Finding the perfect jeans is probably the biggest shopping challenge in existence. From the nightmare of limited sizes and retail inventory to unflattering trends, we all have our denim disaster stories to tell. Custom jeans certainly help the situation drastically, but whether shopping or designing the perfect jeans there are some key tips to always keep in mind:
1. Dress Your Body Type: Nothing is more upsetting than trying to dress a trend that just doesn’t work for your body. Whether you are pear-shaped or apple-shaped, take a look at your proportions and learn what works best for you. This tip alone will get you well on your way to finding the perfect jeans. Learn how to dress your body type here.
2. Know Your Measurements: Jean sizing, as you’ve probably experienced, varies from brand to brand, especially between premium and mainstream brands. Knowing measurements like your natural waist, your pant size, your inseam, etc. are key factors in getting perfect-fitting jeans. Learn how to measure yourself here.
3. Flatter Your Frame: While it’s important to know what doesn’t work for your body, it’s just as important to know what does. Flatter your finest features. For example, pear and hourglass shapes can accentuate their small natural waists with a mid to high rise pant.
4. Make Trends Work For You: Before you try wearing a trend you have to have, say skinny jeans, know which skinny jeans will work best for your body. Skinny jeans made from stretch fabric, for example, give a slimmer look and more comfort for any body type. Whether designing or buying, have a specific type of skinny jean in mind like “stretch fabric, dark wash, mid-rise skinny jeans” and you’ll get a much better result.
5. Determine your Price Per Wear (PPW): When buying jeans it’s important to make a good investment. Price per wear (PPW) means how much you spend on a jean for each time you wear them. By investing in a good pair of jeans up front, you greatly reduce your PPW. For example, if you bought a jean for $60, washed it 3 times, and it:
A/Doesn’t fit anymore
B/Becomes stiff
C/Deteriorates
Then you may only get 6 or 7 wears from them, which is not a great investment. That’s practically $10/wear! Be smart and invest in a jean made from quality fabric and with premium construction.
The lucky winner is…Tabitha T Council! Congratulations Tabitha! You won a FREE pair of custom jeans from indiDenim! We just love our free jean Fridays…
While Facebook and Twitter reigned supreme on the sharing front, we saw an increase in sharing on Stumble Upon, Google, YMail and Gmail. We love seeing some of the same determined entrants in addition to an influx of new designers looking for their perfect pair of free custom jeans.
To all of our participants- thank you for entering! Remember, we’re giving away a pair of free jeans EVERY month, so keep entering! We’ve already started getting entries for July, so start designing your custom jeans to get your new pair!
Congratulations again to Tabitha!
posted by: Evan on July 2, 2010 at 10:41 am
filed under:Happenings at indiDenim
TAGS:
custom jeans,
jeans,
free jeans
If you are taking off on vacation this summer, jeans would probably be the last thing you want to wear in flight. Even the best jeans can be constricting and less breathable than other pants, making traveling extremely uncomfortable. When picking jeans for travel, it comes down to three important factors: content, color and weight.
In our humble opinion, the best jeans for travel are lightweight, medium to dark wash, soft to the touch (jeans with polyester are wonderfully soft) and contain some amount of stretch for ease of movement and comfort. To give you a little in-flight inspiration, here’s what we consider the best jeans for travel (including what we think you should wear with them):
1. Best Skinny Jeans: Wear a pair of skinny jeans that are not too snug. Don’t wear them if they are cutting out your circulation. This is especially important when you travel; you don’t want to add to the lack of comfort and space that you already have to deal with while in the air. We can appreciate the weight and color of Selena’s attire, light enough for travel and black, a color universally stylish in almost any part of the world. She keeps it casual and comfortable with her converses.
2. Best Bootcut Jeans: Pair a classic with a classic. Bootcut jeans never go out of style, so pair them with a piece that does that reflects classic good taste like a leather jacket for instance). Another top from Hilary: layers, layers, layers. When traveling, it’s important to dress for a multitude of climates, as it’s hard to predict how the temperature will change from that cold air conditioned airplane to a possibly warm destination.
3. Best Dark Jeans: If you want to maintain that fresh look, keep your outfit clean and minimal. When you are traveling for hours upon hours, it’s best to wear jeans that are easy on the eye and the body, allowing you to easily blend into any environment. Also, dark jeans are more forgiving in case of any spills or stains, unlike lighter washes, so that in case of an accidental spill you won’t arrive at your destination with an embarrassing stain.
For example, a simple, crisp lightweight shirt paired with dark skinny/straight leg jeans instantly make you look like a jet-setter without any fuss. Camilla’s trench also is a travel must, equally useful on rainy and windy days, perfectly lightweight enough to carry in hand. We’re also loving her red flats, adding style and comfort.
Summer is upon us (technically June 21st in the Northern Hemisphere), and brighter colors are, per usual during the spring/summer months, dominant. While dark washes are still as sleek as ever, light wash jeans and white jeans are ever chic and ubiquitous.
