to you but equally not on the sweet spot). I may have to give the Levi's a go.

(I"m going to have to google that lyric - I KNOW I know it, but it won't come out of my head!)

When you look in the mirror, reflecting back at you someone that you don't know

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

The title's in the line. And now I'll be humming it all day too. :)

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

My mum has said the same about good jeans being easily worth £80 - £100. I was always sceptical, but the most comfortable jeans I ever owned was a pair of Calvin Kleins (jumble sale) and my current favourite pair is Ralph Lauren (half price in the John Lewis sale). So I guess what I have learned is keep an eye out for jeans bargains.

[venta.livejournal.com]

My second-favourite pair at present is Boden, or £4 in a charity shop in Richmond :)

[bibliogirl.livejournal.com]

Do me a favour and tell me how they wear in terms of fading? I have quite a lot of jeans from Old Navy in the US (as I buy a bunch of pairs when we go there each year) and the main problem I have with their black jeans is that they start to fade quite quickly (and for the ones I want to wear on stage, that's an issue -- they start to look a bit crap when they fade).

Yeah, I could probably redye them or something but then I'd have to try to figure out dye, and not covering everything in the house (or that goes in the washing machine thereafter) in it, which worries me a bit...

[venta.livejournal.com]

I've only had them for a few washes thus far, but will try and remember to report back. Levis recommend washing them inside out at 30, which is what I've been doing to try and preserve them.

Dylon washing machine dye is pretty simple and umessy to use: chuck it in with the washing, things come out a different colour. I've never managed to get it on anything else in the house, and the next wash goes through fine.

Dylon also make a "refresher" product, which looks like a big teabag and goes in the wash with a small number of black clothes to make them black again. In my experience that doesn't work at all on jeans :)

[bibliogirl.livejournal.com]

Huh, I'd not heard of the "refresher" one. I wonder if it'd work on some T-shirts I have which are really a bit more grey than black these days ;)

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

which are made of nice, soft fabric

This is the thing I've never understood about denim jeans. They're^[1] the worst colour in the world and are made of really nasty fabric, so why would anyone want to wear them?!

---

[1] Typically.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Have you fondled the leg of a jeans-wearer recently? Denim has changed massively since the 80s.

Also, even in the 80s, I didn't think they were the worst colour or the worst fabric, or I wouldn't have worn them :)

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Also, even in the 80s, I didn't think they were the worst colour or the worst fabric

It was the 80s. There was some serious competition. ;-)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Last year T got me a pair of jeans from Howie's, which are in that sort of price bracket and are brilliant. I vowed never to buy cheap jeans again.
We shall see whether I remember that when these ones wear out…

[sammason.livejournal.com]

Your jeans sound great! I'm not at all tempted by Brand Beckham, esp since she's so obviously anorexic and her clothes are (I hear) v expensive. But I agree, it's all about finding a brand that fits you. In case I've not told you this before: Land's End jeans and other trousers have been made exactly to my measurements. That must be true or they wouldn't fit me so well.

[venta.livejournal.com]

That was kind of Land's End :)

I believe a while back I read about an app (or possibly a website) into which you could enter your measurements, and it would recommend which shops/brands would be a good match. Which was a top idea, except when I tried it it didn't know about many brands. I should remember what it was called and re-check it out.

[exspelunca.livejournal.com]

Never mind waists and hips, what about thighs - unless someone has discovered the secret of thigh reduction as weight loss is out (my BMI is 21) and it never went off my thighs anyway.

[satyrica.livejournal.com]

are you now going to a disco in the middle of the town?

[venta.livejournal.com]

I might be. I'm dressing down.

One kudo to you, sir.

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

It's not just a girl-shaped-person thing. Some of us boy-shaped-persons have actual waists too, and a terrible time finding trousers that fit - I have to stock up in years when the fashion wisdom allows me.