Why are jeans the thing we rationalize buying over and over again? I have piles in my closet, yet I always have room for one more pair. Moisturizers… lipsticks… these are pick-me-ups as well… but jeans pretty much last a lifetime. I rarely give any away, though we have a pretty awesome lending library between the six women in my family. I am overstocked. Yet, I still want — and in fact feel I need — the latest version. “Just one more pair." These are the ones that will fill all the holes in my closet, that will make everything I already own feel fresh, that will make me feel more like the ME I see in my head.
And I know this is a bit rich coming from someone who has been writing monthly to tell you that you need this or that item of clothing – several pairs of jeans among them over the years. Clothes really can make your life better. I stand behind that. (Our business does, in fact!) But no jeans on earth will really change your life, and it is a big thing to ask of them in the first place. That said — there is something about the right pair that can really get you going. It is interesting that I don’t do this with dresses, or coats, or even other kinds of pants. There is something about a pair of blue jeans that feels like it could be the secret key to having your act together. Why is that? Is it because you can wear them multiple times a week? Because they go with nearly everything?
A couple of years ago, I read this truly delightful piece by Jonah Weiner in the NYT Sunday magazine about the pants pendulum and the author’s own journey on it: from slim-fit to wide-fit and what it all means about style and trend cycles and taste and the way we see ourselves. It was more broadly about pants, but I remembered this paragraph that sort of gets at a possible explanation: “In strictly physical terms, no article of clothing does more to articulate and augment the line of our bodies — to beautify us or deform us — than pants. They tend to occupy the most visual square footage in any given outfit. They also tend to move more than other clothes as our bodies move through the world, which creates more inflection points where they can attract notice — and where they can go wrong.” A bit heavy. But not incorrect.
I have not teased this out in many posts over the years, but in my experience as a mother of five daughters, I think one reason jeans occupy this role is that they are such a barometer of how you feel in your body. Having spent so much time in dressing rooms with women, I have heard “these are my fat jeans”… “those are my skinny jeans”… “I am buying a size down for when I lose the last five pounds”… over and over again. If you haven’t said this out loud, you at least know the concept intuitively. And no matter how many times I try to convince a woman, whether it is a customer or one of my daughters, that she is seen in 3D and not the flat image staring back at her in the mirror… beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the person whose beholding matters the most is you.
All of this is in my head as I have been thinking about how to tell you about this new jean silhouette we have called the Camille. They came out in the fall, but after spending the last year wearing and re-wearing my wear-test pair, I am putting pen to paper. Does she really need these? Yes, I think you might, or at least you might want to try. What I love about this shape is its democracy of sorts. It is not skinny… it is not overly boyish or loose… it does not require a particular body type to look cool. It is, in fact, a bit forgiving. That word is loaded, but bear with me.
I will never forget my very first pair of designer jeans: Calvin Klein in 1979. I was a senior in high school, and we had just moved from Chicago to New Jersey, where I knew no one and therefore had nothing to do but sit at home and eat my way through the year. I was clueless to the weight gain this caused and just stuffed myself into the size I thought I was. So my expensive jeans were tight and uncomfortable and I had nowhere to wear them. Years later, when I would visit my parents and see the family photo from that era, mercilessly enlarged to a 16x20 print on the living room wall, I wanted to melt. My Dorothy Hamill bowl cut didn’t help… but the ME that was hiding inside didn’t match the ME I saw in the picture. It probably had more to do with how lonely I was, rather than how plump I was. Even more than the too-tight jeans, the photo accentuated my hurting heart. But that is another story altogether.
My mother could have been more sensitive and not enlarged the family photo that highlighted my own enlargement… but she was so amazingly laid-back about her own image that the thought would not have occurred to her. When she looked at that photo, she just saw ME. Maybe she smiled at the chubby phase I was in, maybe she found it endearing, maybe she genuinely didn’t notice. Once I became a mother of my own girls, I learned this firsthand. You see them as things of beauty and vitality in all their shapes and phases — you see their SELF before you notice an extra few pounds. Now I have the requirement to do so as a few of their bodies have been compromised by disability over the last ten years. It is not easy always, but on my best days, I see it.
This has gotten heavy again. No pun intended. All that to say… jeans can amp up the way we feel about our bodies like no other piece of clothing. For the worse, but also for the better. How amazing it can be to have a pair of jeans that just makes you feel like a great version of you. That isn’t tethered to your high weight or your low weight. This is where that “forgiving” thing comes in.
Of course, with jeans, there is no one shape that works for everyone. We all have different body types and what is flattering on one person may not be on another. Tall, short, long-waisted, hippy, boyish. But most of us need variety. I may have felt a narrow shape last week, but now I want to mix it up with a wide leg. One day I may want something really Western and rigid and cowgirl-looking; the next, Euro hippie may take over in my head. You may not experience getting dressed as… imaginatively… as I do (I swear I don’t play pretend or anything once I’m dressed for the day) but you do need to find your own style, and I find that an assortment of jean shapes is really helpful for that.
So what can I tell you about this one, the Camille? Well, it is not a jean of extremes. While the waist is on the high side, and the leg is on the wide side, it does not feel so au courant as to look odd in any era. For me, there is something slightly Katharine-Hepburn-easy-trouser about this shape, even though there is also a slight '70s feel with the patch pockets at the front. Am I imagining that they also feel sort of French? The high rise feels great around my waist, and the weight of the denim is substantial, but has enough give to spring back to life even after wearing three days in a row. The inseam is full-length, with an intentionally oversized hem at the bottom. I shortened mine to be more cropped — I have short legs — but there is enough length if you are tall and do not prefer that look. The blue denim is the pair I have been wearing on repeat, but there is also a khaki, a white, and a clear red that scratches another itch.
I cannot quite explain it, but these jeans feel both forgiving and cool. And I think everyone could use a pair like that. When I wear them, I don’t think about my body being one way or another. I just feel cool. So while I can’t promise that they will be your own secret key — I just spent many words acknowledging that no one pair works for everyone — I do think they are worth a try. “Just one more pair and you’ll be set.” Maybe Camille is the last pair (but I doubt it).
