Last week, a Bloomingdale's saleswoman told my mother that her "butt looks incredible." The compliment was enough to convince my mom - who has spent the past five years wearing Levi's 515 jeans - to finally buy her first pair of Sevens. Three-hundred dollars later she called me to tell me the fabulous news. She was ecstatic that her personal training sessions had enabled her to enter the world of designer denim.
Her journey was a long one. I spent many days in the fitting rooms of various Beverly Hills department stores watching as my mother tried on every jean imaginable. But no Sevens, Habituals or True Religions ever worked. We always had to make the trek down to Santa Monica to pick up another wash of her Levi's.
At $40 a pair, you would think my mother would be thrilled. But she wasn't. Every time she saw my friends and me go out in our Rock & Republic and Joe's jeans, she wondered why designers couldn't make a pair for her.
It's not that my mother is overweight or awkwardly proportioned. It's simply the fact that designers create jeans with models and celebrities as inspirations. Blue Cult even named one of their creations the Gwyneth Jean after the svelte beauty Gwyneth Paltrow. Not everyone can be a Gwyneth; some of us, dare I say it, have curves. So what do us J. Lo types do?
Luckily, designers are starting to realize that they need to expand their market, steering themselves away from the low-waisted, thong-baring denim of the late 1990s. The New York Times even labeled their Fashion Week trend report "High-Waisted Is Back."
As my mother's message proved to me, there seems to be a need on the part of today's females to wear certain brands of jeans. Later in the day, as I walked back to my apartment, I looked at the labels of Tufts' girls' jeans. I spotted about four Citizens of Humanities, six Sevens, one Diesel and two AGs.
Out of everyone I saw wearing jeans, only two girls wore unrecognizable brands. Were we all becoming the same? Was I going to lose my identity just by wearing my favorite pair of jeans? I'm not saying that I don't have my fair share of labels in my wardrobe, but I do try to find unique options in denim.
If you don't want to blend in to the Sevens-wearers in your 9 a.m. class, try personalizing your jeans. This summer, I took a trip up to San Francisco, where Levi Strauss is headquartered. I was pleasantly surprised that at this flagship store, there was an entire floor dedicated to customization. You could take any pair of Levi's and make them one-of-a-kind through a wide array of options including embroidery, studding, fabric painting and more.
I immediately went upstairs, slipped off my Miss Sixties, and tried on my first pair of Levi's. They actually looked pretty cute! I joined my mother downstairs and we spent hours deciding how to decorate. We ended up coming home with four pairs of jeans that only we will be wearing this fall. If you can't make the trip out to the Bay area, try customizating at home: take an old pair of jeans and add some flair with patches, crystals, rips or embroidery.
I'm not saying that you should stop spending your hard-earned cash - or in some cases your parents' hard earned cash - on designer jeans. The denim sold at Neiman Marcus and Saks does have its advantages. At a party the other weekend, I overheard a girl saying that "designer jeans just fit better." I agree with her for the most part: many designer jeans are crafted better than generic brands.
But they're also more costly. Over winter break, I came home from the mall and showed my dad my new pair of Earl jeans, which were heavily torn on the knee, back pocket and leg bottom. He asked me how much they cost and was shocked with my response.
"You should have just bought a cheap pair and given them to me," he said. "I could've ripped them for you." Coming from a generation where ridiculously expensive jeans were unfathomable, my dad didn't understand that the $120 price tag was totally acceptable when compared with a $270 pair of True Religions.
Jeans have become extremely pricey. I was looking at Saks.com a few weeks ago and saw a pair of Blumarine Crystal Stretch Jeans that you could pre-order for $1,638! For that price, I would want a bit more than denim and Swarovski crystals.
So to find the perfect pair of jeans, search your options. Even unembellished jeans can run up a hefty bill. You can obviously find a pair of designer duds for $100, but when Levi's offers a great pair for only $40, the choice might not seem so clear. Whether they're vintage, designer, embellished, torn, high or low, do what is right for you so your butt can look incredible, too.
