I went pants shopping the other day. It took a good ten years, but I am at the point where I don't even glance at the juniors section. I am very careful in the women's section, though. In particular, I avoid the mom jeans.
You know the ones I'm talking about. The shade of wash that's more blue and kind of has a cloudy as opposed to striped look. The tapered leg. The long, flat butt. The zipper that goes up, up, up, above the belly button to the actual natural waist.
I am an expert at avoiding those things. I know exactly what I want in pants. Boot-cut and mid-rise! That could be my mantra. Boot-cut and mid-rise! I cheer it in my head as I browse the clothing racks. Boot-cut because it's more flattering to my figure. Mid-rise because I'm too old to want to worry about showing my buttcrack and too young to wear pants up to my bra. Boot-cut and mid-rise!
This skinny leg trend kills me. My legs are way too big for skinny jeans and I refuse to wear them. The one time I tried them on I almost fell over attempting to shimmy them over my giganticalves.* When I see these teenagers walking around in jeans that look more like leggings, I just laugh and shake my head.
Just like my parents did when the flare leg came back in style for girls and boys were wearing those ridiculous JNCO jeans. Remember that?
When I reminisced about that, though, I started getting nervous. If skinny legs are the style now, are my own mother's tapered legs closer to "fashionable" than my boot-cut? Will Miriam someday look back and laugh at her mom's insistence on boot-cut and mid-rise, and avoid them at all costs? Am I wearing the next generation's version of mom jeans?!
I realize that strange little fake pocket thing at the top makes them momish. I still bought them, thinking they wouldn't show under whatever shirt I was wearing.
That can't be a good sign.
At the store, I didn't have much of a choice. The sale racks in the women's section gave me nothing but mid-rise straight-legs to choose from, and I wasn't about to pay full price or peek at the junior's section. So I relented, happy to at least get the right height and deciding that perhaps the straight lines would be a bit more similar to the skinny leg style (because let's face it, most of the teenagers wearing skinny legs are not curvy yet) and keep me from being too unfashionable too quickly.
When looking at these jeans in the picture, I have to say that it looks like the pair on the right are definitely something my mother would wear. The pair on the left is okay, though, right?
The next day I asked my husband what he thought of my new semi-stylish straight-leg jeans. He looked at them skeptically and informed me they were a bit baggy. And while I'm glad I won't have to worry about modesty in these jeans, I would rather wear clothes that my husband actually likes. So it's back to the boot-cut the next time I buy jeans, fashion be darned!
And when you find yourself actually muttering "Fashion be darned!" out loud, that's when you know you are indeed wearing mom jeans.
What do you think: what are the cut/rise/color of today's mom jeans? Are we all wearing mom jeans and don't even realize it?! Or is it just me?
Related:
Mom Jeans and the Dreaded "Long Butt" (h/t Mrs. 2nd Lt).
* Maggie expressed doubt at my having giganticalves the other day. Oh, but I do. Feel free to ask my friends. I don't really mind it, but it is something I have to work around. For example, I have a hard time getting shin guards and soccer socks to fit.