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Denim Democracy- a woman’s search for variety.

The day that my outlook on the future of skinny jeans changed was when my friend, Rachel, met me for coffee wearing a pair of dark wash, high waist, wide leg jeans by Lips. Normally, I would have shrieked at the very thought of anyone wearing something non-skinny, non-low-rise, but there was nothing to knit-pick this time, they looked amazing. “I had been looking for wide-leg, high-waisted jeans for a while, but unless you struck gold in a thrift store, they weren’t readily available. The hunt was on, but no luck. [Finally] I found the most glorious pair of 70’s-fabulous wide-legged, super-high-waisted jeans. Surprisingly, they were new, not vintage. They fit so perfectly, holding in the belly bulge, accentuating the thinnest part of the waist, tight on the ass and legs that look like a mile long. Ahh, perfect!” exclaims the fashion savvy head honcho of her self started marketing company, Rachel Inc., "They make me feel like a glamorous, young Farrah Faucet, lounging by the pool at some disco Boogie Night’s style party, waiting for Burt Reynolds to bring me a martini". I was green with envy. I couldn’t remember the last time a pair of jeans made me feel like that unless I had already thrown back a few martini’s.
 
Rachel continued to justify her skinny jean hatred to me, “I was really not feeling the skinny jeans trend and gave in to it reluctantly when my friend in the fashion industry told me that she refused to be seen with me in bootlegs.
I was dying for the next trend. Skinny at the ankles is so unflattering on the thighs. Then add a low-rise waist?
That’s pretty much putting a bulls-eye on all of your ‘problem areas.’ Skinny jeans are also totally 80’s, which I can’t say is the most flattering of decades.” 

Clearly she knew her stuff and made it very obvious that she would not wear something ugly. With this in mind, the next day, without force and without a coupon, I marched over to eModa, which proudly displayed a pair of Frankie B wide-leg jeans in the window, found my size on the rack inside, took a deep breath, opened the dressing room door and took my first step out of skinny leg jeans and into the unknown.

I’ll admit, after you bash something for so long, you get the urge to try it. I am a self-declared high waist/wide leg/colored jean hater. The day I discovered dark wash skinny leg jeans was the day that I thought I had found my dream denim and I surrendered. No longer would I have to ring out the walked on cuffs of my boot cut jeans from the rain, nor would I have to sloppily cram my straight legs into my calf hugging knee high boots. Hemming took about three minutes and I could go from laxed college lady to Devo dancing diva with just a quick shoe change. The darker, the skinnier, the better I thought- heck, even my boyfriend was wearing skinny jeans; but, as the winds of wide leg, and colored denim slowly blew into the trend forecast, I knew that if I was going to stay on top of things, I was going to have to make some sacrifices.

Wide leg jeans were my first hurdle to conquer if I wanted a more democratic denim filled closet. While Rachel was my first inspiration to even attempt to pull off wide legs, I was pleasantly surprised by the multiplicity of both brands and styles that they had to offer. While skinny jeans really only consisted of the stovepipe, cigarette, and slim cuts, the wonderful world of wide leg jeans offered slim trouser, sailor, boyfriend, bell-bottom and palazzo cuts, all of which differed in flare intensity and texture. A quick sweep through any paparazzi pasted magazine would show that the wide legs were taking over Hollywood. Stylists around the world were gushing over them, “The higher-waisted, wide leg trouser is just so much more classy”, says Britt Bardo, stylist to the Olsens. As I stepped into the Frankie B’s, with all of these things running through my head, I couldn’t help but hope that they would look good, and guess what? On this 5’2” curvy 23-year-old denim diva, they looked so hot, I actually bought two pair.
Now that the biggest obstacle had been cleared with ease, I feared that conquering the next one would be much more difficult than anticipated, I approached the colored denim rack slowly, hoping that I was not just having beginner’s luck. Completely infatuated with the freedom and movement of wide legs, going up to the once familiar skinny and boot cut jean felt like a chore, especially when presented with their outrageous color schemes. A wash outside the spectrum of navy blue seemed sacrilegious to me, since camouflaging my hips and butt wasn’t always the easiest task and the darker washes tend to do that automatically; but I couldn’t help thinking about how cute Rachel looked in her purple jeans, or Ashlee Simpson in her electric blue jeans. If I could get over my fear of wide legs, I could stand to try some color. This look took some trial and error, but after a good hour and some advice from a few stylish customers, I found that when paired up with a contrasting tee, these babies instantly transformed me into a hot mama. The trick with colored jeans is to know what colors work best on you. Not all of us look good in Lilac True Religion’s, the Butter jeans didn’t workout for me personally, but I knew, the moment I tried on the Crimson’s, I was on the fast track to causing a fire. Hotta hotta!

Last and certainly the most intimidating of my denim shopping was facing the dreaded white denim. From ultra pigment to the lack there of, I was determined. I’ve wanted to buy a pair of white denim ever since the Snow White Cropped Kate’s from True Religion first hit the market. White jeans just scream out Summer time fun, and I felt like I was being left in the gloomy past of a miserable winter walking around all Spring with my black, grey and dark blue jeans. It was time to break free from the hostage of skinny dark jeans, the future was looking bright and my pants should be too. Without an ounce of fear, I grabbed those white True Religion and showed them who was boss…unfortunately it was still my hips and butt, but the bright white demin against the contrasting tank took all the attention from the problematic areas and disbursed it evenly throughout my figure. I couldn’t believe my eyes, I was wearing white jeans and somehow looking slimmer than I did in my dark wash days. Mind games or not, it was the confidence that had come over me when I slipped into these jeans that made them look so good. Have you ever tried on something that looked so perfect that you had to ask the sales clerk if you could wear them out? That was me, strutting my bootyliscious badunkadunk down South Street in my Snow White True Religion’s.

Like the famous ZZ Top song states, “She’s got legs, she knows how to use them”, I used mine to walk into a store and expand my denim collection by trying new styles, colors, cuts and washes. We all have legs, and if we don’t know how to use them, we have to put ourselves out there and see what the options are. If you’re like me and you’ve become asphyxiated by the limited choices you have with skinny jeans, don’t be afraid to try something that looked terrible on you two years ago. The denim industry is constantly evolving and tweaking little things to make you look better in their jeans. Widen your spectrum with wide legs, paint your wardrobe with colored denim and brighten things up with white denim! There’s a whole new denim world to be discovered, ladies, and you can rest assured that there is, indeed, life after skinny jeans.