60's jeans - WTF?!?

In My Humble Opinion
21

(Warning, modest hijack ahead, but I’m asking out of genuine curiosity.)

Re: The bolded bit of the quote above. (Bolding mine, of course.) I read this description of “low-rise,” and began to wonder. Got out a rigid, straight object (okay, a wide, flat curtain rod that happened to be handy,) and placed it straight across the tops of my hipbones. Confirmed what I had already suspected. The space between the tops of my hipbones and the bottom of my bellybutton is approximately 1.3 microns. (Okay, it might be 1.4 microns. I just “eyeballed” the distance.) Am I built freakishly? Is there a noticeable distance between the bottoms of most women’s bellybuttons and the tops of their hipbones?

As for the OP, I have to differ with Omniscient’s opinion. Regardless of the latest (or not-so-latest) trends, I think it’s all about dressing one’s own particular body shape. I’ve spent the past couple of years trying to find a pair of jeans that fit me decently. I’m “long in the stride,” as my seamstress friend calls it, and standard-rise blue jeans fall below my belly button. (And not even all “standard-rises” are quite adequate. I usually go for “tall” sizes, even if that means I have to hem up an inch or so, just so I don’t have to spend all day picking a denim seam out of my nether parts.) Meanwhile, I have a fairly classic hourglass figure - exaggerated, even; and my rear end is my widest part. If my belt line falls across my natural waist (below the navel, above the hipbones,) that horizontal line is on my narrowest part. If my belt line starts dropping, it also starts widening alarmingly. I’m definitely not overweight, and even I (my own worst critic) will admit to having a pretty okay figure. However, wearing low-rise jeans exaggerates every figure flaw I have, and de-emphasizes the good bits.

I realize that it isn’t a practical solution, simply because most stores can’t afford to offer the range of inventory required, but I’d be thrilled to see retailers offer sizes and styles that suit all figure types. Of course, I also wish that more girls and women (and boys and men, for that matter,) would learn to dress themselves, instead of cramming themselves into the latest trend, even if it doesn’t suit their body shapes. (And then there’s the fact that women, in particular, seem to get hung up on a particular number when they’re dressing themselves. Either it’s “I wear a size 10 pants, a size 8 shoe, and a 36 C bra,” regardless of the differences in how manufacturers cut their clothes, or it’s “Oh, no. I could never wear anything larger than a ___-sized dress, bra, or pair of slacks.” So many of us don’t seem to realize that wearing badly-fitted clothes, or clothes that don’t suit our shapes/styles/ages, make us look heavier, or worse, make us look ridiculous.)

22

There were some shots of Scarlett Johansson in the paper recently, stalking up and down a New York catwalk, modeling her designer buddy’s new jeans that were of the tapered-leg, high-waisted, tight-fitting kind. I never noticed it before, but my, that girl has a BOTTOM. Forget J-Lo, this is the real thing.
I mean that in a GOOD way, she’s got an excellent figure.

23

Why can’t people wear the cut that flatters them? I have a high waist, and long legs. (28 inch inseam on a five foot four frame, with an outseam of 38) It’s been hard to find jeans lately that flatter me at all, much less fit comfortably. I don’t go by trend, I wear what is comfortable. I say BAH to stores that only stock the “trendy” cut of jeans, because you know there is more than one person who can’t feel comfortable in them at any one time for whatever reason. First Lady of Infinity sounds like your build is like mine, with a high waist. My naval is about even with the tops of my hip bones as well. Dresses with waists like this, this or alternatively this look good on me.

24

Sounds like me. 32" inseam and I’m 5’5". I’m a freak.

25

Sorry, but because of both the ads and the uncensored comments on the site, I felt it necessary to break that link.

26

Yeah, that’s the other thing I hate about low-rise jeans. You have to find long shirts to wear with them or else go around with your belly exposed as if you’re trying to pretend you’re Britney Spears. (Naturally, I look way better than her, but I don’t like to flaunt it every time I leave the house.)

With high waisted jeans, there is an unbroken line which starts at the curve of the back and flows gracefully down to the bottom of the butt cheeks, making the most of the shape of that part of the anatomy. Low waisted jeans interrupt that line. You start out with the flowing line of the lower back…and then crash into what looks like a tiny denim bag full of eggplant.

27

No prob. BTW, the exact same link is up in the first post of the Jenifer Love Hewitt is a busty hottie thread in Cafe Society.

28

This is the look that I personally do not find appealing:

http://www.justjeans.com.au/JU_Product_Detail.process?Merchant_Id=2&Product_Id=387329

Now, the model in this picture obviously has a nice figure. You can see that she has a slim waist and very little body fat. BUT, the overly-tight jeans destroy the “hourglass” shape. On a well-proportioned woman, the waist is the narrowest part, the hips are wider than the waist, and the butt is the widest part. But the jeans create an extra, unflattering bulge right above the waistline, and squish her butt, making it look too small and flat. I just don’t care for this style at all; it’s ugly. It looks more like a man’s behind than a woman’s. And of course, it’s ten times worse on women who don’t have an ideal figure like this model.

And notice that this is an AD for jeans. It’s not a woman with no fashion sense who bought the wrong size - it’s ostensibly the ideal look for this product that the company is marketing. I guess a lot of people really like this look. I sure don’t.

29

When trying to visualize what the cross between a Pilgrim & an Arab sheik would look like, THIS is honestly all my brain can come up with.

30

There’s a three inch distance between my hipbones and my belly button, and it’s in that in-between area that my waitband usually sits.

The jeans in the above link look terrible. She maight look okay in the next size up.

31

There are 4.5" between my hipbones and belly button - the funniest (nastyest) think I’ve ever seen is me in ultra-low rise jeans - they literally cut my ass in half - we’re talking half the crack showing when I’m standing up! It’s just not good.

That being said, waist high jeans look particularly stupid as well - they make my butt look about 2’ long, which is equally nasty. I just got a nice pair of midrise 7 jeans that are just about perfect - about an inch above my hip-bones, slightly higher in the back so when I sit down my butt doesn’t hang out. Horray!

I think the only reason JLH looks ok in those jeans is because she’s quite short - even still it’s not a look or style that I care for.

32

Waist-high pants make me look like Steve Urkel. I have a short torso.

Tapered-leg pants look like ass on just about everyone.

Hopefully, this means that jeans that look good on me will now be filling up the thrift stores. Right?

33

Mmm…wimples.
Ahem. On subject, I have a figure that was considered sexy several hundred years ago (think Venus de Milo) so jeans and I simply do not work. The only pair of pants that ever fit me properly was a pair of tuxedo pants that fit me perfectly until they broke. :o I avoid jeans like the plague, simply because they’re not made for people like me.

34

Though resistant at first, I’ve come to love the way low-rise jeans look on most women. And those who mentioned short torsos or waists are exactly right. I’m a guy and I have the same kind of thing happening. Standard fit jeans always look excessively high-waisted on me too.

35

In the early 80’s, there was a short-lived fad where the girls wore bib overalls with nothing (no shirt / no bra) underneath. The local school boards and deans quickly put the (os-kosh) kabash on that trend.

More proof that Navel Placement / Height measurements are important!

36

Armless, eh?