Search for the skinnies

As previously announced (as if anyone cares), I am officially in the market for skinny jeans, despite my initial resistance. In spite of their ubiquity, finding the perfect pair has actually been quite the trial. Now, seeing as I'm too sick to work (but never too sick to complain), I don't want to (read: can't) spend more than $100 on a pair. Normally, that wouldn't really be a problem, but it's so hard to be flattered by skinny jeans that you want really good construction and a really well-crafted fit. Since I can't go the route of Tsubi or 575 Jeans, I decided to go ahead and give Levi's a try--hey, they know denim. Dark is slimming, and I'll take all the help I can get when I'm wearing ankle-suckers, so I went ahead and got the nearly-black pair. Oh, and I couldn't find them in a department store, so I ordered them off the website. They were shipping reasonably quickly, and they're not badly constructed. The faux-distressing wasn't ridiculously overdone. The length was really nice, and most jeans are too short for me, sometimes even when the inseam is marked 'long.' The problem? They didn't fit my calves at all! I mean, my calves went in them and stuff, but it was not what one would call comfortable. Now, I'm a dancer and I have muscles, but I'm not a big girl. I mean, I definitely think that my calf muscles are a little bigger than average, but I'm a ballet dancer, and they HAVE to be! Ok. That's stupid. I'm not apologizing for my body. Remember how I said that the skinny jeans looked good in France? I think it's because they were ever-so-slightly more forgiving below the knee. So, my solution for the fact that skinny jeans have gotten so skinny that they can only possibly cater to one body type is to go a size up from your normal size. Chances are, it'll be more flattering regardless, but if you go a size up, any unique body feature that you may have will be forgiven. It's tough on the ol' ego, but at least on me, a bigger size definitely just looked better than my normal size.

I found that the same rule held true with other brands, too. I wanted a grey pair, not because I'm a trend whore, but because grey is one of my favorite colors (and, ok, if I like a trend, I can be a little bit of a trend whore). Once more, the under $100 thing was prohibitive, but it wasn't as bad as I thought. I had a few options, and even though I'm again in a size bigger than I usually wear, I'm pretty happy with what I've found. I settled on a pair by Hurley (not a brand I'd normally pick for myself--I never go anywhere near skateboards) from Swell. They're nice, with a little bit more room just around the ankle, but they're still quite tight in the calf. The room around the ankle would look nice pulled down a little over a pair of high heels, and with skinny jeans, any extra length is good. There's a little bit of faux-distressing that I'm not crazy about, but it's not ridiculous over-the-top distressing, it's just a few scuff marks. I also really liked a pair from Urban Outfitters, one that was a little more brown-grey, but the cut was a little more similar to the Levi's I got, so I decided to go with the Hurley ones. And now I own skinny jeans.

Took me long enough.