I don’t know as much about women’s jeans, but most high-end jeans come in extremely long inseams that are subsequently hemmed and a number of them are unisex (the APC New Standard is one entry-level example, and it can be had regularly for a little over $100 depending where you look). I would also advise looking into a company called Denim Birds. If you’re looking for something in the mall, J. Crew frequently has decent quality denims in very long inseams.
Because your concerns are not mine, junior deputy.
Allow me to recommend inferential reasoning and snappier lines. Since this is bordering on a hijack, allow me to further recommend Corpus jeans as an inexpensive raw denim option.
ahh…so you got nothing. Just as I thought.
I agree this is a hijack–sorry amarinth
good luck though on your jean search!
Concerns? I’m just curious as to why you continue to show up & type words that are of no help to anybody, including yourself.
I would cite this thread as an example of the self-defeating membership woes of this message board, as well as the loss of specialized knowledge that has crept on for years. People whose primary interest appears to be posting to message boards blather on and :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: their way through things, people start shrieking “cite?” at the most easily googlable things, and you end up with a very circle jerk oriented board. It’s all been downhill since people like Collounsbury were iced.
Try waxed denim in the fall.
You were the one who decided to introduce shrieking to the thread.
I’m having a hard time seeing how you could have possibly typed the above post without your irony meter exploding. Most people were just asking you to leave off the snark & provide some information, yet you used it as an excuse to slam an entire message board.
Well done.
You don’t get it, do you?
I never do, until it’s too late.
On the other hand, I will thank earthbound for the Corpus suggestion. More of that kind of thing early on would have been great.
I think earthbound has several good points, although he seems to be rubbing people the wrong way in this thread. Does anyone actually believe that the only costs associated with producing clothes are the materials and labor, and we should decide how much to pay based on how much we think we could get the raw materials for?
In addition to many high end jeans being made by overseas companies, which makes the costs appear higher due to the dollar’s recent trevails, there is also the issue of where the jeans are produced. Lucky Jeans, which were mentioned earlier in the thread, makes most of their jeans in Los Angeles, where wages are higher and you can’t lock the seamstresses inside the building. (Damn unions!) Making the product in the United States means the cost of labor is higher, but it also means that the factory is closer so quality control can be more rigorous. This results in a product which is generally put together better.
When you’re talking about $20 jeans versus $100 jeans you really aren’t talking about the same type of product. Would any of you argue that a Chanel suit jacket and something you grabbed off the rack at Target were comparable garments? What we’re seeing here is the denim equivalent. I’ve bought Gap jeans and they wear completely through in the crotch after 6 months. (Every pair of Gap jeans, actually.) I have a pair of Lucky jeans which are around the same age and, aside from some grease stains I added myself, look more or less brand new and aren’t wearing out at all. They also look better. It’s not something that I noticed myself (my girlfriend picked them out for me) but other people definitely do. I just recently saw some people I hadn’t seen in a few years and they specifically commented that my clothes looked good.
Also, I and my girlfriend and pretty much everyone we know wears jeans almost every day, even to professional environments. In California, jeans and a sport coat are considered professional attire in many workplaces. If you accept that people spend more money on their work clothes, why is it so hard to understand that they might spend more money on their jeans without being shallow fashion whores?
But I don’t think anyone is taking him/her to task for that. I agree there is very likely a qualitative difference between $18 jeans and $100 jeans–and I think someone in the industry should/could very simply outline the differences. Now to convince me that there is a difference between a $100 pair of jeans and a $700 pair of jeans will take more convincing. I think it could be done–I am a very open individual on matters such as this. But **earthbound ** has done NONE of that in this thread, but whine what losers everyone is for not understanding his/her brilliance in this field.
Perhaps they are experts in fashion–great. Would love to hear some insights, but we haven’t been getting that. As a designer I understand that there are some qualities that you can’t quantify, but there are also many that you can. Even those I can’t quantify I can try and explain. Most people think of houses as rooms, but I think of them as enclosures of space, different types of space and different qualities of space, obviously not something that is easily explained. This issue in my mind is no different. What makes these $700 jeans unique? What attributes do they possess that the $100 or the $18 jeans don’t possess? To snark that ‘if you think Armani is good quality’ isn’t helping the cause. ** Earthbound ** would be better serving this community by outlining what makes a good pair of jeans worth the money in my opinion.
I absolutely agree that there is a difference in quality between a $20 pair of jeans and a $100 pair of jeans. I really don’t think anyone here is disputing that. The jeans I buy are normally in the $25-$85 range. What I would like to know, and what no one has yet explained yet, is what is the difference between the $100 and a $500 pair?
(Note that I will never in my life spend $500 on a pair of jeans, but if there actually are reasons why such a pair is quantifiably better I would like to hear them.)
You could try Lucky. Their “long” inseam length for women is 34, but the lengths tend to run long. I take a 32 inseam in jeans, and that’s their standard length, but they often run long. One pair I own is so long that, when at home and unshod, I have to turn the bottoms up about an inch to avoid wearing down the hems. I’m afraid I look a little like Ron Howard from Happy Days, but it’s only at home. (Manda OJ, if you are still in this thread, now there is an example of jeans being worn only in private. I’d never wear them outside like that.). So, araminth, if you ask for 34 you might find one that’s actually 36.
