Denim, Denim Everywhere

I have a complicated relationship with jeans.  I want to love them.  They just seem so timeless.  Jeans never go out of style, you always read in terrible magazines that men find women sexiest in a pair of jeans, the right pair can go from day to night, yada yada yada. I've just never been able to find that magical pair.  I feel like my girlfriends have these religious experiences where they put on a pair of jeans and they look 5 lbs skinnier and their legs look 3 miles long and their butt looks like circa-2001 Britney Spears.  No pair of jeans has ever done any of those things for me.

It may be because I've never bought a pair of designer jeans.  I know, I know. Everyone says that they're the way to go.  But when designer jeans first came around again, they simply did not offer them in lengths/inseams for us shorties.  And you cannot hem jeans more than 1/2-1 inch without ruining the look.  The only jeans I've owned for the past 6 years have all been from Old Navy and meh.  They weren't AWFUL, but they certainly weren't flattering and they most DEFINITELY did not make me look sexy.  At all.  And then a fellow blogger {I think it was Kate at Nautical by Nature?} posted this article about Gap and Old Navy mom jeans. Suddenly it all made sense!  I was buying the wrong jeans!

I got rid of all my jeans {I hardly ever wore them anyways} and swore I would buy new ones....yeah, that part never happened.  But armed with research, I'm ready for a denim bonanza.  The hunt for the perfect pair.  Here are the top recommendations:

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7

In all fairness, there is still a pair of Gap jeans in this mix {#7}.  But multiple people recommended checking them out, so I'll give them a shot.  There is also a pair of Banana Republic jeans in there {#5}, as 3 different people recommended them. The picture from the website is hideous, so let's hope they're a bit more impressive in person.  I have high hopes for the Levis {#3 and 4}.  They are super inexpensive, have great reviews, and look quite stylish in the pictures. Then there are the 3 extra $$$ fancy designer pairs {#1, 2, and 6}.  I'm not trying them until I've tried all of the others.  That way, if I end up spending that much on a pair of jeans, I can say I tried everything.

Several people recommended the J.Crew toothpick and matchstick jeans.  People either love them or hate them, which I find to be true of all J.Crew pants.  In the past, their jeans have been majorly frump-tastic on me.  If none of the above pan out, I would be willing to revisit the Crew to see if any improvements have been made.

Plan of attack: order the Gap, BR, and Levis.  Cross fingers that one or several of those pairs is a winner.  If not, move on to the upper echelon of denim.  Cross fingers that I don't become hopelessly addicted to overpriced jeans.

Wish me luck!