The Vine: March 20, 2009
Sars,
I have a jeans-related problem and thought the good people of the Tomato Nation might be able to help.
I have a round butt, and this is causing all my pants to fit strangely.I’d been wearing jeans from Delia’s, but I’m caught between sizes (one size is too tight, next size up I can pull off without unbuttoning) so I’m looking for different brands that are perhaps cut slightly more generously through the thighs and rear.
The problem is mostly front to back, not side to side, as my hips aren’t especially wide.Any suggestions are welcome, but I am a recent college graduate so cheaper is better.Thanks a lot!
Lady Mix-a-Lot
Dear Mix,
Gah, Delia’s jeans.They fit exactly right for the first 15 minutes and then I spend the rest of the day hiking them up.
I would suggest any store that has a range of jeans cuts — the Gap used to; I believe Joe’s Jeans has different cuts for different body types, although those jeans get pricey; Ann Taylor and New York & Co. probably do, and I know Levi’s does.You’ll have to do a zillion try-ons until you find a cut that works.American Eagle might have something that works, as their pants run narrow in the hips, but there’s not a ton of room in the butt in the pair I’ve got on today.
Readers, any specifics to suggest?
Tags: Ask The Readers retail
Ack, I have a similar problem – disproportionately large rear, smaller waist. I splurged on a pair of Joe’s Jeans (the “honey” cut) and I don’t know how I’ll ever go back. They are amazing. I’ve also had ok luck with calvin klein.
Holy. I have the same problem. Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Ann Taylor, and NY&Co did nothing for me. I think these stores aren’t built for the bubble booty. I went into diesel and of course they found the perfect pair of pants ever. $200. They went back to the rack, but I’m not over the memory.
Lane Bryant has a new line of jeans to fit a woman’s shape. The descriptions are pretty specific. I don’t know your size, but more information never hurts! Good luck!
Also, I have Hardly-a-butt. I’m not sure which is worse!
To stick in a roughly-Delia’s-ish price bracket, try the Sweetheart cut from Old Navy. I think they’re $25, and they are a “curvy” cut with an unobtrusive bootcut leg. Definitely extra room in the rear and thighs and they don’t gap at the waist!
Back when I had a butt (I’ve had both problems – how’s that for fair?), Lucky Brand’s Easy Rider fit worked pretty well. They’re costly at full price, but Lucky rocks the half-off sale pretty regularly, which gets them down to around $50.
I have a tiny waist and the high, large ass that comes from squatting with weights. The most reliable fit for me are Silver jeans – not all of them will work, but many do. They’re not cheap – they usually run about $120 to $150 Canadian regular price, but I’ve tried the “buy cheaper ones and have them tailored” option and sorry, a pair of tailored jeans that didn’t fit right in the first place never do ever fit quite like a pair of jeans that really fit. Plus, end-of-season sales are usually good for jeans at around $50 to $70, which is livable for me.
I’ve tried the usually-recommended standbys of Gap, Old Navy and whatever “curvy” cuts, but their curves are made for the side-wide as far as I can tell. But then, I have the luxury of being able to pay the price, if necessary, for things that fit, and I hate blowing less money for something that’s never really comfortable. Still, a cheaper option for you would be buying a pair that’s as close as you can come, and having them tailored; tailoring a pair of jeans in my end of the woods usually runs between $20-$25.
Even cheaper is buying from thrift stores or Value Village. They always have a TON of jeans, and in any reasonable-sized city, you’d be surprised at the brand names you’ll find, some barely worn. Just recently, I scored a duplicate of my favourite ever pair of Silvers (in a different wash) for $15. Ta-daa!
I can’t let myself try on anything too pricey — I’m pretty sure I’ll immediately fall in love and WANT. So I’ve settled on Calvin Klein — either bootcut or flare. They seem to fit the best of any under $100 jeans I’ve tried.
I always find the best jeans in stores that don’t carry their own brand, but carry multiple brands, like Mandee. My favorites from there are Hydraulic, which fit me in my wider parts but aren’t baggy in the legs and crotch area like so many other brands. It’s nice if you’re looking at a bunch of brands at once, since you can go into one store and try on four or five different brands, find one or two you like and then try different pairs from those. Macy’s is a good place for this as well.
Hee, mctwin, I refer to myself as The Buttless Wonder. It’s almost like we’re…OK, I won’t go there. :-)
This is my problem too! The only jeans I’ve found that fit and don’t gap at the waist are Bella Dahl. I have no idea how expensive they usually are (Google is being strangely unhelpful) because I got mine at Ross for $14.99 but I ADORE them. Very cute, very comfortable, and fit better than any jeans I’ve ever owned.
(I also found a couple of pairs of Steve underwear at Ross, and Google is being even more unhelpful on that…but they are cute and the only ones I’ve ever found that truly, all day, no matter WHAT I do, NEVER give me a wedgie.)
