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Thursday, February 19, 2009

How to REALLY find the perfect pair of jeans!

I hate this title. Because it shows up in magazines usually every other month or so-- just in time to tell you what new jeans to buy for a new season-- and it's always the same. Women are "petite," "pear-shaped", "boy-shaped," or "curvy"(synonym for plus-size). I, however, have figured out that I am a short/sorta petite/hourglass shaped/J-Lo bootie kind of girl. And they don't make jeans for me.
Well, not that I've found anyway. It's not just the magazines that exclude me-- it's the stores, too.
And I know I'm not alone in this denim dilemma. I've heard countless women complain about how they never find jeans that are long enough or big enough or small enough, and I've started to wonder who they really make jeans for, anyway.
But I've decided to suffer at the hands of jeans designers no more! I've done some research, and there are resources out there to help. But it takes some studying up and some careful consideration-- no just running into the mall and buying something off the rack. So check out these sites:
  • Truejeans.com has you take your measurements even has a free tape measure that you can print out. It then shows you some designer jeans that, based on the ideal style/color combination for your body type, are supposed to look fabulous on you. I found it pretty helpful to look at the kinds of jeans that would be best for me-- but the only downside was that I hadn't really heard of the designers they showed me (and I don't think I'm that out of the loop!).
  • Zafu.com is similar to truejeans.com, but without the measurements. It asks some personal questions ("is your seat shape flat, regular, perky or wide?"), and then gives you suggestions for what jeans and cuts are best to buy.
  • Mejeans.com lets you totally design your own jeans, which is pretty cool. You get to pick everything: cut, color, length, hem style, little designy-thingies on your butt pockets... I just don't know if I have the $145-plus to blow on one pair of jeans.
  • And of course, the Women's Health magazine site where I found all of this information is pretty useful. It has a GREAT jeans slideshow, where it rates the best jeans (who knew that Gap classic straight legs look good on 9 out of 10 women?) by style and fit.

Now that I'm armed with all this information, and I know what kinds of jeans to look for, I'm going to head out into that wild jungle of Columbia this weekend just to see if these jeans do exist. And if the service around here is decent enough. Not to be a princess or anything, but based on what I've read (and a few lessons from good ol' Stacey and Clinton), I'm on a mission for the perfect pair for me: Dark, bootcut, stretchy, mid-low rise, with very few embellishments.
Ready, set, GO!

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