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February 11, 2012

Blogs / Style Council / December 2009 / The jeans gap

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The jeans gap

Here's the latest thing my ever-obsessed eye for shape, form, and color has noticed. There are a lot of women in Buffalo with really decent, in-shape lower bodies standing there looking tired in the holiday shopping check-out lines. These women also have on the worst fitting and therefore unflattering jeans I've ever seen. Quelle damage, I always think, which is just the Quebecois way to say WTF. They deserve better. They need a lift. I mean it. And don’t give me the money argument. No jeans cost nothing anymore, and for about $70, you can go to the Gap and try one of their five or six new styles of the 1969 lineup. Then when your family asks you want you want for the holidays, say, “Two pairs of ____.” (If they work, buy back-up. Because if jeans look great, they never really go out of style.)

After avoiding the Gap’s ad campaign for months, some cardboard fold-out lunged at me from a magazine and I thought, “Enough already, I’ll go,” and I did. So should you. Whatever your shape, there is a look that can flatter. Don’t expect a ton of help from the overworked barely above ‘tween staff, but grab two sizes from each style (your size and one smaller) and hit the dressing room. Call me. I’ll meet you there and tell you what works. I mean it. Someone once said that loose makes you look thinner, but in truth, a baggy backside does zero towards your "Come ‘ere, baby" appeal, and never do we want our significant others to stop saying, “Come ‘ere, baby.”

I went for the Perfect Boot. The slightly wider waistband creates a muffin-top-free zone and the flare offsets the “I’ve had a few kids” hips. I bought two pair for myself (one shorter pair in dark denim, one longer pair in washed for my more hipster moods) and haven’t needed a glass of wine since.