How To Buy Men's Jeans That Fit - Understanding Denim - Waist - Rise - Inseam - Style - Boot
Cut
Hi!
I'm Antonio Centeno, the founder of Real Men Real Style.
Today, I'm going to be talking about how to buy a pair of jeans that actually fit, so
I'm going to be going over jeans, denim, the terminology that we use to understand how
they are built.
Let me just start off, guys, by saying that there is no substitute for going in and trying
on a pair of jeans because there are so many factors out there.
I think it's one of the hardest initiatives.
I get people that contact me once every couple of months and they're starting a denim company
or starting a jean company, sometimes made-to-measure, and I think that's a very hard business.
My hat is off to my friend, Christopher, out in Massachusetts.
He has a company, Brown Deim, and they are doing just that, but this is a very hard business.
And so, to get what you really want -- I know some of you guys are really particular.
Hopefully, by understanding these five points and these five terms, whenever you see this,
you'll be able to zero in on what you need and make sure that you don't waste your time.
All right, so let me jump right in this.
Notice I didn’t even ask you to subscribe or like, or did I just ask you to do it?
Okay, so the five things I'm going to talk about today guys are the waist, the inseam,
the rise, and then we're going to talk about the build right here, the style in the hip,
butt, and thigh area, and then we're going to talk about the build down here at the end
of the leg.
Waist
Okay, so let's first talk about the waist, one of the easiest things.
We all think we know what we fit into.
And in fact, I wear 32/32.
Does that mean I have a 32-inch waist?
Yes?
No?
Waiting for your answer.
No.
The answer is actually no.
That is vanity sizing.
So the fact that they tell you, you have a 32-inch waist really means that your waist
is about 34 to 34.5 inches and it depends on the brand.
Some brands are going to give you a little bit of extra room; some are going to give
you a little bit less.
They look at their target market and they build for that.
I don't know who started this vanity sizing or why, but it really throws a wrench in everything
and it confuses people, and they really believe that they are a 32-inch waist when they're
not, or even those of you that are a bit bigger.
Now, it also changes, like I said, with brands.
So this is where if you are used to one brand, don't think a 32/32 in Levi's is going to
fit the same as 32/32 in Cooper or a 32/32 in Wrangler or Lee or any of those other brands
out there, especially when we get into small brands.
You could see even more variation.
All right, so that is the waist.
That one's pretty easy.
Rise
Let's talk about the rise.
What is the rise?
The rise is actually the distance from -- so if I were to lay this out flat on a table,
the rise is going to be from the bottom of the crotch area all the way to the top up
here where the button is at.
And so, we normally think of high and low rise.
Many of you have seen that.
You didn’t know exactly what it was, but yes, that is the rise.
Now, low rise you may not know.
A lot of you younger guys out there wearing low-rise jeans, that started in the women's
department, and women really liked it, the whole low-rise just because of the way their
bodies were built.
And then it transferred over to the young men department for whatever reason.
Some guys really like the look.
I think too much of a low rise is not a great look for a man because it shortens his leg
line and makes his torso look longer.
Some guys like this.
I guess if you've got the whole six-pack abs thing going for you, you could probably pull
it off, but for most of us, low-rise is not a good idea, especially if you are approaching
30, over 30.
Let's stick away from low-rise.
What you want to go towards is more of the classic cuts or the high-rise.
Now, high-rise is actually a great cut for older men.
Now, I've got a link or another article over at Real Men Real Style that talk about jeans
for the older men, and I do that with Kaycee Golden.
She comes in and she's a jean consultant.
This is really what she does and she helps men find the jeans that really show off their
back side the best.
So believe it or not, she helps hundreds of men do that.
The jeans that she recommended, I think, were AG along with Zegna.
It actually has a very nice jean for a man in his 50s or in his 60s, but that plays with
the rise.
Inseam
So we've talked about the rise.
We've talked about the waist.
Let's talk about the inseam.
So if I hear a 32/32 on jeans, that last number is the inseam.
Now, what is the inseam?
Okay, so this is the outseam.
That is this right here measuring from the top to that.
The inseam is inside basically from your crotch area to the bottom area.
They've got a line right down here.
This should be 32 inches, it isn't always.
In fact, if it's a little bit longer, that's not that bad of a thing guys because you can
have your jeans shortened.
Take them to a tailor or a seamstress.
They can easily shorten them.
It's going to look better than tearing at the back.
Hip and Thigh Style
So we've talked about the inseam.
We've talked about the waist.
We've talked about the rise.
Now let's talk about the styles.
And when they talk about the styles, you hear slim, regular, and relaxed.
Now, many jean companies -- in fact, Levi's all use them as an example.
They've got the 505's, the 501's, the 559's, the 569's.
All of that, what they're talking about in those numbers, they're affecting some other
things, but really what they're talking about is the fit in the buttocks, in the hips, and
in the thigh area, and this is one of the most important fits and something you need
to get right because each of us have certain fits we're used to.
And so, this one right here, these 501's, they are a straight leg button fly, so the
button fly -- I'm not going to get into this, but that's a cosmetic thing.
It doesn’t really affect the fit too much, while some of you jean enthusiasts may disagree,
but really what I'm concerned about is what type of fit, and we've got a straight leg
-- I'm sorry, the original fit.
Is this the original fit?
Yeah.
I'm kind of losing myself there.
Okay, so I'm expecting the 501's to be a regular fit.
That's going to be for the regular guy.
It should fit him.
If you find you need something a little bit looser, then you want to go for more of the
relaxed fit and that's going to give you a little bit more room.
If you're well-built like you're a rugby player or something like that, you're going to want
to go possibly for a more relaxed fit because you're going to have muscular thighs and muscular
buttocks.
Leg Style
Now let's talk and we're moving on to the actual leg.
So down the leg, what we see is tapered, straight, and boot cut.
So when you hear those three things, what they're talking about is this hole right here.
So on tapered, you're going to see that's going to be the smallest and that's where
you're going to see sometimes 12 inches, so measuring this point to this point, if I've
got six inches right here, double that, that's 12.
Boot cuts, which you can see range up to 20 inches, so that's going to be almost doubled.
Now, boot cuts, you want to be careful.
You don't want to go with anything that looks like you're flaring and you're back in 1970,
no.
I like to go with straights, but if I am wearing a boot -- you know, try straights, see if
that will work with your boot.
But if you are going to go for the boot cut, you want more of that flare out there, just
make sure it's not extreme.
Most of the companies like Levi's, again, Cooper, Lee, Wrangler, they do a pretty good
job of not going out there, but some of the smaller designers, the unknown guys out there,
sometimes they can go a little bit crazy on that boot cut.
Okay guys, so the points we have talked about, we've talked about waist, inseam, we've talked
about rise.
We've talked about the style in and around the buttocks and the thigh area, and we've
talked about the taper down the leg.
So armed with that knowledge, you should be able to go out there and make a smart purchasing
decision, but still, go into the stores and try them on.
And if you bought a pair of Levi's five years ago, realize that Levi's now has probably
changed their design just a bit, so my advice would be to go into a store, try things on.
Maybe they don't have all the designs and patterns or all the styles you're looking
for.
Then go home and order online and you will have a very good idea of the numbers which
you need to play with, and then you can just get a whole bunch of these jeans at home,
try them on, pick which ones you want or go back to the store and purchase them and I
think you'll be a much happier man.
Okay.
Well, I look forward to seeing you guys in the next video.
And don't forget, if you want a course, if you want a huge e-book with audio course that
you can go through and learn about Men's Style, I invite you to go check out my premium e-book.
The link is down below and I'll see you guys in the next video.
Bye-bye.