I remember in sixth grade when the popular girls started wearing skinny jeans. I envied them. Granted, they were wearing bright yellow skinny jeans, but nonetheless they looked fabulous to my chubby-sixth-grade-self. I thought that if I wore skinny jeans like the rest of the cool and thin girls at my middle school, that I too would become cool and skinny.
I forced my grandma to take me to our local shopping mall so I could peruse all the hip, young stores circa 2009. My favorite at the time was Delia’s. I’m sure you remember their wall of graphic tees and their jeans that were given girl names to be that much more relatable to the tween market. Just imagine my surprise and delight when I stumbled upon a pair of mid-rise skinny jeans at Delia’s with my name on them! Really, they were called the Mallory jeans. It was kismet and fate and destiny and all those wonderful things in one pair of jeans. So of course we bought three pairs.
Thus began my love affair with skinny jeans. As time moved on my jeans got skinnier, stretchier and higher raised as I found what flattered my body best. I moved on from Delia’s – as it eventually closed down in my mall, RIP – and began buying my holy grail jeans from Hollister. It’s been a wonderful eight years with each and every pair of skinny jeans that I’ve owned. But just like any relationship, it will one day end. And that day is coming soon.
Enter the boyfriend jean, the mom jean, the girlfriend jean and any other oddly named jean after some random person in your life. What they all have in common is that they are no longer suffocating our poor legs that so desperately need space to breathe after years of confinement. These baggier styles have been sprouting up everywhere for the past year or so. In fact, 26 out of the first 39 jeans on Urban Outfitter’s website are loose fitting.
Does this mean that I’m going to give up wearing skinny jeans and move on to a new boyfriend(jean)? No. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the elastic-infused denim that fits my curves just so. I am willing, however, to have an open relationship and test out a new era of relaxed denim.
Here’s some loose denim inspo that I think we all need in our lives: