Everybody wears Jeans

Everybody wears Jeans

Jeans represent democracy in fashion. Giorgio Armani

Archive for June, 2010

How to size jeans

If you want to do your own jeans, or just learn a bit more how the sizes work here are some useful advises for size them!
Finding the right size is important when you want to be looking good in your jeans. There is no use for you to spend money for some expensive and well-designed jeans if the size doesn’t fit you well. Here are some tips of size jeans for you.
The best way to determine a size that will fit is to go to the closet for your favorite pair, and that is if you favorite it because you feel like it fits you the best and not because it shows other the most (that’s another story).
Make sure you button and zip the jeans before laying them out completely flat, legs spread and straight on a flat surface.
I suggest that you stretch the jeans in the area and direction you are planning to measure. Stretching makes sure that you are measuring all the material, it straightens the denim and you stretch the jeans back to the “wearing size” and not that just-dried-in-the-dryer-tighter-fit.
1. To measure your waist size stretch the waistband 1-2 times, let it relax, then measure horizontally across the inside of the jeans. Double the measurement for the circumference of the waist.
2. Upper hips: Measure horizontally across openings of front pockets, right to left edge of the jeans. Double for the circumference.
3. Lower hips: Use same procedure as #2. Measure horizontally across jeans, 1-2″ above bottom of zipper. Double for circumference.
4. Thigh: Measure horizontally across the thigh at 3-4″ below the crotch seam. Double for circumference.
5. Front rise: On the front of the jeans measure vertically from crotch seam to the top of the waist band.
6. Back rise: Measure from the crotch seam to the top of the waistband on the back of the jean.
7. Inseam: Measure from the crotch seam to the bottom of the leg. Straighten the seam down the leg to get a better measurement.
8. Bottom opening: Measure the flattened leg from side to side on the inside of the opening and double for circumference.

Here are some picture to show you, which part of jeans we’re giving names to:

How do you know if you’ve gotten the right size?
Your new jeans should:
• Be just a little bit longer than you need
• Be the right length for the shoes or boots that you plan to wear them with
• Not wrinkle or fold excessively, which would indicate a problem area where they are too tight.
• The zipper, or buttoned fly, should lie flat
• You should be able to sit down or crouch in them comfortably, without your rear end peeking out.
• Low risers don’t necessarily have to expose your rear. If they do, you need a higher cut in the back or that pair is too small. Another brand may offer what you need.
• Your waist button should snap easily (without having to lie down)
• The pockets should also lie flat. If they don’t, they may not be the right cut for your body type.
Pull them up as high as they go, then crouch in them. How do they feel when you walk around? They should be snug but comfortable. This is how you should feel all day long. After all, what makes jeans so fabulous is their ability to let us look and feel great without sacrificing comfort.

Here is an example of women’s jeans size chart:

Here are some more jeans styles! Some of them are really similar one to another, instead some of them are very particular! Maybe some are more trendy nowadays.. but for one thing we can be always sure: jeans are never gonna be out of fashion, whatever is its style!!!

Boyfriend Jeans
They are the style that everyone is wanting getting their hands on… They look best when worn with casually with sandals or for an edgier look whack on some heels.

Flare Jeans
The most flattering flares will sit very firmly around the waist and bottom and the very top of the thigh and then widen quite dramatically to the floor. The leg opening should be anywhere between 22” and 30”. If you have the height, flares can be worn with flats but they look best with chunky wedges or heels. Hems should always just clear the ground.

Wide Leg Jeans
The Wide Leg is a slightly more relaxed and perhaps sophisticated sister to the flare. It should be fitted through the waist, slim over the hips and then wide to the floor. Like the flare, hems should just clear the floor.

Bell Bottom Jeans
For years we all chortled at photographs of hippies until fashion bought us back full circle for our own chance to discover the sexy silhouette of the Bellbottom. Skimming over the bottom and hips and tight to the knee the leg then flares dramatically out to circumnavigate the shoe. With so much volume below the knee and everything pulled in up the top, the bellbottom can’t help but shrink you down one size.

High Waisted Jeans
The High Waisted can be applied to any leg shape and this style works for everyone except those with a very short waist. A high waisted style will elongate the leg, hold in your stomach, straighten the back and improve posture. The muffin stall is now closed.

