If there is any one garment that stands for the quintessential symbol of American clothing, it’s a pair of blue jeans.
Invented invented by Jacob Davis in 1871were patented by Davis and Levi Strauss on May 20, 1873. Jeans really began to grow in popularity quickly in the 50s beyond their original targeted customer – cowboys and miners when slightly edgy teens (hoods and motorcycle riders) started wearing them. By the 60s they became a uniform of sorts for all teens.
The teenagers are now aging and they’re still wearing their beloved jeans and every year a new generation of jean lovers is born.
Fitting into your jeans can be a tricky proposition. The original jean fabric is tough, stiff, and unforgiving. Women (in particular) learned that the fabric won’t give so they must manipulate their bodies if they want to get into their jeans.Putting on jeans fresh from the dryer may mean a woman has to lie on her back, put her hips in the air while struggling to pull the jeans up over her hips and get them zipped. Once zipped, step two is to perform deep squats several times to try to sufficiently stretch the fabric to allow for breathing. Been there/done that!
Once I followed a self imposed diet of black coffee and two doughnuts for breakfast and a junior sundae for lunch. I was 18-year-old, 5′ 7″ tall, and dieted myself with this high fat, high carb (extremely satisfying to my particular food preferences) all the way to 108 pounds. I still had to lie down to zip my jeans!
Now, 43 years and 4 babies later (two of whom weighed more than nine pounds at birth) I am wearing size one jeans!
Before you think I’ve done a remarkable job managing my weight, I need to clarify the size one jeans. They’re size one according to the clothing store, Chico’s. Yeah, Chico’s size one, so slimming jeans and they still fit poorly but my problem with the fit of my jeans has shifted.
They zip with ease, even fresh from the dryer. They were made with a fabric that looks like blue jeans but unlike the jeans of my youth, have a lot of stretch. So while it’s nice that they zip with ease straight from the dryer, it’s not nice that after about an hour they have stretched out in the waistband sufficiently to fall down. I am forever yanking them back up to where they belong.
I bought some 0.5 Chico’s jeans. They fit really nicely in the hips and thighs but they really squeeze what I have around the waist.
I could lose weight, it would only take about five pounds, to make the waist of the 0.5 jeans fit better. The problem is that the five pounds won’t just come off of my waist. Guess where most of the weight loss will be from?
Yes! My hips and thighs!
I can lose weight, just to have the same problem with fit all over again. Why bother?
Which brings me to the question, whose fault is it if your jeans don’t fit?
The answer: Definitely NOT YOURS!