AmericanWoman

For several months I’ve been determined to figure out which brand of jeans fit the best and decide which pair of jeans I can anoint my most favorite ones! I really don’t know why I’m obsessed with this – maybe because my size has changed over the years and every time I think I’ve got the whole jean thing figured out – the styles, the cuts, the color, and even the fabrics have changed and what used to fit me fine now either make me look like I have thunder thighs or short stubby legs.

I remember when my oldest daughter and I (that would be Jennifer) spent a few Saturdays at all the malls in Lexington, KY trying on every pair of jeans we could find. It was a blast! We had so much fun in the dressing rooms throwing jeans over the door and grading them accordingly. At that time, literarily about a decade ago, the winner was Gap jeans. Today I can say the I didn’t even try on a pair of Gap jeans for this contest.

But what I have done this time around is drag my youngest daughter (that would be Emily) from the mall to the outlet stores looking for a pair of jeans that are affordable, easy to find, cute, and of course comfortable! Now Emily is perfectly happy with a pair of Limted2 jeans and did not really understand my persistence with finding the “perfect” pair of jeans. But she was a great sport and my voice of reason as I tried on pair after pair.

I also made a few phone calls to my ever-so-opinionated family members to get their opinions and have read with extreme giddiness (if that’s a real word) at all the comments that popped up on my blog with submissions of the World’s Best Fitting Jeans. Plus in looking at my blog stats, the World’s Best Fitting Jeans post has been the number 1 top post with over 7,000 hits.

But alas, the fun comes to an end…. And the World’s Best Fitting Jeans will be crowned!

I set the following categories to include winners: Best Fit, Best Looking, Best Wash and Wear, and Best Overall Value.

And the winners are:

Best Fit goes to Calvin Cline – I love the weight of the fabric, the color selection, and the back pockets. I can wear any top with them and they look fabulous. They are dressy enough to wear to work on “Jean Fridays” and I always get more compliments when I wear them than any other pair of jeans.

Best Looking goes to my Ann Taylor jeans – I got these for Christmas (from my adorable husband and yes I picked them out, paid for them, and told him to wrap and put under the tree for me). This was my first pair of Ann Taylor jeans and I’ve fallen in love with them. They are a bit on the “dressy” side and I call them my “date” jeans. They are jeans to wear when you want to look just a bit more polished when going out.

Best Wash and Wear goes to Banana Republic – My son and his wife (that would be Jeffrey & Chemenn) nominated Banana Republic. I had never tried this brand on and it just so happens that the outlet mall down the road has a Banana Republic outlet store. So I ventured out to try some on. I bought the stretch fabric in a basic blue jean color. They do stretch out quite a bit as you wear them so they probably get washed more often than any other pair I own. (Not that all my other jeans don’t get washed – it’s just that the BR jeans looks as good after they are washed as they did when I purchased them).

Best Overall Value has to go to my Wal-Mart Faded Glory jeans – this is the pair of jeans I wear on totally casual days with a t-shirt or sweatshirt. I’ve had them for a couple of years, but bought them at Wal-mart for about $11.00. You can’t beat that value!

And now for the Grand Champion – the pair of jeans that wins the title of World’s Best Fitting Jeans is Tommy Hilfiger! These jeans are great – the fit, the cut, the fabric, and the sturdiness. I like jeans that still have a real denim feel – not a flimsy, thin, weak fabric. I really like the style, with a waistline that fits just below the waist, but not so low that they are way down on the hips and feel like they are going to fall off if you sit down. These jeans scored high in all categories but the cut – straight through the thighs and legs with just a slight flare at the bottom to make them the perfect boot-cut jean.

I’ve had a blast critiquing brand after brand while collecting a fine assortment of jeans. Now, I have not purchased every pair of jeans that I tried on – but it sure has been fun playing this game! I’d like to mention just a few more brands that I really like: Buffalo, NY and Company, Chico, Eddie Bauer, and Lucky.