bits and bobbins

in the past month or two, my jeans collection took a major hit: three pairs of my most favorite jeans passed away. my miss sixty skinny jeans from circa 2004 (VERY early skinny jeans, skinnies were really hard to find back then, now they are ubiquitous!) got a huge bleach stain on them. my greyish-black UO skinny jeans that i wore almost every single day with everything for a couple years split apart near the waistband, and a favorite pair of j crew jeans i bought in ‘06 split on the ass. the grey ones are probably mendable, but the miss sixty’s and the j crew pair are probably goners. i’ve been in major denial…i haven’t been able to bear looking at them since to assess if any of them are salvageable. the thought that any of them might be goners makes my stomach churn.

so recently i found myself desperately looking around for a couple pairs of new jeans, jeans that might take the place of those old, dearly loved jeans. not necessarily exact replacements, but pairs that might eventually become go-to, staple jeans in my wardrobe in the way that their predecessors had in the past.

i’m finding myself repelled by the majority of jeans out in (mass market) stores of late: so many are ruined by cut-rate fabric (so thin and worthless!), or hacky, fakey distressing (i.e.: ugly “faux” creases and wear on the crotch/thigh area). i’m sorry; i just can’t do it. if i am gonna do any distressing it either better be authentic or at least look like it. otherwise, i’m all about the rigid/dark denim; it’s not trying to “be” anything but what it initially was/is, for the most part. boyfriend styles do nothing for me. they are comfortable but with my figure, i don’t need the ease they offer. i like skinny styles and they flatter my shape, but i am sort of tiring of them (though i’ll likely keep wearing them anyway because of the former).

in the midst of looking around, i got a flash vision of what might be my perfect jean right now: rigid (no stretch), dark denim, a little relaxed through the thigh and definitely through the calf.

and then i started musing about a favorite pair of thrifted jeans in my collection that are awesome but just a hair too small (especially after having had a baby; my figure is close to what it was pre-poppy but *not exactly*, if you know what i mean, mommas!): a pair of 70s bellbottom navy-style bleach spot jeans. they are nicely high-wasted, the perfect length, and they fit like a million bucks (at one time anyway!). i love them but it has to be a good body day for me to squeeze back into them comfortably. i am pretty sure they were originally navy issue. if not, they were awfully close.

a quick spin around the webs looking at the major jeans brands didn’t turn up any reasonable facsimile. so on a whim, i googled around for army-navy surplus sites, to see if anything turned up…

and voila, the jeans you see above.

$22 and some change. almost non-existent shipping. (less than a dollar??)

they came today. (i ordered them the end of last week.)

they fit like they were made for me.

no fakey distressing. cheap as chips.

and exactly what i had in mind. i love how they have a very classic, but also very 70s look. (my favorite decade, in case you didn’t know.) they even look a little 40s. they so aren’t “in” right now, shape-wise or looks-wise (when 90s grunge crap is reigning), but i don’t give a whit.

they just need some hemming, and they are basically good to go.

i’m excited about them…i think they will be a nice change of pace in my jeans wardrobe, and i love how they are exactly what i was looking for and sort of unassuming and under the radar. yay!

i’ll ask you, because i so like to ask you!:

have any of your jeans ever bit the dust in an untimely, sad manner? what did you do? did you find a suitable replacement?
what’s your idea of the perfect pair of jeans? right now, in the past or for all time?

am i the only one who’s eyes are glazing over, overwhelmed by all the fashion week coverage? i have this weird, almost involuntary reaction to blog posts & newspaper articles (in WSJ and WWD, which we subscribe to in paper form and get at home every day) about fashion week and the various fashion shows everytime they happen, it’s almost like information overload, my eyes refuse to focus and my brain shorts out.

it’s like i can’t even look at it, and you know what? i really mostly don’t want to! frankly, i find a lot of it boring, and irrelevant to my life. out of my price range, not my taste, etc., etc., etc. maybe it’s because i am honestly inherently unfashionable, and i just sometimes think i am? a distinct possibility! maybe i should turn in my fashion card or something. i can hear my detractors saying, “’bout time!” HA.

yes, yes, there are of course exceptions…i do pay attention to a select few designers. but i think i can count them on one hand. and i’m not rabidly pounding down the doors of style.com to see them the week of…i usually casually go back sometime afterward and peruse at my leisure, if at all. i guess, in thinking about it some, a lot of the designers i’m into probably honestly don’t do a lot of shows and such anyway. not the big guns?

all that is, of course, not to say *other* people shouldn’t be into fashion week, and fashion shows, by all means, go on with your bad self if you like it and eat it up with a spoon! right on, ya know? more power to you!

but i want to know:

-am i the only one who doesn’t get all into it? am i the only one who thinks it’s kinda elitist and outdated? if you’re not really into fashion week and all that stuff, why?

-for those of you who love the frenzy that is fashion week, what’s the attraction? seeing the new trends? novel new ideas presented in an artistic manner? something else? what do you love about it? why does it get you excited?

discuss?
danke!

on a related note: just saw this post on the sartorialist where scott wonders about the possibility of really opening up fashion shows to the masses, i.e., regular folk freely attending/paying for tix, rather than just mostly fashion insiders/celebs.

i’m wondering about how this could happen, what the benefits could be, as well as the downsides.

what do you think that would do to fashion shows? would they be less elitist/exclusive? would their cache be taken down a notch or several? would that be in conflict with the aspirational marketing stance taken by many luxury designers? or could it be a good thing for designers, a way to make profit and be more inclusive? can you see any other potential pros or cons to such a scheme?

i’m honestly interested…would be interested to see if things do go that route, in a bigger way, over time. and what the ramifications would/could be…

a great video featuring my favorite trendsetting octogenarian, iris apfel. it’s basically a little bio on her, her tastes, her influences, her textile business. it’s chock-full of great old photos of her from “back in the day” and lots of sage, style/life advice.

i’ve been a big fan of hers since seeing the 2005-2006 MET costume institute show, rara avis, that featured selections from her fun, bold wardrobe.

seeing her free and bold use of color, shape, motif, and texture was incredibly inspiring to me. it’s still inspiring to me! she’s a woman unafraid to experiment and try new things when it comes to fashion, and at the same time, she knows who she is and curates her style accordingly.

love these quotes from her in the video:

“i just mix and put things to together the way the spirit moves me”

“the fun of getting dressed is that it’s a creative experience, sometimes it’s better than another time”

“freedom of expression, of expressing yourself is the most important thing; if you don’t you’re all bottled up and choking.”

“[be] free, free”

“you only have one trip [life], you might as well enjoy it”

…basically, i think she’s saying:

if enjoying [style] means wearing what you like, the way you want to wear it, when you want to wear it, then… GO FOR IT. and make no apologies.

wise words! iris, you are wonderful!

(via advanced style)