Shelby here, with a fashion secret I learned over the weekend. I went shopping with Shannon and my mom on Saturday. I started off in a bad mood because I was dreading what I had to do – buy jeans! I have always had a hard time finding jeans that look good on me. I have a small waist and full hips and butt and nothing ever looks right. My usual jeans shopping goes like this –
Tell the sales person what I am looking for
Sales person pulls two pairs of jeans, thinking she knows exactly what will work
I inform the sales person I will need to try on about a dozen pairs in a variety of sizes because I never know what will work
I go to dressing room with optimism because, hey, if I have twenty pairs of jeans to try on, one of them will have to fit, right?
I try everything on and every pair has something wrong – gaping at the waist, too tight on the thigh, not the right length, too baggy at the knees but snug everywhere else
I leave frustrated and without jeans OR
I spend money on something that sort of works, but is not great, and every time I put on the “just okay” jeans, I feel annoyed.
We went to a couple of stores on Saturday and the usual thing happened – I left feeling frustrated without jeans. My mom stopped to get a Starbucks (she is addicted to lattes with too much whipped cream) and because the line was long, I popped over to Madewell to take a quick look at their denim selection. I was exhausted by that time, but I am glad I made myself talk to the denim specialist and try stuff on, because I had a TOTALLY new experience that went something like this:
Yes. I found “zing” jeans!
The denim specialist walked me through all of the problems I had been having and gave an explanation and a resolution for each one (she was like the best therapist you could have – she left me feeling GREAT about myself). Now I am sharing what I learned with you all so you can always feel zing in your jeans.
Buy jeans two sizes smaller than you think you are. This is the most important thing I learned. Apparently, there has been a scientific revolution in denim the last 5 or so years and all the new jean fabrics have quite a bit of stretch. This makes them last longer and also fit better, but a lot of people don’t like it because they end up buying the wrong size and they think the jeans are bad. It’s not the jeans’ fault, and it’s not yours either! The trick is to buy two (maybe even three!) sizes smaller. The idea is to get the tightest pair you can get into (meaning you’ll do the jump around, suck in as you pull up the zipper, dance in the dressing room). The jeans are supposed to be very tight and then over the next couple of times you wear them they will fit to your specific body, and then stay that way.
Embrace the high rise. I was skeptical when the denim specialist sent me into the room with a pair of jeans called High Riser Skinny Skinny. But the high rise it what solves my problem of the gaping at my waist. They fit perfectly and I am in love.
Wash your jeans less than you think is appropriate. Because of the new fabrics in nice jeans, you don’t want to wash your jeans as often. The denim specialist at Madewell suggested every 8 times you wear them (which translates to about once a month, in my case). If you get a spot on them, try to clean just the spot, without throwing the in the washing machine. If you feel like they need to be cleaned and it hasn’t been enough time to wash them, she suggested putting the jeans in a ziploc bag and placing them in the freezer for 24 hours. This gets rid of the bacteria, apparently. Seems weird, but she was totally sold on the idea. I’ll try it and let you all know.
Do not EVER dry your jeans. This was one of the big mistakes I was making. My last pair of jeans got baggy in the knees and so I would try to shrink them by putting them in the dryer for 5 minutes before wearing them. Apparently this was a BIG mistake. Washing and drying the jeans break up the fibers in the jeans and cause them to lose their stretch. Instead of drying your jeans, do the right thing at first and buy jeans smaller than you think you need. SEE No. 1.
Always get help from a jeans specialist. The woman at Madewell had literally been to denim school. Part of her job training is learning all of this stuff about how jeans are made and the fabrics and how to care for them. Plus, she made me feel great about myself, which is the best way to feel when shopping.
After our successful jeans shopping we treated ourselves to thai food and had a movie night. We watched a great movie with Zoe Saldana (my family has been obsessed with her ever since this movie, which was a VERY important part of our growing up). Zoe does the jeans look perfectly, so I thought she should be the featured image for today’s post.
image from Daily Mail