foundations: ma vie en denim

via jak & jil

as cliché as it sounds, it's true: the foundation to a great wardrobe is a great pair of jeans. in my experience, shopping for jeans is like dating: tricky and frustrating when you're really looking for what you want. you fall in love, you fall out of love. you outgrow your favorite pair; you're ready to move on to the next. what worked for a while suddenly doesn't fit anymore. you get emotionally attached to that pair that you saw on Emannuelle Alt on a terribly chic street style blog before you even try it on, and when you do, it's about four inches too long, and you realize it's the endless French editrix legs that you really want.

and so it goes.

the worst is when you're in need of a specific pair, and you resign yourself to spending an afternoon trying on a bunch, to no avail. or, more realistically in my case, give up after about an hour of shimmying into ill-fitting pairs in poorly-lit fitting rooms. in the past decade, i've tried virtually every style: flares, wideleg, bell bottom, bootcut, straight-leg, boyfriend, raw, skinny, and the jegging.

flares and bell bottoms i will always associate with high school, the mall, and the platform Steve Madden sneakers i always wore them with to add about 3.5" to my height. wideleg, straight-leg, and bootcut jeans were my go-to in college, which i paired with my favorite Enzo Angiolini pull-on boots. i totally felt bad-ass in my favorite boots and jeans combo, hanging out in front of campus buildings and smoking with friends. then came the mid 2000s, when Kate Moss was photographed in a pair of tight stovepipe jeans, and suddenly the exiled ghost of The Tapered Jean was gloriously reborn as skinny jeans. i moved to NYC around then, and purged my wardrobe of straggly college and study abroad items in favor of my first pair of skinnies by 7 for all mankind.

in the years since, i've flirted with baggy boyfriend styles, bravely tried to break in A.P.C. raw new cures (sadly, it didn't work out), and updated my uniform of choice to skinnies and boots. this is pretty much what i've been wearing for the past five years.

the verdict after all these adventures and misadventures in denim wash and cut? many readers have asked about my favorite jeans featured in my past posts, so here it is.

current/elliott roller jeans | favorite YA leather jacket | club monaco tee | vintage Coach kelly bag | Hope ankle boots

the current/elliott 'roller' jean is about as close to a perfect pair of jeans as i've ever worn. it's in between a skinny and a straight-leg jean. the classic dark indigo is a very clean wash, and i like that there are no discernible trendy details. the hem is finished and then unrolled so you don't have a bulky original hem to deal with if you want to cuff your jeans, which i do often enough (or when it's rainy out!). it's the perfect mix of that elusive, but oh-so-worth-it skinny slouchy fit. current/elliott tends to run a little big, so i use J Brand's sizing for comparison - i'm usually a 26 in J Brand, so my true size in c/e is always 25. the c/e roller fits just loose enough at the waist for a belt, and gets even better when you've worn it in. it's both slimming and comfortable - you don't notice that you're wearing jeans. the denim is a nice, old-school 99% cotton, not a spandexy one, and it's super soft. a nice bit of stylish swagger is included.

i've been wearing mine nonstop these days. what's your life in denim?