amarinth, most of the Hudson/Seven for All Mankind/Joe’s sort of jeans have a 36 inch inseam. I won’t go into what details you should be looking for (although I do find them to typically be comfier, with less pull in the wrong places and better stitching than say, Express jeans), since I’m all about “how does my ass look in these?” and they usually retail for anywhere from $100 to $200, but if there’s a Marshall’s or a TJ Maxx near you, it’s worth checking.
I buy lees which fit fine despite my oddball body shape, they’re about 19 bucks on sale. They are, however, about the only jeans I’ve found in many years that fit my giant behind and my proportionately much smaller waist equally well. Most jeans either cut off my circulation at the hip lower ab region if they are to fit at the waist, or if they fit the butt, hip area, they gap hugely around the waist.
Lees still gap but not so badly as to show it all. On a side note, these days I pretty much only buy jeans for work (I’m an Enviro scientist/technician) because I do a lot of field work, taking soil samples and stuff like that. I couldn’t tell you what dress jeans may or may not fit my body these days.
(I’m sure glad I sew, if I did need nice jeans, I could make them right myself).
Tenebras, thanks for the info. Everyone else, thanks for the suggestions. Today, I found out that Lucky brands were made for women who either (a) have a lot smaller ass than I have, (b) never sit down, or © should consider a career in plumbing or carpentry as they’ll be quite comfortable with the sterotypical style of pants people in those trades wear.
CanvasShoes and amarinth, I’ve seen jeans specifically marketed as “curvy” by Old Navy; I don’t know if you’ve seen those. Searching their website for “curvy” I see their “Sweetheart” jeans are tagged as this, plus they have a “classic” rise (higher waist than many of the trendy jeans) and boot cut legs. Gap has a few styles specifically marketed as “curvy” too. Hopefully either of those might fit a more generous behind.
Just a weird little observation: Although I wouldn’t be interested in such “trendy” stitching anyway, for some reason the True Religion design rubs me the wrong way. The back pocket design looks like an abstract of an angel. Probably intentional, but for some reason I feel that angels don’t belong on people’s butts.
Well, I’ll bite. I just put in my first order - a pair of jeans for me and a summer suit for my boyfriend. Crossing fingers that I’m not pissing away $180 on an off measurement or two (I don’t really know how to measure for garments!), but the prospect of a pair of jeans that fits well and doesn’t have all of that whiskering and distressing and whatnot is too enticing. I find that Old Navy jeans fit me well but I can’t stand looking like a middle-school hoor with all the butt-fading and weird stitching.
Now-a-days big-name, designer jeans are going to be well over $100, but you can find very similar styles for half that, maybe more at smaller outlets like H&M and such. My current favorite pair are from Urban Behaviors for $40 (I think those were 25% off though). I typically pay around 40 to 60 dollars, but I do have a pair of $110 Lucky Brands.
I love jeans.
I didn’t like the fading either, so on a hunch I went online and found a pair that came in an even, dark wash. I don’t think the stitching on that pair is weird.
Consider some ignorance fought here. While I knew that $100 and up jeans existed I had no idea that anyone besides celebrities or wealthy people in general bought them.
No whoosh here, I really never considered it until I saw so many post in this thread that they had purchased jeans in that price range. :smack:
Maybe it’s because I’ve never seen a pair that expensive in any store I’ve been to. $60 or $75 jeans I have seen and knew some well off (well, better off than me I guess) girls who might wear them. But until this thread I had never heard of Diesel or Lucky and a few others I saw mentioned.
I think I’m having my first “Oh my God I’m a Hick!” moment 
I’ve always been faithful to Levi’s and don’t believe I ever paid more that $36 for them. Usually at Sears or JC Penny. Once in awhile I’ll get lucky at Goodwill but they usually don’t have much in the smaller sizes I need.
I lived in a small town in my childhood and those sorts of expensive jeans weren’t even available. It wasn’t until I moved to NYC that I began seeing them on people who didn’t grace E! programming and the insides of fashion magazines.
I just ordered my first pair from www.makeyourownjeans.com.
Anyone who’s curious about the result feel free to PM me in about two weeks and I’ll let you know.
To the OP: since you had to get alterations anyway, why not buy much cheaper jeans and get them altered? The price for alterations doesn’t vary according to the price paid for the jeans, ya know. Even if the alterations were so different as to entail a higher price, how much could it be? $50? Are you reluctant to plow $50 worth of alterations into $25 jeans? If so, how does paying $200 for a pair of jeans seem smarter?
Thanks for the accolades. I must confess that everything I said about this I learned from my lovely girlfriend.
I didn’t end up buying the jeans in the OP, and instead, I’m pretty sure I’m going to go with makeyourownjeans - they seem to ask for measurements that will deal with both the length problem I usually have (it’s hard to alter the length of jeans if you need to make them longer) and the butt problem that has become apparent now that low rises are everywhere.