Jeans Success

As I posted/ranted about last week, one of my summer challenges had been finding new jeans. The Ann Taylor petite skinny jeans that I wore about 3 times/week were veering dangerously close to the stage where they would get holes in embarrassing places, and one of my pairs of Chico's jeans had faded from dark navy to light/medium blue, gotten baggy-ish, and had paint stains.

Before I went to Macy's today, I had tried on jeans at Gap, Chico's, Sears (including Kardashian jeans), Old Navy, Nordstrom Rack, and even K-Mart.

At Macy's, I tried on stuff from Levi's, Not Your Daughter's Jeans, Else, and one other brand. For a while, I had avoided the NYDJ brand out of principle. Perhaps it was ageist of me, but since I'm too young to have a teenage daughter, the thought of owning NYDJ jeans was more embarrassing than having Kardashian jeans. But my mom thought that the NYDJ jeans would fit me, and since she is the sewing/clothing expert in the family, I decided to try them out.

Shopping as a Teen and as a 20-Something

I have many alternately fond and terrifying memories of experimenting with fashion and makeup as a teenager. My best friends in middle school, who were far ahead of me at this, were always letting me in on the unknown (to me) rules of Girl World. One of these rules was that you could not "preview" an outfit at school the day of a dance. Your dance outfits were apparently supposed to be kept secret until sundown. But they gave me these tidbits of advice, most of the time, in a supportive manner. At least as supportive as 13-year-old girls are capable of being.

Men's Pants vs. Women's Pants

Being 5' 2", I usually have trouble finding pants that don't need 3-5 inches hemmed off the bottom. Some major women's brands are kind enough to have a clearly labeled "petite" section of their stores, or at least to offer pants in short lengths. However, most stores aimed at the 18-25 demographic — H&M, Urban Outfitters, etc. — almost never have petite sections, and rarely even offer short pants. Tall pants, sometimes, but pretty much no short pants. 

When I went shopping with a friend this afternoon, one of the stores we visited had a few pairs of short jeans. Only two pairs of short jeans were in a size larger than 5. There seemed to be no shortage of regular and long jeans. I tried the short jeans but they didn't work.

Afterwards, we went to Urban Outfitters and tried to find pants in the bargain basement. No luck. All the women's pants' sizes were 25 through 29. I think it was based on waist size, but I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be the "true" waist (around the bottom of the ribcage) or the high hip. Probably the latter. Nearby was a rack of men's jeans. I found two pairs with my inseam whose waist sizes looked right. I was a bit uncertain about translating my waist measurement into a men's waist size, but thought hey, this could be interesting.

The first pair was too tight. The other pair's fit was snug but not suffocating. The back pockets looked funny (in terms of placement), but I couldn't tell if it was the designer's intention or just that the pants were cut for a man. Overall, the pants didn't fit nicely enough to buy, but there was one feature which almost made me wish I had a better build for men's pants — the front pockets. The front pockets were about 7-8 inches deep, deep enough to carry a cell phone and iPod without worrying about them popping out, not to mention a wallet.

If even some of the practical features of men's clothing could be carried over to women's, it would probably not only result in safer cell phones but also less time wasted hemming pants and trying to figure out a brand's sizing system. But that would be too easy, wouldn't it?