Welcome to Jeans Month on the Strategist, where we’re obsessively vetting denim — from trying on every pair at the Gap to asking dozens of stylish people about their favorite fits. For more, head to our Jeans Month hub.
It’s the end of Jeans Month at the Strategist. Admittedly, as the Strategist’s denim correspondent, it was a busy few weeks. After polling dozens of tasteful people on their favorite jeans, finding out the difference between $30 and $300 jeans, and answering readers’ questions about jeans live, I might have learned more about jeans this month than in my entire tenure as our jeans expert. My fellow Strategist writers went deep on denim, too: They tried on all the jeans at retailers like Madewell and Abercrombie, found out if Levi’s from Amazon are different from Levi’s from Levi’s, talked to teens about where they’re buying their jeans, heard from the designer behind Levi’s Ribcages, and hunted down the best gray jeans, the best plus-size and non-stretch jeans, and the best jeans for “hockey butts.” (We also updated our denim guides, including the best jeans for women of all sizes and best jeans for tall women.) In short, we learned a lot, and we’re putting every pearl of denim-related wisdom picked up from the month in one place. Here are all the best tips to know the next time you’re shopping for a pair of jeans:
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To know your measurements for buying jeans online, Strategist writer Erin Schwartz recommends getting a tailor’s measuring tape.
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“Your waist measurement is the circumference of the area above your belly button where you aren’t hitting your rib cage. Your hip measurement is the circumference of your butt, taken at the widest point, like the equator. Rise is easiest to measure on a garment you already have; if you’re looking for a high-waisted pair of jeans, the rise should hit about where you’re measuring your waist,” they say.
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The old trick of “wrapping the waist of jeans around your neck” works.
(If you haven’t heard of it, here’s a how-to — if a jean goes all the way around your neck, it should fit your waist.) Kathleen Sorbara, owner of Sorbara’s New York (formerly Chickee’s) uses it while shopping secondhand herself, “especially at flea markets when fitting rooms aren’t really an option.”
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You should wash your jeans every ten wears (textile expert Deborah Young picked up this tip from a Levi’s label).
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Be sure to turn them inside-out and use cold water, too.
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Save a hot-water wash for reshrinking an overstretched pair (only those that are 100 percent cotton, though).
If you do this with a pair that has, say, 98 percent cotton and 2 percent elastane, you risk ruining the fibers.
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Unfortunately, new jeans might go through crocking (or the blue dye coming off). Put them in a load by themselves for the first wash at least.
Denim designer Alyss Odle will throw a white tote to the washer to see how much color transfer there is. “If the tote comes out blue, I’m like, All right, I don’t need to wash this with anything else,” she says. Only after that excess dye has been washed out (as evidenced by the now-blue bag) will Odle put the jeans in the wash with the rest of her laundry.
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As much as you can, air-dry your jeans.
That said, you can put your jeans in the dryer — occasionally. Just don’t use dryer sheets or a high heat setting, keep them in for about 15 minutes (or less), and try to hang them up while they’re still damp.
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For stretch denim, 1 to 2 percent stretch (either elastane, spandex, or Lycra) should be enough — once you go over that, you’re going to get a lot of overstretching.
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If you don’t like the fit of Levi’s 501s, try the 501s ’90s.
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Editor Diana Tsui did and finds the looser, low-slung style better for her body type than the original (which is narrower through her calves).
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For secondhand shoppers: Vintage 502s have a zipper fly instead of a button fly, “so they don’t do the weird crotch thing that a lot of vintage 501s do,” Sorbara says.
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The biggest difference between Wedgies and Ribcages is in the rise: 10.85 inches to 12 inches, respectively. (The Ribcages are Levi’s highest high-rise.)
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Schwartz’s investigation (which involved taking pairs of Wedgies, Ribcages, and 501s to the testing lab of F.I.T.’s Textile Development Department) revealed that they might be dyed differently, but that “didn’t add up to gaps in quality; there was no indication that the Levi’s from Amazon were worse.”
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Deals editor Sam Daly, who almost only buys Ribcages, notes that some Ribcages sold on Amazon are fabricated with polyester (instead of the 99 percent cotton and 1 percent elastane in a pair directly from Levi’s). This makes for something much stretchier.
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Generally, you can size down in most Madewell jeans — including the Perfect Vintage Jean a stylist has recommended to over 150 clients over the years.
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A beginner-level barrel leg is Madewell’s Darted Barrel-Leg Jean.
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Of all the barrel legs I’ve tried, they’re the only ones that don’t make me look like I borrowed them from a clown. Our senior writer Liza Corsillo (who also owns them) says that “they’re so convincingly vintage-looking that I would never guess these were Madewell jeans if I saw them out on the street.”
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Madewell’s men’s jeans don’t get as much attention as its women’s jeans. But there are many different styles to choose from.
The 1991 line is where Strategist associate editor Jeremy Rellosa found the perfect relaxed-fit jeans he’s been looking for for years: the 1991 Straight-Leg Jeans, 1991 Straight-Leg Stretch Selvedge Jeans, and 1991 Loose Straight Jean (the loosest out of them).
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The Kaihara Mill supplies Japanese denim to higher-end lines like Nudie Jeans, where jeans go for $280. For less, you can get Kaihara Mill’s denim made in collaboration with Madewell.
Everything’s a little pricier than regular Madewell, but you’re getting a rigid selvedge for $168.
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Until recently, Madewell offered “tall” and “taller” inseams: “tall” for those between five-eight and five-eleven, and “taller” for those who are six feet and over.
But some months ago, I noticed it stopped selling “taller” as an extended size. Still, some new styles now come in longer lengths in the default “regular”: The Superwides have a 32-inch inseam (with 35-inch “tall” inseam); Low-Slung Baggy a 31-inch inseam (with a 34-inch “tall” inseam); Longline Straight a 30-inch inseam; and Vintage Flare a 32-inch inseam. (Just note that stock moves quickly.)
