The perfect pair of skinny jeans?
Like most of the women I know, I really struggle to find jeans that both fit right and look the way I want them to: which is a bit of a bummer given that I tend to live in the things around 80% of the time.
The search for the perfect jeans is a long one, though (I like to compare it to Frodo’s journey in Lord of the Rings, but I guess that might be a BIT of an exaggeration…), and, in my case, it’s made even longer by the simple fact that I’m fussy. Like, really, really fussy. I want my jeans to be EXACTLY the right shade of blue, for instance: not too dark, not too light – just perfect. As for distressing, well, I don’t mind it, but again, it has to be PERFECT. I hate jeans that have those giant white patches on each thigh, for instance, and I also hate any kind of distressing that looks deliberate (as opposed to the kind of distressing you get from just wearing your jeans to death…).
By far the biggest problem in recent years, however, is that I like my jeans to be skinny legged – but not SO skinny in the leg that they look like leggings when I wear them.
And therein lies the problem: because these days, almost every pair of “skinny” jeans I try on, is almost guaranteed to look like leggings on me. I don’t know, I never really thought of myself as having particularly chunky calves, but in recent years I’ve had to revise that opinion, because sometimes when I’m trying on jeans, I can see that they’d fit fine in the waist… but I can barely even get them over my calves. Which is embarrassing, let me tell you.
So, most so-called “skinny” jeans are out. At the other end of the scale, however, all I seem to find are boyfriend jeans, girlfriend jeans, mom jeans… I’ve come to realise that any style of jeans named after a person is just not going to work for me: they all just make me look like I’m literally wearing someone else’s clothes, and that’s REALLY not a good look.
Enter Boden.
Boden have actually solved quite a few of my fashion dilemmas, so I’m not quite sure why it took me so long to get round to trying their jeans, but when I did, I swear a choir of angels started to sing. See, it turns out that Boden make (almost) the perfect jeans. Their Skinny Jean is skinny, sure – but the cut isn’t legging-like, so your legs don’t feel like a pair of sausages stuffed into casing. Which is pretty much how all of those OTHER pairs of jeans I’ve tried have been making me feel. What’s more, the denim is soft and stretchy, so they’re comfortable to wear, AND they come in a range of different colours, which is updated every season. I’m pretty sure I’m going to end up buying them ALL.
I have just one quibble here: as with most of Boden’s offerings, I find the sizing is pretty generous with these, especially in the leg. I but the petite version, which should technically be too short for me, at 5’4″, but which is actually a little bit longer than I’d like it to be. The overall cut, meanwhile, is just a little roomier than most of the other skinny jeans I’ve tried, so if you DO love that super-skintight look, these probably aren’t for you.
If, on the other hand, you’re looking for skinny jeans that DON’T look like leggings, you might just want to give them a try.