Personally, I really like their jeans. They tend to have a classic look and feel, but offer a change if you want something besides Levis.
I didn’t take a swipe. You were asked for actual reasons why $700 jeans are objectively better. You have yet to do so. When you make a claim, it is up to you to back it up.
One thing that is different between $100 and $500 jeans is the attention to details. Finishing details like whiskering (the horizontal “pleats” from the first page) are done by hand. The jeans are pinned together before the wash process so the wash is more complicated. it’s like tie dying in reverse. The parts that are exposed have the dye taken off more than the unexposed parts. The process also involves scraping the denim to pull out more dye. I don’t know exactly what goes into it, but it’s done by actual people.
Another thing that’s subtle that can be done is to color the jeans so they are more flattering. If you look at your pants they’re darker in some parts and lighter in others. On a really nice pair of jeans they will arrive in the store colored to, for instance, make your butt look more round. This is done by making sure the denim under the curve of your butt is a little darker, so it looks like there’s more there there. Again, it’s a small thing and you don’t necessarily notice it consciously, but somebody has thought of it and went to the effort to make it happen.
I’m a guy and I buy whatever my girlfriend tells me to buy, so I make no claims to be an expert in this type of thing. My girlfriend makes a living selling clothes and she points little things out when we’re out around town. Sometimes we point out people who look especially nice (or disasterous), and although I can’t identify the maker by the back pocket like she can, when somebody looks really good, they are more often not wearing a pair of designer jeans. It’s probably just coincidence.
Finally there’s the choice of fabric. Selvedge denim has been mentioned, and it’s a lot stiffer than what you normally think of as “jeans material”. It also costs more because there’s less of it and it’s harder to work with. But that’s another part of the cost of the pricier jeans.
Of course, in this as in all things, there are diminishing returns. My most expensive pair of pants cost $120 before employee discounts, and most of hers hover around $200. However, we both wear jeans to work and to go out and more or less everywhere else. So we think that it’s worth it. At some point in the increasing price lines you starrt more for status than anything else, but by then you don’t have any labels at all and only the other fashionistas can tell what you’re wearing.
One last thing that’s different is the shopping experience. If you’re paying $100+ dollars you’re not going to have to try on 10 different pairs to find one that fits; the person in the store will bring you a pair that fits your body type and the style you’re looking for, sometimes on the first try. And you’re not pawing through merchandise yourself, they’re picking out the things for you to try on. That service also costs money, and isn’t something you get until you start paying more. At least not around here.
See now that is a great post. You outlined several reasons why more expensive jeans might be better, and why they might be worth the additional cost. Your position is both plausible and complete, someone might not agree with it, but you have provided tangible explanations as to ‘why’ the jeans are worth the additional money.
Thanks–I appreciate your well thought out post. Even though I appreciate the nuances of what you outined, I don’t see myself spending that much money for a pair of jeans. I tend to be more in the range you stated that you personally are, but that is mainly due to the influence of my lovely wife 
Excellent post Tenabras. That is exactly the sort of thing I was asking for.
I’m a $29 on sale Levis at Kohl’s girl.
I don’t wear jeans to work - except occasionally on Fridays.
At my age I certainly don’t need my ass to look great in jeans.
I don’t socialize with people who give a damn how my 41 year old body fits into my $29 Kohl’s jeans.
Expensive jeans tend to be cut “trendy” - which generally seems to mean that the waist is somewhere at my hips - not really a good look for a 41 year old mother of two who has a cottage cheese tummy from pregnancy. (I was people watching in the airport on Friday and saw a young woman whose jeans rode so low that I swear she must wax - it wasn’t a bad look on her - and if I was 22, had her body and wanted to get laid by complete strangers, I might wear those jeans too).
For me, what is important in a pair of jeans is that the fit fairly well, are comfortable, and wear well enough that I get my $30 in value out of them. That means that they don’t get holes in the knees for three years of wear.
I’m not an expensive purse girl either. Or pricey shoes. I have a few nicer outfits that I wear on those rare occasions where I need to - and all of that has come from Nordstrom’s rack or TJ Maxx or Marshalls.
I do shop at Nordstrom on occation. Rarely. I buy bras there, which I spend far more on then I’d spend on jeans.
Thank you for the clear-cut information, Tenebras. That helps a lot.
On the other end of the price spectrum, I picked up a pair of jeans from Sarah Jessica Parker’s Bitten line of clothing, regular price $8.98. The denim is thinner than any I’ve seen before. (A pair of slacks from the same line were also made of extremely thin cloth, and the leg inseams did not match up evenly when they were sewn together in the crotch.) I don’t spend a ton of money on jeans but there is a definite quality difference in a number of ways, at least up to a point. I prefer heavier denim and a dark wash.
Great post, Tenebras. I also wonder if the designer cost has something to do with it. In other words, are the $500 jeans designed by someone who commands a hell of a price. I have no idea.