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Wrangler’s Cowboy Cut Slim-Fit Jeans have the widest range of tall-specific inseam lengths for those who are over five-foot-eight, including 30-, 32-, 34-, 36-, and 38-inch inseams.
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Because sizes are odd-numbered, Strategist senior editor Simone Kitchens suggests going for the next size from your even-numbered one (for example, a size three if you’re a size two).
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“You don’t have to have an hourglass figure or even be dealing with a waist gap to wear a ‘curvy’ fit — it usually just means a more cinched waist while giving you a little more room in the hip and thigh area,” says our social-media editor Kathy Li.
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Except for the High-Rise Loose Jean and Mid-Rise Bootcut Jean (which run big), Abercrombie’s sizing is fairly consistent, according to our junior writer Bella Druckman, who tried on 20 different pairs at the store.
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From her experience, the Curve Love fit (which adds two inches to the hip and thigh for less waist-gapping) might be better for tighter styles and Classic fit for looser styles.
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As a general rule, darker washes fit tighter than lighter ones — an Abercrombie rep specifically mentioned to Druckman that “when it comes to their black denim, size up since the dyeing process makes the fabric less stretchy.”
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The pair of Gap jeans that miraculously fit both Strategist contributor Erika Veurink, who’s six-foot-two, and Strategist newsletter editor Ashley Wolfgang, who’s four-foot-eleven, is the High-Rise ’90s Straight Jeans. (Very Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.)
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Have a hockey butt? Our tech writer Jordan McMahon believes AG’s Kace 28 comes closest to having the right fit for his “larger lower half.”
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In the “jeans that aren’t actually jeans” category (headed by Rag & Bone’s Miramar), Frame’s Jetsets “allow for a good amount of mobility and have the durability you’d normally look for in a good pair of jeans,” stylist Charline Zeroual tells Strategist writer Arielle Avila. You can’t say the same about most pull-ons.
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It was about time bejeweled jeans came back — you can get the same studded effect as Sandy Liang’s with Abercrombie’s High-Rise ’90s Relaxed Jean (a comparison first made in the Strategist-staff Slack channel).
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A good bootcut: J.Crew’s High-Rise Bootcut Jean in 2003 Super-Stretch. It’s “sharper (and, blessedly, higher cut) than our shredded Mudd bell-bottoms from 2003,” Wall Street Journal art editor Alexandra Citrin-Safadi told me.
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Banana Republic Factory’s jeans are comparable quality-wise to Banana Republic’s. I find the fit of Banana Republic Factory’s Mid-Rise Slim Jean is even better than Banana Republic’s High-Rise Slim Jean.
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Most plus-size jeans come with some form of stretch. For plus-size, non-stretch jeans, Strategist writer Dominique Pariso likes Decade Studio. If you’re trying to minimize waist-gapping, it designs with different hip-to-waist ratios in mind, she says.
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Nelle Atelier’s denim is for those who are under five-foot-four. But you can get away with the Laura if you’re between five-foot-five and five-foot-seven. It’s not too short on Prix Fixe founder Oset Babür-Winter (who’s five-foot-six, for reference).
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If your size in a “petite” inseam is sold out, go for the “short” inseam — the difference between them is often not much more than an inch.
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Similarly, an “ankle” length will usually be short enough, according to our writer Lauren Ro.
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If you’re especially petite, you might shop in Old Navy’s boy’s section (for cuts ranging from straight to slim and skinny), according to our writer Kitty Guo, who’s five-three.
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The first, and so far only, pair of low-rise jeans in our guide to the best jeans for all shapes and sizes is Topshop’s Cinch Low-Rise Relaxed Jeans. The back cinch lets our writer Rachael Griffiths “switch between having them hang low on my hips or a little closer to my belly button.”
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For that “elusive shade” of gray that’s “somewhere between faded black and light-concrete gray,” our Strategist Hunt headliner Mya Gelber thinks Zara’s TRF Mid-Rise Wide Leg Jeans are ideal.
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It’s “light enough to break up my navy- and red-heavy wardrobe,” she writes.
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If you missed another Rudy Jude preorder, be sure to check the status updates page the customer-service team puts together for every style currently in production. You can even find out what’s still in the finishing stage.
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Nudie Jeans will not only repair your jeans for free, it’ll take an old jean in exchange for a 20 percent off discount that counts toward a new pair, our senior editor Ailbhe Malone points out.
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You can add alterations to almost any jean at Uniqlo before checkout.
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How it works: You choose an inseam length, between 16 and 30 inches (that includes half-inches: 25.5, 26.5, 27.5, and so on), and the kind of stitch for the hem (lock, blind, chain, or a cutoff). The additional fee to your order can be anywhere from free to $10.
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From Corsillo: Iron-on patches can fix rips if you stitch over them.
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Another DIY project: Dye your jeans with Dylon. It’s what Griffiths used on old jeans that might’ve otherwise been thrown out.
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Before Wray closes up shop (the Lower East Side storefront will be open “until further notice”), buy yourself a pair of Hesters.
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There’s a button in the waistband for no back-gapping. They’re also available with different amounts of stretch, depending on the wash: The lightest, “’70s blue,” is 100 percent cotton, while “millennium blue” is 70 percent cotton and 30 percent Lyocell.
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Behind Khaite and Reformation’s denim lines is designer Benjamin Talley Smith (as the Times says, “He may well have made the jeans in your closet, and your friend’s closet, and your friend’s friends’”).
Apparently, there are rumors that Reformation’s Wilder is a dupe for Khaite’s Danielle (which I heard about from brand consultant Katie Stone).
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