That Time I Bought 60 Pairs of Jeans. For Science.
That Time I Bought 60 Pairs of Jeans. For Science.
Part 3: Why denim is difficult and what straight-size designers just don't get.
ICYMI: Here’s Part 1 on the history of women in trousers, and why we can’t stop believing in the “perfect jeans” myth and Part 2 on fatphobia and the fit industrial complex. And you’ll find the entire series here.
Jeans Science Log
Sunday, 10/31/21
Subject 31: Madewell Curvy Skinny, size 16
Subject 32: Madewell 10-inch Roadtrippers, size 16
Subject 33: Madewell 10-inch Roadtrippers, size 18
Madewell is a complicated brand in conversations about jeans, and about plus size jeans, especially. For years, I wore their 10-inch High Rise Skinny jeans in the Danny Tencel Wash, even though my thighs wore holes in them each season. I just accepted that as the cost of doing business (of having my body?) and ordered another pair. In my sepia-toned memories, these were the jeans that never stretched out or cut in. But last year, I sized up from 33 to 34, and these Dannys don’t hold their shape past the first wear. Brands like Madewell reinvent the wheel every season. My body also reinvents itself at regular intervals (pregnant, post-partum, pandemic). One of us has finally changed too much.
But in the name of Jeans Science—and because this is the brand I cannot quit, in my heart—I order an enormous box of Madewell; one of almost every jean they make in my size. I try Madewell’s Curvy Skinny style and decide the legs are too baggy to be a Formal Jean, but they have “wear cuffed with sneakers” potential. Then I try a pair of Roadtrippers, which look amazing at first try-on, but even my thin best friend says her pair stretches out too fast. Working on that knowledge I start in the 16s, which look great but leave red marks on my waist. After a few hours, when the knees are bagging but the waist hasn’t stretched a smidge, I switch to the 18s. That waist stretches immediately. These are all returns.
Before I started Jeans Science, I thought of how pants fit as a static concept: The designers work out their measurements, fabric is cut to match those measurements, said fabric gets sewn together, and that is the size that the garment stays. I did know that clothes can shrink in the wash and that jeans are especially prone to this. In fact, some not insignificant part of my brain has long been devoted to timing the wash cycle of my jeans to my various weekly needs to wear them in public. But jeans actually change size far more often than that. Denim is perhaps less fabric than a living, evolving substance; it stretches and breathes with us and also against us. Your Monday jeans are not your Tuesday jeans, and your morning jeans are not your afternoon jeans.