Denim, Full Circle

About a month ago, the Mrs. and I embarked on a serious cleaning and decluttering of our apartment, mainly on weekends when we have enough time to devote to it. It's now cleaner than it's been in a long time, and while the decluttering continues, there has been progress.

As I was putting my summer clothes and shoes into storage in the basement and bringing boots, jackets, and other items upstairs for fall/winter use, I went through everything to determine what I should keep and what I should sell or donate. In the process, I ended up with only a couple of pairs of jeans that were appropriate to wear to work. (I have other jeans that I wear on weekends that I wouldn't wear to the office, for various reasons.)

This raised the question: what jeans should I buy? I'm really liking the olive J. Crew "vintage slim" jeans I got a few months ago, but those were a clearance item; their jeans normally sell for $96 a pair. Plus, J. Crew has shifted production of their jeans from Canada to China, making me even less inclined to buy them.

I'm not the sort who goes out and spends a lot on denim anyway. The whole selvedge denim thing is completely lost on me; the way I understand it, you buy the jeans smaller than your actual waist size, so they start out too tight, but then they stretch out, and you're supposed to wear them as long as possible before washing them, like six months. Huh? The whole thing sounds like a big pain in the ass, and pretty disgusting to boot.

But I digress. Back in my 20s, and well into my 30s, I wore nothing but Levi's. They were cheap, they were well made, you could buy them pretty much anywhere. I remember a point around 1986 or so, thinking that I could not imagine myself wearing any other jeans besides 501s. But Levi's somehow lost my interest in the late '90s. I started wearing relaxed-fit jeans, first the 550, then other brands.

When I heard about the Levi's/Brooks Brothers collaboration, I was intrigued, but I couldn't justify spending $150 on those, even if they are made in the USA. (If they were retailing for under $100, I'd probably go for them.) That said, I've seen them in the store, and they are really nice jeans.

But that got me thinking about Levi's again. One day I took a look at their site, and I was nearly overwhelmed by the variety of styles they now sell. But when I took a good look at the fit measurements and filtered out the low-rise, skinny, boot-cut, loose, and other styles I wouldn't be interested in, what was left was the 501. The rise is just high enough, but not dad-jeans high. The leg opening is just wide enough to fit comfortably over boots, but not so wide that it flops around when you walk.

I ordered a pair, for $37. (Free shipping if you sign up for emails, and of course you then get lots of other offers.) Dark stonewash, dark enough to wear to work, with a hint of the indigo shade they'll fade into over time. When I first put them on, the thighs were tight, but they loosened up a bit after a couple of hours. Otherwise they felt great. I looked in the mirror and realized that they made me look trimmer. For comparison, I put on a pair of the relaxed-fit Arizona jeans I've been wearing for the past few years. They looked awful. So when I went to JCPenney over the weekend to buy more cord jeans, I took another look at the Arizona denim.

Their original fit has a much trimmer silhouette then the relaxed, but they're still not what you'd call skinny, so I thought I would try on a pair. I couldn't button them, but then I realized that was because even though the tag said 36, there was no way they were actually 36 inches around. I could just tell. So I went back out onto the sales floor and got a pair in size 38, and those fit like 36's (I confirmed this at home later with a tape measure), so I bought them. A nice, dark rinsed blue, darker than the new 501s, even darker than my other Arizona jeans.

So I have two new pairs of jeans to wear to work. And I guess those Relaxed Arizona jeans are going to end up going into the weekend pile, or I'll wear them when I have to shovel snow, or something. I'll probably end up buying another pair of 501s at some point. Funny how I'm back to wearing the jeans I was wearing 25 years ago. (Of course, back then I think I was wearing a 30 waist.)

And if anyone wants to know what to get me for Christmas, a Brooks Brothers gift card would be great...

PS. J. Crew also had some Levi's 501s done just for them. Those aren't made in the USA either, and they sell for around the same prices as J. Crew's own jeans. But when I was at the mall in Natick over the weekend, the J. Crew store there had the 501s on clearance for $20 a pair. They had my size, along with about a dozen others, but I didn't buy any because I didn't care for the finish: very dark blue, but with whiskering and sanded knees. I mainly mention it as a PSA, if you're looking.