The Jeans Paradox

Longtime lurker who just had to set up an account today to tell this story.

First, let me say y'all have given me lots of support material. This is a great forum.

I lost 100 lbs, going from 245 to 145 from the first two weeks to slow the spread to week, eh, 75 of slowing the spread. It was about a year and a half. I've tracked every bite. I'm 5'8".

And I've gone from a size 20 to an 8.

There's immense joy for me in wearing real denim. Not that thin Old Navy denim colored cotton weave they call denim, but real thick denim like I wore as a kid. For my two decades of being overweight, I had to wear junky denim because the real stuff isn't made for bigger girls. All my junky jeans were so thin you could easily pinch it between your fingers and rub it back and forth like a handkerchief cotton. Every pair I had would wear through in the crotch in a month of regular wear. I dreamt of wearing a pair of Thelma and Louise style, real jeans!

And I found a pair of discounted Lucky Brand jeans with zero give in them on a sales rack. I thought they looked like they were for preteens. They'd never fit. But they did. And they looked great. And more than that, they felt great. Like I was wearing pants, and not leggings. Like I could kneel down I the desert to look at the damage to my convertible after a car chase.

Today I went to the Lucky Brand store, thinking I'd get another pair. The salesgirl was very nice. She pulled a few pairs for me to try on, and I did.

But only one pair had that magic real-denim, no give at all, serious feeling. And they looked great on me. The others were oddly baggy and the denim was that handkerchief denim that was baggy around the thighs. Weird.

So I asked the salesgirl. Why do these feel great and these others look so bad and baggy, even though both are an 8?

She came clean. The pair that fit great was old stock. They had found them in the stockroom underneath another box and put them out on the floor. They were a season old.

They were also made from thicker, less forgiving denim. All the new jeans are thinner, with more generous cuts in butt and thigh.

I couldn't believe it.

I lose 100 pounds to make my jean dreams come true, and they're dashed by vanity sizing.

Interestingly enough, while I was in the store, a girl asked about finding XL and size 20 several times. They said they're getting more of those sizes in soon.

The silver lining, though, is that my one good pair of jeans shows no sign of wear at all in the crotch. So it ain't all bad.