I have a bubble butt (but also wide hips, so I’m in a slightly different situation) and I’ve found that several of the J. Crew styles work very well for me. I also have some Old Navy jeans from several seasons ago that fit just right, but I can’t comment on their current styles.
I like Eddie Bauer’s Curvy fit jeans. They’re a size smaller in waist which seems to work for me. I’d go in and try ’em on if there’s one locally. They’re on sale right now — http://tinyurl.com/da9xz8 (trouser jeans) or http://tinyurl.com/dd36cb (stretch jeans). A couple of their other pant styles (Blakely or Bremerton) might also work for you for regular pants.
I have the same problem! It’s so annoying. (I also have other fit issues, that you may not, like being somehow BOTH long-torso’d & short in the rise — seriously, body, how do you do that?)
For me, Jones New York jeans fit better than anything else I’ve tried.
Lane Bryant’s Right Fit line is pretty awesome except that their average seems to run a little short for me (I have a 31″ inseam) and the talls are too long. If those are too large for you (they start at size 12 or 14), try Lee’s Relaxed Fit, which fit not only my huge German thighs but also my butt and hips, which are similarly generous, and they don’t gap too much in the back. You can also try Gloria Vanderbilt–I have a pair of hipsters that manage to fit both the thighs and the butt at the same time.
I second mctwin. My partner has booty and I have a flat ass. She wears LB, I wear GAP mens (because the GAP women’s pinch me). LB is going to be a little pricey, but they work.
Do they still make Apple Bottom jeans? I heard they were great if you had junk-in-the-trunk.
Have you tried The Limited/ Express? I have narrow hips but an >ahem< womanly posterior, and I find their pants fit really well – enough room for the back porch, but no annoying gapping at the waist. Won’t break the bank either.
Also, if you can find a good tailor, you can buy jeans that fit in the buttal region, and have them taken in at the waist.
I can’t fit into any of the Gap’s cuts to save my life, but Old Navy’s Sweetheart cut works great for me. I have larger thighs but a smallish waist and hips, so in a lot of jeans I get the dreaded sausage effect in the thighs when I find a pair that fits my waist. The Sweetheart cut is looser in the thighs and I believe they are boot cut.
Although I do somewhat resent the implication that because I need relaxed thighs, I must be a “sweetheart” and not a “flirt.”
Don’t forget http://www.truejeans.com.
You input your measurements, likes & dislikes regarding fit and it suggests an amazing array of choices.
I’ve been lucky every time with them.
IndiDenim.com will custom build jeans to your measurements. You can either choose a style from their designs and have it built to your specifications, or you can design your jeans from scratch. The collection prices range from $145-$155, which is pretty reasonable considering that a designer pair off the rack could cost you the same, and you still need to take those to be hemmed.
Another Joe’s Jeans fit that might work is Muse – I have the same problem, and though I like the Honey cut, the slightly higher waist of Muse works better for me. Totally worth the money.
As a girl who’s also got much back, I have to say I’m pretty happy with trouser cut jeans. The Gap sells a few styles that are really flattering — snug on the booty but a looser wide leg everywhere else (although I typically have to go up a size from my normal Gap size). If you fit to the butt, it doesn’t matter if the rest of the pant is “too big” because it’s not meant to be form-fitting anyway, unlike a snug bootcut or whatever.
I also found a great pair of jeans on sale for $29.99 at Ann Taylor Loft last weekend. I can’t find the exact same style on the website, but they had three different cuts on the sale rack and I picked the low-rise bootcut (the ones with higher rise were a bit too “mom jeans” for me — their “low” rise is quite reasonable). My butt looks awesome in them. They’re slightly stretchy so the fit works out great.
AACK! I’ve been thinking of writing to Sars about this too. I have a size 10 waist and size 12 thighs, and am “petite” to boot. Thought I had found a good pair of jeans — Levi’s 550, relaxed fit, short length, boot cut. Bought size 12 and fit perfectly in store. Wear them for 5 minutes and they start to fall off my waist; I’ve tried a belt but that just makes the jeans bunch up in strange places. But size 10 is too tight! I will look into joes and land bryant, but please, keep the suggestions coming!
BANANA. I know someone has said no dice, but I can’t stress enough how much I love their jeans (and yes, I’m curvy too). I just bought a pair last week, and the cut I bought I think is actually new, called “Urban Cut” (questionable marketing there, but that’s another topic). Definitely some room in the derriere and a really nice gently flared leg. They also seem to be a slightly higher rise than most standard jean fare these days. “slightly” not Tina-Fey-loading-up-the-mini-van high. And I had coupon so I don’t remember exactly what the reg. price is, but I don’t think they’re more than $75. If you order online, you can get regular length, petite or what they call “short” which is a 31″ inseam – for those of us too short for regs and too tall for petite, it’s perfect. Most stores don’t carry all the inseams. good luck!
