Dressing Young (Part 1)

Parent Cafe
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<p>Bunsen, I admire that Karen Millen skirt but could never wear it. I think it requires a curvy figure with a well defined waist. I’m more straight up and down. I love the pockets in the back.</p>

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<p>I find as much as I want to buy new clothes for myself I find it much easier to just buy for my D’s. I have such a hard time finding clothes that fit me well. I do okay with jeans but anything else is difficult.
I love the RL chambray but find that anything with a defined waist doesn’t look great on me. I am not overweight but carry all my weight in the middle. I have never had a waist even at 100 lbs. My hip and waist measurement are fairly close to each other. Plus I have not chest. I find women who have something on top can carry the middle weight better.</p>

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<p>mom60 - sounds like we have similar builds. I find that the Garnet Hill “Boyfriend” style works well for me . . . forget cinched waists and anything requiring shoulders. Cardigans work well, though, if they hit right at the hip.</p>

<p>Like you, I have much more fun shopping for my daughter.</p>

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<p>I’m glad you do! I can’t win for trying. I bought a pair of Levi 505 (Regular Fit, zip front) jeans from Marshall’s. Irregular because they had a little imperfection in the denim, big deal. Anyway, these things fit me like a glove … So, I ordered another pair from Kohl’s.</p>

<p>Much to my dismay, Levi decided to change the fit of the 505, which has been unchanged as the “regular fit” model in their lineup for 20 years. The new pair was labeled “Straight Fit”. They’ve lowered the waist and turned them in to hip huggers, which would be bad enough (I stopped wearing those in the 70s along with my paisley belts), but they also made them huge. So, not only is the waist band at my hips, it’s falling off my hips. Just the look I want… jeans falling off, underwear showing above the waistband. All I need now is a backwards baseball cap and some high top Nikes without shoe laces. Flash a few gangsta signs and I’ll be a veritable 57 year old Eminem clone. Arrgghhhh. All from the exact size and model of jeans, purchased two weeks earlier, that fit perfectly.</p>

<p>The only jeans Levi now makes in “Regular Fit” are the throwback 501 button-fly.</p>

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<p>I want a picture of that, iDad.</p>

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<p>In the wake of the Congressman Weiner scandal, I think I’ll probably pass on the notion of putting photos on the internets of me with my underwear above my drooping hip-hugger jeans.</p>

<p>Actually, I went to Kohl’s the other day and tried on every brand and style of jeans to figure out what the heck fits me now that Wrangler no longer sells my size in regular fit and Levis has ruined their regular fit 505s.</p>

<p>The Lee regular fit are bit big in the butt and thighs with more of a taper down to the cuff. The Levi 501s (with the button fly) are trimmer through the hips and thighs. They fit like a glove, exactly like the now discontinued 505s (which had a zipper instead of buttons).</p>

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<p>iDad- Go to a Lucky store and try some of those. Lots of styles and I’ve heard good things from men of our generation.</p>

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<p>They have quite a few Lucky jeans at Marshalls and they at least look like conventional blue jeans – which is more than you can say for most of the dreck that’s peddled as blue jeans these days. Nothing looks more stupid than an ol’ geezer in those clubbin’ jeans with all the junk embroidered all over the back pockets. That’s something John Edwards would wear…</p>

<p>Lucky does not appear to make a standard fit blue jean. They make one with a standard rise waist, but it’s “relaxed fit” which is baggy on me. The standard “classic fit” version (which fits me in the hips and thighs), is “mid-rise” which is the same hip hugger waist as the new Levis. Argghhhh. With half the US population turning 50, it’s a pretty stupid time for all jean manufacturers to stop making the one style that fits older guys. The Levi store site has hundreds of pages of comment after another lambasting them for changing the basic regular fit 505. They don’t seem to understand that, unless you have a stick figure hipster teen body, the hips are what hold a pair of jeans up. I ended up just buying the 501s with the throwback button fly. Maybe I’ll get some Brylcream and go James Dean…</p>

<p>Lucky also appears to make a fairly limited selection of inseam lengths (just 4 options), one of which is not my exact size. Levi, Lee, and Wrangler offer every imaginable size combo – at least on-line. Hemming jeans is a total pain.</p>

