Waving the White Flag: My Battle with Skinny Jeans
By Jessica on July 07 2008 at 08:22 AM
A few months ago, after about two years of physical effort and self-analysis, I discovered one very important --and very liberating-- fact about myself. I cannot wear skinny jeans. Sure, Victoria Beckham looks great in them. And ultra thin Kate Moss shouldn’t wear anything else. But on me? They don’t just work. And I’ve finally given up on trying to make them work.
Should You Wear Skinny Jeans?
But, how do you know if skinny jeans actually work for you… or if you’re just trying to (literally) squeeze yourself into a mould? It can be pretty difficult. When you try them on in the dressing room mirror, chances are you think they look just fine. After all, I always did. But the problem with trying on a pair of jeans --or anything, really-- in a shop is the proximity of the dressing room mirror. When you’re standing only one or two feet away from your body’s full-length image, it’s impossible to have a clear idea of what a particular pair of jeans does for your shape.
If you have full thighs and hips, be very suspicious of what the dressing room mirror tells you-- it might just be pulling the wool over your eyes. Instead, watch other girls in their skinny jeans before you go shopping. Watching how other women look while moving and standing in a pair of skinny jeans is a great way to see how they’ll look on you… especially if you look at girls who are close to your size. If skinny jeans make girls with your shape appear to have a mile-wide behind, they’ll do the same to you. And you shouldn’t buy them.
Coming to Terms with Your Skinny Jeans
A couple of things helped me come to peace with my inability to look great in a pair of skinny jeans. One was glancing at myself in a mirrored wall about 20 feet away and being shocked at how big my “cute skinny jeans” made my thighs look. The other was reading an interview with Jennifer Love Hewitt (who has an enviable, curvaceous body), in which she peacefully expresses her inability to wear skinny jeans. They don’t flatter her, she says, so she doesn’t wear them-- even though they look great on most other Hollywood girls.
My skinny jeans and I have come to terms with each other. Just because they don’t flatter me doesn’t mean I don’t wear them-- and just because I wear them doesn’t mean I have to look like a heifer. As long as I pair them with longer tops (tops which reach the upper thigh and completely cover the hips) skinny jeans are fine with me, and I’m fine with them.
And I avoid looking like the girl with the mile-wide behind.
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