Cropped Jeans
Cropped jeans are perfect all year round, whether you are wearing sandals on summer or tucking your jeans into boots in winter. Note that cropped jeans come in either 7/8’s length which is just above the ankle or capri length which is mid-calf.

Some Popular Styles

As we know exist a lot of different styles of jeans. Some of them are better for a group of person, some of them for another group of person. Everyone has his favourite style and maybe one that really hates!
Let me show you some of the most popular jeans styles 😉

Skinny Jeans
Skinny styles are fitted through the leg from the very top of the thigh to the ankle (and perhaps beyond). Often with skinny fits it is good to have a couple of extra inches in length to create an ankle ruffle which looks amazing with heels. In the case of a cropped style this should finish neatly at the ankle for wearing with ballet flats or tucking neatly into boots. A higher composition of stretch is better for skinny styles to give a tight silhouette.

Jeggings
Denim leggings are a recent addition to the denim family. Very soft and supple they are generally more solid in colour, and look great with heels or tucked into boots. Leggings work well for people who have traditionally eschewed jeans, worrying that they will be stiff and uncomfortable to wear.

Straight Leg Jeans
Straight styles are fitted from the top of the thigh and fall straight from the knee. An easy way to check this is to fold the jean back on itself from the ankle to the knee; the hem width will be the same as the knee width. Straight legs are a great choice to wear with flats and heels. To ensure you have the perfect length for flats try the jeans in bare feet. If the hem just scraps the floor you’re in business. When wearing with heels you want a small break at the front of your foot with the jean ending approximately half way down your heel.

Cigarette Leg Jeans
The elegant cigarette leg sits neatly between the skinny and straight styles. It is leaner in the leg than the straight and easier to wear than the skinny. It is a wise wardrobe choice as it is possibly the most leg lengthening of the skinny/straight cuts. Versatile when choosing shoe height, it can be used with equal success amongst most shoe styles.

Bootcut Jeans
A classic style universally known for being endlessly flattering and easy to wear. A bootcut will gently widen from below the knee to fall just beyond the bridge of your foot. The style is called bootcut as it is best employed to cover the shape of a boot. Bootcut styles flatter lots of figures, not just curvy girls for which they are well-known to balance the hips. Some bootcuts are more exaggerated and this style is called a kick-flare. This usually has a leg opening about an inch wider than a standard bootcut.

Distressed Jeans
Rips, slashes, holes, tie-dyed we love them all. It is all about having your jeans look like you have owned them since the 80’s.

Short History of Denim Jeans

Where did the name Denim Jeans come from?

‘Serge de Nîmes’

In fashion history, jeans and denim history continues to baffle us. No one truly knows the perfect answer to where jeans began. As so often happens fashions often emerge together in various parts of the world and are the result of the sudden availability of a new fabric, cloth, dye or technique.
But we do know that the phrase denim jeans is thought to derive from several sources. The majority of source books suggest that denim derives from the English translation of the South of France French phrase ‘Serge de Nîmes’. Denim fashion history is thus associated with Serge de Nîmes.
It may well be that the fabric which was made in France also had a version made locally in England, and was called by the same name of denim, in the same way that Cheddar cheese is called cheddar all over the world. The Serge de Nîmes was originally a wool silk mix, twill weave. Certainly by the 19th century in England, denim had a white warp and a navy woof (weft). Denim was considered a hard wearing sturdy fabric, ideal for heavy labouring.

Genoese

It is also thought the name ‘ jeans ‘ comes from ‘Genoese’ the name for Italian sailors of Genoa who when at sea dressed in blue fustian fabric, composed of a cotton and wool or linen blend. Genoese fabric was imported into Britain as far back as the 16th century.
Thomas Hardy used the word fustian to describe basic clothes of a skilled countryman in ‘The Mayor Of Casterbridge’. He mentions a fustian waistcoat, breeches and a jacket, all the type of garments often made up in jeans material today. In Pickwick Papers, fustian is described by Dickens as ‘common fustian’ which firmly puts it in the everyday category.
In the 19th century, American weavers made hard wearing cotton duck, denim and jeans fabrics to satisfy a home market. At some time, some manufacturers must have replaced the yarns with the locally produced, more readily available cotton making the fabrics all cotton.

