The Joy of Having New Jeans (for the First time in Two Years)

Today I bought a pair of jeans.

For most people, this wouldn’t be news.

I’m ecstatic. This is the first pair of pants I’ve been able to buy in three years. All summer, I’ve been wearing the same pair of light capris (purchased with a gift card from my sister) and occasionally, overalls that are two years past expiry.

The overalls, I love. They’re also capri-length and tailored, and they’ve been patched and repaired more times than I can count. They’re now past the point of repair, though I’m holding onto them in the hopes that someday, I can find someone who can make an identical pair.

Last summer, and for the several years prior, I had four pairs of shorts/capris. Three had been patched and repaired over and over, until they ripped obscenely and irreparably. They were threadbare, but had they been strong enough to undergo a new patching, I would have done that. They were not.

The fourth is a pair of jean capris that I love, but I was optimistic about their stretchability (and my shrinkability) when I bought them in 2011. While they fit beautifully in the legs and hips, the crotch is too short (yes, that’s a thing), and after a series of UTIs that could only have been caused by “too tight-in-the-crotch pants” — and a series of antibiotic treatments at a time when I needed the $20 for food — I put them aside.

A friend brought me several pairs of pants she was throwing out. The idea kind of boggled my mind – not only did she have, like, 15 pairs of pants; she actually had enough to give away seven pairs. (I’ve never had a particularly large closet; I didn’t get a fashion gene.) Of those, two fit me (I gave the rest away). One pair I wore every day until the thighs ripped dramatically – I’ve been through enough thigh-rips to know which are patchable and which aren’t – and the other… it’s hanging in there. Corduroys, which aren’t my favourite (and really aren’t great for those of us with strong thighs), but they looked professional enough, and as long as I keep my legs fairly closed or crossed, nobody can tell that the thighs are about to give out.

So having a new pair of jeans is freakin’ amazing. They’re comfortable; they should do fine for work (even though they’re black and my boots are brown). The material seems fairly solid, so I’d give the thighs at least a full winter before they need attention.

Photo: 5EPxSF Combs via photopin (license)