We all know that light wash jeans can be much less flattering than their dark wash counterpart, especially as we are faced with the popularity of boyfriend/slouchy cigarette styles. Many of us shudder at the thought of blaring white denim, accentuating our lower bodies in all the wrong places. Well listen up fashionista/os: here are our essential tips on pairing your light wash denim.
1. Light Wash Jeans with an Airy Top
Ashlee Simpson in Light Wash Jeans
Match the lightness of your denim with an airy, floral print top or a light and loose garment to match. Watch Ashlee Simpson balance the light airiness of her top with slim fit light wash jeans and summery sandals. Effortlessly whimsical, Ashlee is the epitome of summer style.
2. Light Wash Jeans with a dark blazer and heels
Gwyneth Paltrow pictured with Stella Mccartney in Light Wash Jeans
Lo Bosworth in Light Wash Jeans
As an instant way to chic, heels and a blazer with denim is simply a failsafe look. With light denim, a blazer and heels balances out the casual nature of the denim and helps it pop in contrast to the darker colors of the blazer.
3. Cuffed Light Wash Jeans
Eva Longoria in Light Wash Jeans
For an every day look, roll up your light wash jeans into a 2” cuff and pair with a pair of cute flats or sneakers, especially for petite women like Eva. Cuffing jeans helps elongate the legs and draws attention to your feet, so make sure to wear a cute pair of flats, sandals, or heels! Even if you’re not quite ready for boyfriend jeans and heels, you can still benefit from the better functionality and lighter look of cuffed jeans.
What NOT To Do:
1. Make Daisy Dukes an Oopsie Daisy. While we would never discount any use of denim (well, ALMOST), Daisy Dukes are not meant for every girl (despite their newest advocate, Katy Perry). If you’re going to wear them, make sure they have enough coverage in front and back, aren’t ripped in embarrassing places, and that you balance them out with a more conservative top.
2. White Out. What is the point of wearing ALL white? Overkill much? Balance in fashion is key, so try to keep it to one or two white pieces with more subtle colors to match (especially if your skin tone is lighter!).
3. Wear 1/4 of a jean. Ripped jeans, destroyed jeans. What’s next? Jean scraps? If you’re going to wear ripped light wash jeans there is a fine line between radically ripped and getting a denim peepshow. Know the difference and you’ll be golden!
posted by: Evan on June 18, 2010 at 11:50 am
filed under:Trend Alert
TAGS:
jeans,
light wash jeans
In shopping for apparel, most of us are faced with a great contradiction: shopping for trends and defining our own style. While of course many of us love to stay current with latest fashion trends, it is just as important (and we argue more so) to establish a unique look, expressing your personal style through fashion.
The solution seems to be in the great diversity of options that the apparel industry offers. When looking for a white blouse, for instance, we all know there are infinite options out there, many of them that look identical. Yet how many of these designs are both fashionable AND unique? How can we really be sure the “one-of-a-kind” apparel we buy is such? Are there even protections to ensure that the things we buy aren’t merely knock-offs?
Believe it or not, there is no copyright protection for fashion designs in the US, meaning that anyone can slightly alter an existing design and call it their own. From a recent Ted Talk by Johanna Blakely entitled “Lessons from Fashion’s Free Culture,” Blakely discusses this lack of copyright protection in the fashion industry as both a blessing and a curse.
Essentially Blakely argues that it is more difficult than ever, due to our limitless access to information through digital media, to define ownership of anything anymore, be it a joke, a recipe, or a fashion design. While the lack of copyrights thankfully makes creativity flourish, taking older designs and transforming them into something “new”, too much creativity can make it hard to call anything original. Watch the whole Ted Talk below:
So what does this mean for your personal style? It means that if you want truly unique apparel (without paying couture prices), your options are pretty limited. It means that the apparel industry has created a top-down system in which consumers are expected to reflect “new” fashion trends, and not the other way around. It means that while we’re all about (some) reemerging trends and the awesome creativity of the fashion industry, we believe one shouldn’t be forced to choose between ever-changing trends and what compliments our personal style and body types.
Thankfully, indiDenim makes every garment to your measurements, to your style specifications, and only for you. We allow you to take a trend like skinny jeans and make them truly your own. Not to mention the fact that our fit technology used to create your unique pattern, our modular manufacturing processes, and our online customization platform make us a one-of-a-kind apparel brand.
So feel good, indiDenim lovers, for your apparel is really some of the only one-of-a-kind stuff out there. As Blakely states, there are plenty of advantages of copying, including the democratization of fashion trends. At indiDenim we feel that we are democratizing fashion even further, allowing all consumers to not only have access to fashion trends but to make them their own.
posted by: Evan on May 27, 2010 at 4:10 pm
filed under:Misc Musings
TAGS:
At 440 Brannan Studio Showroom, a collaborative clothing design and retail space located in the heart of SoMa, indiDenim became the newest retail fashion presence in San Francisco. Launching our newest service indi By Appointment, indi combined its Fit Technology, style advice from indiStylists, and a range of jean samples to create the ultimate fashion experience for consumers to design their own jeans. All 20 fitting appointments were taken that night and bookings in May were quickly filled, kicking indi’s new service off to a great start.
indiDenim jeans and logo decorated the entrance at 440 Brannan Studio Showroom
Upon first walking into the studio, indiDenim jeans and raw materials were showcased throughout the space, allowing attendees to see a variety of pocket styles, sizes, and finishing treatments and feel the different fabrics they could use to design their own custom jeans. 440 Brannan also displayed unique apparel from local designers that attendees could buy. Similar to indiDenim’s raw materials display, sewing machines, cutting tables and fabrics used by designers in the same space were visible throughout the room to establish a hip and creative environment.
