wearing skinny jeans if you're... not

I have a confession. I am a huge fan of flare leg jeans. The Gap Long & Leans have been my bff since... oh about 2003ish. Yeah, I know. 7 years. Thinking about it now, it seems a bit ridiculous. Even more ridiculous is that I still have my first pair. But anyway... that's not the point.

The point is that flare jeans aren't really hip anymore. Gap still sells them but... in the words of Clinton and Stacey from What Not to Wear, just because a store sells something doesn't mean that you should be buying it. Not to mention that at 5'1", flare leg jeans make me look... not so long or lean. I've tried more pricey options but I've never been really happy with the fit. Being short, I would rather find a shorter inseam off the rack than have them hemmed so that they keep the original look of the jean. Paige Premium Denim and Joe's Jeans both make petite sizes, both of which I've puchased, but neither of which I've been 100% happy with.

I've worn slim jeans before - as in tapered leg Guess brand jeans back in 1994ish. Oh, those were the days. But I hadn't touched anything aside from a flare for a good ten years. So when Gap introduced their new line of jeans a few months ago, I bit. I looked all of the different fits over at the store and tried on the Sexy Boot jeans. And they looked good! I bought two pairs and congratulated myself on my little push towards being halfway fashionable. Since then, I've seen more and more women in skinny jeans and wondered if I should even go there.

Because skinny jeans are skinny. And I'm... not. I'm not going to get into some 'I'm so fat' tirade, but even at my thinnest, I haven't really been skinny. I'm not built like that. I'm built like Rachel Ray and Kelly Clarkson, not Rachel Zoe and Kelly Wearstler. So why in the hell would I want skinny jeans?

I was curious. And as I saw women wearing leggings and even jeggings, I wondered if I should suck it up and at least try. I ordered the Real Straight jeans from Gap (can you tell I have a Gap Silver card that gives me free shipping?!) and waited. When I got them to the house, they sat for a few days before I tried them on. But when I did try them on, I was surprised. I didn't hate them, and I actually thought they were flattering. I've worn them twice since and on casual Friday at work, I even got some compliments.

So the moral of the story is - yes, Virginia, there are versions of skinny jeans you can wear that don't make you feel like the Goodyear blimp. It might be a for-real skinny jean, a jegging, or a straight leg style that's slim enough for you. Changing things up might even make you feel good. Especially with free shipping.