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