Levi Strauss the Inventor of Trousers called Denim Jeans

Jeans history would be nothing without Levi Strauss. Levi Strauss is credited with inventing jeans. Levi Strauss emigrated with his family to New York in 1847. His family sold dry goods such as canvas tenting and Manchester drapery goods. He moved to San Francisco in the early 1850s because he thought the same dry goods business would be brisk, because of the California gold rush.
About 20 years later, a solvent Levi Strauss and a Nevada tailor joined forces to patent an idea the tailor had for putting rivets on stress points of workman’s waist high overalls, commonly known as jeans. Levi Strauss chose to use the stronger denim fabric and cotton duck, putting his own name on the product. Later the duck fabric was dropped as consumers found denim more comfortable, particularly after washing. Washing creates the faded bloom on the indigo blue dyeing that we all love.
Eventually in the 1950s people asked for denim jeans or just as often – Levi’s jeans, rather than waist overalls. Other manufacturers began to produce jeans. Other brand names such as Lee Coopers and Wranglers also became famous. Each brand is renowned for having a particular cut.

Film Stars Influence Denim Jeans in the 1950s

Jeans fashion history was truly made in the 1950s when film stars wore it in movies that the teenagers of the day followed with avid interest.
For many years jeans were only used as work wear clothes, but by the 1940s they were considered leisure wear in America.
Once pop and film stars like Elvis Presley, James Dean, and Marlon Brando sported them, they became desirable internationally in the 1950s and are associated with rock and roll and pop music. Later in the 1960s, jean brands old and new were worn universally in the western world.
Marlon Brando screen idol in jeans in the 1950s.

1970’s Flower Power and Jeans

In the 1970s, individuals began to really personalize flared bell bottom versions of jeans and added bells up the sides of flared leg styles. Floral and abstract textural embroidery, metal eyelets and studs, transfers, appliqué and even anti-war graffiti biro writing were all popular forms of decoration. Jeans were a great hit with flower people and the hippie revolution. Jeans were the only uniform to wear to a 1970’s pop concert.
Jeans never seemed to die, as individuals would cut off the legs to make Bermuda shorts, then short shorts or even duffle bags using a cord to draw up the waist loops. Old jeans got recycled into patchwork jeans and skirts.
Denim mini skirt

Levi 501s

The most famous jeans are still probably those produced by Levi as Levi 501s. Pre shrunk jeans had been introduced in the 1960s. 501s traditional button fly jeans designed in the Victorian era need to be shrunk to fit. They were a huge hit again in the 1980s when reintroduced to a new generation.
In a 1980’s television advertisement Nick Kamen removed his jeans and stripped to his underpants at a launderette. He proceeded to launder the jeans making them ‘shrink to fit’ to the music of Marvin Gaye’s ‘I heard it through the grapevine’. Kamen helped make jeans into a new fashion item for a new generation with the clear link to sexual allure.

Designer Jeans

By the 1980s, ripped, frayed and torn jeans were a normal sight. Coloured jeans from white through to pastels were also popular as were stonewashed blue jeans. In the 80s, designer jeans with names like Gloria Vanderbilt, Calvin Klein and Armani among so many fashion designers, became the designer label jeans to be seen wearing. Stone washed jeans became a must-have.
By the 1990s, black jeans were very popular for a while and jeans in general were seen a lot in the early 1990s. But shades of blue are always loved and sometimes the darkest shade is high fashion and sometimes the most washed out faded pairs become the hottest. By 2008 the spring trend was for butter soft washed out pale blue denim jeans. Coloured jeans of all shades made an appearance.
In 2000, designers were Swarovski crystal beading and silver or gold spraying jeans amid rip tears, frayed slashes, fur and feather decoration. Denim was hot yet again and used to make everything from footwear, jackets, bags, basque corsets to jewelled cuffs.
D&G denim jacket for kids Dsquared Jeans

Lycra in Jeans
The 1990s saw some changes such as denim with an added percentage of Lycra to enhance fit and comfort.
Jeans are most definitely here to stay as 50% of us under 60 like to wear them, easily preferring them to combat trousers which are now considered very passé. Jeans with lycra are so much more comfortable. They fit and cling around the buttocks in a way that accommodates less than perfect figures. Marks & Spencer stock a very wide range of own brand jean styles and you have 90 days to return them if they don’t fit.
You can get a wide range of sizes of quality jeans including plus size jeans from internet and high street stores such as The Gap. If you are large you will almost certainly be able to get the size you want from the Internet.