Jeans

Rigid denim and stretch denim:

the fabric decides more about a pair of jeans than the cut does. Rigid jeans are all cotton: stiff at first, they mould to you with wear and keep their shape for years, which is why old Levi’s still have a second-hand following. Stretch jeans have a little elastane woven in and fit closely from day one, but the elastane is the part that ages, and after enough hot dryers it stops springing back. If the care label lists only cotton, the pair is rigid; elastane or spandex on it means stretch. Push-up jeans take stretch further, with a high waist, curved back seams and sometimes an inner shaping panel.

Skinny, mom, wide-leg and flare, and where each one has to fit:

a skinny or push-up pair has to match you at the waist, hips and thighs at once, which makes it the hardest cut to buy on someone else’s word. Mom and straight jeans have to close at the waist and clear the hips, and the leg looks after itself. Wide-leg, baggy and flared pairs barely ask more than the waist, but length matters most: a wide hem that drags frays fast, and one too short looks like a mistake. Jeans with a stretch belly panel sit under maternity wear, and denim skirts under skirts.

Three size systems on one rack of jeans:

US labels size women’s jeans in even numbers or by the waist in inches; Colombian labels, behind most push-up jeans, use their own numbering; European labels use theirs. None converts cleanly into another, so the only size worth trusting in a listing is a tape measure laid across the waistband and along the inside leg. US brands cut a long leg, and plenty of pairs here go to a seamstress before they are ever worn.

Levi’s, Tommy Hilfiger and what a worn pair fetches:

a pair from a big denim label such as Levi’s or Tommy Hilfiger runs around $60 to $110 new in Panama, and boutique push-up jeans sit a little below that. Second-hand, an ordinary pair in good shape goes for about $15 to $30. Jeans are easy to replace and fit is personal, so a stranger’s pair is a gamble buyers only take at a low price, and once the knees of a stretch pair have started to bag, the label stops counting. Older all-cotton Levi’s are the exception: a pair that has been broken in rather than worn through can ask close to the price of a new one.

Inner thighs, the seat and the hem on pre-owned jeans:

hold the pair up to the daylight and look between the legs first: the inner thighs rub with every step, and denim there goes thin and pale before it splits. Stretch the knee and the seat with your hand: healthy elastane snaps back, tired elastane stays baggy. Then check the back of the hem where a heel caught it, the top button, the zip and the belt loops, which tear when jeans are hauled up by them. Factory distressing is cut clean and sits where a designer put it; real wear sits where a body does. On Levi’s, the red tab and the double arc stitched across the back pockets are the trademarks, and a copy often gives itself away with a sloppy, misspelled tab or uneven arcs.

Jeans listed by the tape measure:

lay them flat and measure straight across the waistband, the rise from the crotch seam to the top of the waistband, and the inseam from the crotch to the hem. Give the brand, the label size and the fabric line from the care label, and say whether the pair has been shortened, because a cut leg cannot be let down again. Photograph the front, the back, the inner thighs and the hem in daylight. Jeans are the garment nearly every buyer wants to try on, so say whether she can when she comes, or suggest she measures the pair that fits her best and compares it with yours before she makes the trip from Arraiján.