I would like to introduce you to the most comfortable pair of jeans in my wardrobe.
These grey babies cost me $70 at Zara last weekend and I reckon they’re worth every cent. A lot of skinny leg jeans tend to pull down at the waist and you either have to wear a belt or keep pulling them up so you don’t flash a ‘trucky bum’. That’s not the case with these. They stay up and sit exactly where they’re meant to.
Why some jeans stay up and others do not
This is not luck and it is not the price tag. It is the rise and the back yoke, and once you know what to look at you can spot it on the hanger.
The rise is the distance from the crotch seam to the top of the waistband. Anything under about 20 centimetres is going to slip on most women, no matter how snug it feels in the changing room, because there simply is not enough fabric to sit against your body above the widest part of you.
The back yoke is that V-shaped panel below the waistband at the back. A deeper, more angled yoke curves the waistband inwards to follow the small of your back. A shallow one leaves a gap that gapes the moment you sit down.
And the fabric. Look for a small percentage of elastane, around 2% is the sweet spot. Nothing at all and they will not move with you; too much and they will bag out at the knee by lunchtime and never recover.
Check those three and you will buy far fewer jeans you never wear.
I love the zips at the ankles and the washed out denim. I’ve started seeing ripped jeans in high end magazines so suddenly hubby’s ripped jeans are the look du jour!
The jacket
And this is the other lovely new addition, my late Christmas present from hubby.
I found this Hunt No More leather jacket at David Jones in the city and it’s ridiculously soft and a groovy dark teal colour. You’ll be seeing it a lot when the weather cools down.
Which turned out to be an understatement. That jacket went on to appear in more posts than almost anything else I own, over dresses and skirts and jeans, in leather-on-leather outfits and under fur vests, for years.
How to pick a leather jacket you will still want in ten years
Since that one has more than earned its keep, here is what I would actually check now.
The shoulders. The seam should land where your shoulder ends. This is the only measurement on a jacket that cannot be altered. Everything else can be taken in by a good tailor for very little.
The feel of the leather. Scrunch a bit of the sleeve in your fist. Good leather creases and springs back soft. Stiff, plasticky leather stays creased, and it will never break in no matter how long you wear it.
Where it finishes. A jacket that ends at your hip bone lengthens your leg. One that ends at the widest part of your hip does the opposite. This is worth more than any amount of hardware or detailing.
The colour. I will always argue for something other than black as a second jacket. A teal, an oxblood, a deep green. It does the same job as black but people remember the outfit.
The zips and the lining. Run every zip. Check the lining seams. These are what fail first, and a jacket with cheap hardware will start annoying you by the second winter.
Grey is the neutral people forget
Everyone owns black jeans and blue jeans. Far fewer own grey, and it is the most useful of the three.
Black jeans are formal by default. They read as a substitute for trousers. Blue jeans read as casual, always. Grey sits in between and takes on the character of whatever you put with it. With a leather jacket and heels it is a night outfit. With a white shirt and flats it is a school-run outfit. Same jeans, and nobody notices they are the same jeans, which is more than you can say for black.
They are also far kinder to colour. Anything bright looks slightly harsh against black denim and slightly washed out against blue. Against grey, a red top or a teal jacket just looks like it was meant to be there.
If you own the other two and are wondering what the third pair should be, this is my answer.
The rest of the outfit
Always keen on a bit of sparkle, I threw on this heavily sequinned and beaded Just Jeans cami, striking Diva earrings and oversized rings, fave Wittner strappy heels and grabbed a Guess hobo bag.
There is a principle hiding in that sentence, and it is one I use constantly: when the two big pieces are quiet (grey jeans, plain jacket) everything small gets to be loud. Sequins, oversized rings, a statement earring. The outfit can carry all of it, because nothing is competing.
Reverse it and the same accessories look like too much. A sequinned top with heavy jewellery and a bold shoe is one thing too many.
Rocked this outfit to church. Colour on nails is navy blue.
(This is from 2013, the $70 Zara jeans and that particular jacket are long gone from the shops. The way to judge both has not changed.)
If you have a leather jacket hanging unworn because you only ever pair it with jeans, a wardrobe edit will find you five other things to put it with before you spend anything.
For all you mums out there, congrats on surviving the school holidays with aplomb! And now you’re Looking Good Girls.
“Happy is a man who finds wisdom and who acquires understanding, for she is more profitable than silver, and her revenue is better than gold.” Proverbs 3:13-14.