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<p>idad, me thinks you “graduated” into the designer stuff. :)</p>

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<p>IDad-my H only wore Levi 501 shrink to fit. Same size at age 50 as he wore at age 17. The original. My kids used to make fun of those jeans. 18 months ago my younger D went shopping with the goal of getting her Dad some new clothes. She picked out several different styles of Levis. The were looser but not rapper loose. She also picked out a pair of Joe’s jeans. They look really nice. We didn’t let him see the price tag.</p>

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<p>I don’t do the shrink-to-fit version. The regular 501s are pre-shrunk, ready to wear.</p>

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<p>My DH wears Luckys and I have to be honest and say i really don’t care for them. They’re too loose in the seat and legs. But he loves them and feels good in them and I like it when he’s happy.</p>

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<p>Well idad - I’ve always thought the 501s were really sexy. Maybe you should just learn to love them. :)</p>

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<p>My H has worn 501’s virtually everyday since I met him almost 35 years ago. ( He did wear a tux for our wedding)
Same size- he prefers shrink to fit, but they are getting harder to find.
I have been able to find him some stuff he likes at Jcrew but I haven’t dared to change his jeans. (I have 501’s too, I wear them for working in the yard- but I prefer Carhartts)</p>

<p>* I like button flys- they are classic!*</p>

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<p>UPS brought my new 501 jeans and left them by the garage when I was showering after my walk/jog. These things fit me like a glove.</p>

<p>The color is a little jarring. I’m of the stonewash generation. I have a pair in [medium</a> stonewash](<a href=“http://us.levi.com/graphics/product_images/pLEVI1-2202584_alternate2_t500x607.jpg]medium”>http://us.levi.com/graphics/product_images/pLEVI1-2202584_alternate2_t500x607.jpg). And a pair in [dark</a> stonewash](<a href=“http://us.levi.com/graphics/product_images/pLEVI1-2202491_alternate2_t500x607.jpg]dark”>http://us.levi.com/graphics/product_images/pLEVI1-2202491_alternate2_t500x607.jpg). So, I had a wild hair to get this pair in something a little more “dressy formal”. [Pre-rinse</a> indigo](<a href=“http://us.levi.com/graphics/product_images/pLEVI1-2202482_alternate2_t500x607.jpg]Pre-rinse”>http://us.levi.com/graphics/product_images/pLEVI1-2202482_alternate2_t500x607.jpg). They look kind of nerdy to me, but I guess the color will grow on me and soften with a few washes.</p>

<p>What do you think, fashionistas? Keep a pair in crisp dark blue?</p>

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<p>I think they’ll look like the dark stonewash pretty quickly.</p>

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<p>Dark wash is good. Damn. Someone ought to write an article on the men’s jeans that women love. I bet we all have our favorites, and our reasons. So tied up with teenage years.</p>

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<p>Keep the dark wash. They look nice. But be prepared for them to rub off on your hands, white tshirts etc and even car seats until a few wash cycles are done. I have some dark Limited denim pants that are ridiculous wrt color rub off.</p>

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<p>Yeah. The dark stonewash pair I got from Marshalls already look like the newer medium stonewash hip huggers after just a few washings. That’s kind of what I was thinking, these dark blue ones will turn into dark stonewash in short order. They have been washed – it’s not like they are really stiff new jeans.</p>

<p>I must admit that the dark stonewash is probably my favorite, too. These weren’t really the jeans of my high school years. Those were all big bell bottom hip huggers. The dark stonewash was more college years and after. I remember a lot of Calvin Klein stonewash jeans. I have a pair of bleach stonewash Guess jeans from the back of my closet that fit now. They must be from sometime in the 1980s.</p>

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<p>I’ll probably just run them through a couple of wash and dry cycles right off the bat, just to get beyond that stage.</p>

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<p>Alumother, I’m looking forward to reading a Privilege entry about what women consider fashionable when it comes to men’s jeans fashion. :)</p>

<p>Hubby wears what I buy for him, because he hates shopping. He likes the dark wash pair of Lacoste jeans that I got for him. That was a big surprise to me, because I always thought that he liked baggier styles.</p>

<p>Idad, here is another vote for the dark wash.</p>