The Jeans Paradox

littleswissarmyhouse wrote: »

This! I've been hunting for REAL denim jeans for years! Once in a while I'll walk with hope to the door of a Wilco or Coastal Farm and Feed or Tractor Supply yet feel the rage building up before I even get inside. Never never never do they have real jeans. For females. This world is still a selfish patriarchy.

MsCzar wrote: »

Agree! And with tunic tops being out of style at the moment, it's tough to get good coverage over leggings. The newest crop of leggings resemble stirrup pants in thickness and fit. I wore a thick pair to work last week with boots, boyfriend button-front shirt and oversized fleece - covering my derriere. I am of the opinion that even the most perfect hard body gym rat should wear some sort of legging bottom cover beyond the gym or home.

MagnificatMary wrote: »

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.

HermyKivioja wrote: »

I think that clothing manufacturers have finally realized that women's clothes are not models from the catwalk and clothing sizes for most people should be different. And, of course, all production facilities are trying to make many products at the minimum cost of materials. Therefore, a similar situation occurs. I recently bought mom jeans in a second-hand store and found an article on how to style mom jeans. In general, I am very happy with my purchase, since now it is rare that you can find jeans made of normal fabric.