I have two pairs of Lucky jeans, each a different style, and both have a ton of extra space in the butt – far more than other brands I wear (Joe’s, Banana Republic). It’s also pretty easy to find Lucky Brand at discount chains (TJ Maxx, Marshalls, etc) so you don’t necessarily have to drop $120 to see if they’ll work for you.
Get the size that fits the largest part of you properly in a less-expensive brand and then spend the money on tailoring the waist and hips to fit like a glove.
It’s the only way to make your booty look, well, bootylicious. (I’m sorry. I shouldn’t do these things, but how often can one actually use that word in a sentence??)
I have similar problems. The Gap jeans always fall down, and are too big around the waist so I get that plumber butt thing when I even sit down, let alone bend over. Also, I have a pathological hatred for jeans that lose their shape after you wear them for an hour.
I found that the Mossimo jeans from Target are the best and only jeans I can wear. I have also recently spawned an abrupt but deep hatred of bootcut or flare jeans on me, but their straight leg and skinny jeans work well.
I was all anti-skinny jeans until I found this brand, because their skinny jeans are more like straight-leg jeans, but they don’t lose their shape the way non-skinny jeans are wont to.
Also, they all tend to be $35 or less.
I have this exact shape issue and I’ve had the best luck at Nordstrom. One day I went in there and tried on eight pairs of jeans and seven of them fit, which NEVER happens to me. The brands that fit best for me are Jag and Christopher Blue. CBs are expensive, but awesome.
I second (third?) the Joe’s Honey Booty Cut. They are amazing, but not cheap.
I’ve been wearing Levi’s low-rise boot cut the last year or so & they don’t gap at the back, don’t bind at the crotch, and they are WAY cheap – $20 in the men’s section at Target.
Be sure to try ’em on though. Levi’s are not necessarily made in the USA anymore, and they vary a LOT.
I know Katie noted up above that she did not have any luck with Old Navy but you might give them a try if you haven’t already. My college roommate’s body shape was similar to what you describe and Old Navy was the only place she could find jeans with a good fit. It would also meet your recently-out-of-college budget requirements. Good luck!
Thanks for the Zafu link – they suggested the jeans I recommended! I got something right in Fashionland, for once. Nice!
Am I the only person on earth who goes to the Goodwill, browses my size rack for something that looks right in terms of wash, length, cut, and brand, and hauls as many pairs into the dressing room as they’ll let me take?
Using this method, I’ve been happy with everything from a pair of boys’ L.L. Bean jeans in college to my current pair of True Religions, and I have never ever spent more than thirty bucks on a pair of jeans. It takes time, focus, and a good eye, but I’ll bet you can find the right pair.
I don’t have the same problem–for me it’s wide hips and narrow waist–but I’ve had good luck with Lucky jeans. They have a range of cuts. Their regular stores might be a little pricey, but their outlet stores are pretty reasonable.
Not a brand suggestion, but heartfelt empathy (I have a 17″ difference between my waist and hips, largely due to my butt) and a different tactic: alterations. Buy the pair that fits your backside, and then take in the waist.
If you have the money to take them to get done professionally, great. If not, and you can manage to sew a running stitch – or have access to a sewing machine – you can take darts out of the back. I do two darts, one centered over each back pocket, on every pair of jeans I own.
You can see more detailed directions here. Seriously, that article takes longer to read than it takes to do a pair.
I physically cannot bring myself to spend more than $30 on jeans, have exhausted all the local possibilities (admittedly few, here in the rural Midwest), and buying online just doesn’t work when you have these type of fit issues (though it’s great once you’ve established a brand+cut+style+size). Realizing I could make these alterations has changed my entire outlook on jeans shopping. (“Hey, these are pretty good! I can fix that last bit of gapiosis! This no longer makes me want to kill myself and/or jeans manufacturers!”)
I would add also that spending a little more money on a clothing item as essential to the contemporary wardrobe as jeans is an investment. Dropping $200 on jeans might seem like an outrage, but think about how often you wear them — especially if they fit exactly right (or, conversely, how many of us have 5 or 6 pairs that were $40, but aren’t quite right and don’t get worn as often, which is the same money spent in the end, if not more).
Another thing to try on the money-saving tip: once you find a brand that fits perfectly, if it’s an expensive proposition, enter a search on eBay with a price cap, or check Overstock or Bluefly.com, or one of those deal-search sites that sends you bargains in your size. It can take some time, but you can get a pair of Joe’s for a big discount if you’re willing to sit on an eBay search for a month or two.
After Lands End discontinued the jeans that fit me, I cast about until I found some great alternatives at LL Bean. Plenty of thigh room there, and in the $35-45 range.