As a part of 440 Brannan’s “Wear Something Rare” mentality, indiDenim was proud to be the newest addition to this unique SoMa design studio.
An hour into our launch event, indi attracted a lively crowd of trendy young professionals primarily from the fashion and technology industries, providing both a high-tech shopping experience (with laptops all around to browse our site and order online) and premium custom denim. Among the attendees were noted fashion bloggers and writers including contributing writer Kirsten Owens from Denim Debutante and Nerissa Pacio from the SF Chronicle.
Evan Woods of indiDenim and Nerissa Pacio of the SF Chronicle
Evan Woods of indiDenim and Kirsten Owens of Denim Debutante
Attendees also enjoyed some amazing perks, savoring complimentary custom cocktails, a raffle for free jeans and 30% discount. For some, that was reason enough to show up…
As for launching our new service, we couldn’t be happier with the diverse and fun crowd of women we had for our first indi By Appointment customers. At an appointment, one simply tried on a pair of indiDenim jeans, discussed fit and style changes to the jean with an indiStylist, and placed their orders online. In addition to helping get the perfect fit, our indiStylists also guided customers through the design process, suggesting cuts and styles that best matched the customer’s body type. indiStylists helped customers design a perfectly-fitting, ultra-personalized jean and provided an online visual of the jean using our Jean Builder, allowing each designer to see their jean morph during each step of customization.
Seeing the excitement of our attendees with appointments, some women even buying two pairs of jeans that night, was definitely a highlight of the evening.
Danielle Levinson of indiDenim fitting the first indi By Appointment customers
Interested in booking your appointment? Great! We’re opening up dates for June very soon. We’re also proud to announce we are now offering Men’s fitting appointments!. Contact us or check back at our appointment page for when June time slots become available.
Thank you to everyone who joined us and looking forward to many more fittings to come!
posted by: Evan on May 19, 2010 at 10:13 am
filed under:Happenings at indiDenim
TAGS:
There are some common contradictions we use almost everyday. For instance, how can someone act natural? Isn’t acting pretending to be someone else? Or how about when you buy a product that claims to be new and improved? If the product is really new then there should never be anything like it before, yet if it’s improved then there has to have been one before it to improve on. So how can it be both?
Well if you happen to have some time to think about our daily contradictions, you will quickly realize how little sense they actually make.
In the denim world, there’s another contradiction that’s been puzzling us lately… one that if thought about on a fundamental level makes little to no sense, yet one that is a trend not to be trifled with. It’s called skinny boyfriend jeans or boyfriend skinny jeans (or even slouchy cigarette jeans for some).
Skinny boyfriend jeans interplay masculine and feminine looks by combining two distinctly opposite styles in one: skinny and baggy.
So how can a jean be both skinny and baggy at the same time you may ask? Well, the boyfriend skinny jean has all the makings of a regular boyfriend jean except that it has a snugger fit. The jean is generally roomy through the thigh and slim through the leg.
Kourtney Kardashian is seen wearing her skinny boyfriend jeans
At indi, we are still trying to make sense out of this denim reinvention (or should we say denim contradiction), but we do know that many a celebrity has pulled this ying-yang trend off with effortless style. Whether you go for a skinny jean, a boyfriend jean or both, all we have to say is that this trend is definitely worth thinking about.
It’s time for a little humor this Friday afternoon…we here at indi believe in the importance of dressing right for your body type. After all, wearing something that fits you perfectly is one sure way to look your best. Fit should always come first before you consider any hot trends or coveted styles. This is especially true when it comes to your jeans.
The plumber’s crack happens when one wears jeans with a low waistband leaving the butt exposed at times during bending, squatting and/or sitting down. The act of showing more than people want to see can bring all sorts of reactions and emotions. When I see this mishap happen, I normally can’t help, however painful it is, but stare at the problem head on. This is only because I find it unbelievable that some remain completely unaware of what’s happening.
News flash: exposed butt cracks are not a sexy look. And while the obvious solution would be just to buy jeans with the appropriate rise, others went out of their way to come up with a creative way to give their cracks some flare. Case in point:
This plumber’s crack-friendly patch is supposedly adhesive, hypoallergenic and decorative… enough to cover something that’s inappropriately exposed and to bring a whole different level of embarrassment that I didn’t think was possible until now. You can decide if the patch is cute or not. It also comes with two replacement tapes if you have some doubts on its adhesive staying power. Then again, we suggest you simply raise your back rise. Just sayin’. Happy Friday!
posted by: eunice on May 7, 2010 at 2:37 pm
filed under:Misc Musings
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