The Ultimate Style Staple: Jeans

As summer vacations are happening, sooner than we realize it will be fall. Fall fashion is fantastic and a bit more sophisticated than its younger sister, summer. You can start layering again and adding visual interest with rich colours and soft fabrics. But first you need one of the most essential building blocks of a fall wardrobe – denim. Jeans are one of the most important multipurpose garments that you can have. If invested in properly they can last you years. They can become a trusted and true essential that just gets better with age.

A perfect example is the pair of black skinny jeans I bought years ago for about $110 at the Lavish & Squalor boutique on Queen Street in downtown Toronto. They are made by Insight51 (an Australian clothing brand founded by Drew Down) and are by far the best jeans I’ve ever owned. They are completely molded and worn in exactly to my body and are the kind of true distressed that is filled with memories and not just done by a machine. There’s a small rip on the left knee from when I fell on an escalator in Ottawa, some white paint spots from when I worked in visual display for a big retail store and best of all a big rip right down the middle of the bum that conveniently happened on a date (that’s a story for another day…) that caused me to finally have to say goodbye to them.

In my quest to replace my beloved jeans and to help start your fall shopping off right, I set off to the Eaton Centre to see what I could find. I’ve offered up some examples of good quality yet still affordable denim choices that will last you several seasons.

Lucky Brand Jeans offer a variety of sizing, fit and cut options. Their website offers even more options with Petite, Straight, Slightly Curvy, Curvy and Plus along with short and tall inseams (30”-36”), as well as free shipping. In store, this was beyond the softest denim I’d ever felt. They had a line of what they called “T-Shirt Denim” made to mimic the feeling of a soft, lived in t-shirt which they absolutely did. (Speaking of which, they also have the softest plain tees for men, which for anyone who knows me knows they are my obsession.) The pair I tried on could quite possibly be the absolute perfect boyfriend jean (Sienna Tomboy, $99.00).Even the regular pairs of jeans were very soft and an instant indicator that a good quality cotton had been used. The regular pair of camouflage print jeans I tried was a combination of 72% Rayon, 27% Cotton and 1% Spandex (Charlie Super Skinny, $99.00).

My next stop was Jean Machine (over 30 locations across Ontario) to which I found Mavi Jeans (founded in 1991 in Istanbul Turkey). They’re sold at multiple retail locations around the world. They have a great choice for a variety of silhouettes, styles, inseams and cuts. The bleached and distressed pair that I chose was 98% Cotton and 2% Spandex and $110.00.

There are millions of pairs of jeans out there which can seem intimidating but following a few simple rules can make the process much easier. Steer away from simply paying for a label and stick to a brand that fits your body and uses good quality fabrics. Don’t worry about detailing as much as fit and comfort; it’s easy to take some sandpaper or scissors and add any distressing you may want, or just let time and life do the design for you. I once unintentionally ripped the knee and smeared and stained lipstick all over a pair of Guess? jeans but to me, they only looked better. Finding jeans can be like dating and it can take time and effort to find a decent pair. But once you do, they are there with you and filled with stories. And that’s what clothes and fashion should reflect, your life and it’s stories.