I totally agree that spending as much as is possible is totally worth on jeans – partially because (no joke) the quality of the denim in the ‘fancy’ brands can be significantly higher.
Also, the best advice I’ve ever gotten is to buy your jeans *just a bit* tighter than you think is either appropriate or comfortable. After a couple wearings, they’ll fit like a glove and stay that way. No more hiking them up!
Ahh, I had a whole year where I didn’t wear jeans due to not being able to find a pair that fit – I’m a plus size and suddenly everything that fit across the expanse of my butt left the waist gapping around the sides and back. Like, grand canyon size gaps.
Enter Fashion Bug and their Right-Fit line (I think this is similar to Lane Bryant’s). For under $30 I got a pair that fits perfectly across the bum, doesn’t gap at the waist, doesn’t sag in the front and give the dreaded crotch pouch, aren’t so short in the inseam they give me UrkelAnkles AND are almost as comfortable as a pair of jogging pants.
Seriously, tried them on and danced in the aisle of the store. The ones for the curvy butts are the blue tags.
I love Ann Taylor Loft myself – I have a smaller waist, bigger butt & hips, and I find that these are the least likely to do the “fits in the butt/bags at the waist) thing.
I know it sounds irritating and expensive, but the alterations route is what finally worked for me. And I am not a seamstress, but I know just enough to have taught myself to do the alterations myself — it isn’t as hard as it seems. I don’t tuck shirts into my jeans, though, EVER, so I don’t have to worry about my not-professional-looking darts, because they are always covered by the hem of my shirt.
You can always attempt the alterations on a cheaper pair of pants, just to practice and find out what a difference a couple of very small changes can make. I buy pants now that fit my butt/hips and then I alter the waist in to get rid of the gap-osis (and prevent the pants from falling right off once I’ve worn them for more than 15 minutes).
I’m also short and had to learn to hem in order to be able to buy suit pants that fit, but once I did it opened up a world of options that I never had before.
I have the same problem and Joe’s Jeans are the best but expensive. Another good option for about $50 are jeans from H&M – the original style.
Try Lee or Lee Riders no-gap jeans.
for me, cheap jeans are a “penny wise pound foolish” proposition. They fit for half an hour, then sag/stretch out. I hate them. Waste of money!
Express used to have a ‘boyfriend’ cut that was exactly perfect for my crazy-shaped body. But then they discontinued them and I had to go have a kid, so my jeans-related life sucks pretty hard right now.
I’m wearing the Lane Bryant jeans (they’re called Venezia or similar) and while they fit okay, the difference in lengths is WILD. What started out as three pairs of ‘average’ length jeans has morphed into 2 pairs that fit all right and one pair that will stay bone-dry should I ever have a basement flood situation.
So when you find a pair that fits, buy six of them and hope they don’t start to develop different personalities when you get them home and washed a few times!
I’ve recently had good luck with DKNY Jeans and Tommy Hilfiger. Both brands are under $100 at Macy’s.
Go to makeyourownjeans.com right now. Do not pass go, do not collect the $200 you could spend on designer jeans somewhere else. Go to that site, where you choose the wash, cut, rise and give them all your measurements (waist, hips, inner thigh, outer leg seam and rise) and for about $60 including shipping, they send you a custom-made pair of jeans. Takes about three weeks. Amazing. I’m very short and curvy and jean-makers seem to think that even the “petite” lengths need to be 6 inches too long for a girl with my waist size. The custom jeans are fantastic, and $60 is what you’d pay at the Gap or for good Levis, so it’s not a lot of money.
Otherwise, I like gap curvy, but my problem is not just my butt. I’m soft all over. The Old Navy Sweetheart cut is good for the big butt, but I have a short torso so a slightly lower rise looks better on me.
I’ve got the too much thigh, not much waist problem and have had good luck with Lucky in various styles (and they’re often on sale in this economy, which is a bonus–my last pair was 50$). I also have a pair of Red Engine jeans that are expensive but an AMAZING fit, so I’d recommend those.
I work at Ann Taylor Loft, and I like the curvy cut. I’m a size 12, and the curvy at ATL are the only ones I’ve found that fit in the butt but don’t gap at the waist.
For reference, we have 3 basic styles: Original (just below waist, relaxed hip and thigh, boot leg), Curvy (just below waist, more contoured hip and thigh, boot leg) and Modern (3-4 inches below waist, snug hip and thigh, boot or slim leg). As always, it’s best if you can take some time and try a bunch of different styles on.
I fourth or fifth the Joe’s Jean Honey cut–splurge on at least one pair, THEY ARE WORTH IT.
Cheaper options: Forever 21 sells a lot of cheap, very spandexy jeans: they have enough stretch to accomadate my butt, but still fit my waist. Mine cost $19, go try some on.