Ode to my jeans

I’m running off today to sit on a stool and sing all day.  Recently I ran to Walmart on a lunch break and spent 25 bucks on a solid oak stool to keep in the back of my van for sessions, something I’ve been talking about doing for several years.  There are always one or two stools available at the various studios I work, but you can never be sure if some old guy or pregnant woman is going to need them.  And there always seems to be one of two involved.  Maybe eventually as we die out as a breed there will be no more pregnant women, just a bunch of old people.  I have found that if I keep excellent posture, I can sing as well sitting as standing, and my feet and knees get a break.  Why am I sharing this?  I have no idea.

And now on to a much more exciting topic:  Jeans!

Ladies.  You curvy ladies.  You know who you are.  You are my sisters in the spirit of the hunt.  You spend an entire afternoon shopping for jeans because you want to find the ones that don’t have a huge gap in the waist above the butt because they fit your butt and not your waist.  I had been wearing the same two pair for the past year, and though I thought they fit as well as could be expected when I bought them, I still had to tailor them in the waist.  Then, well, you know the story: You take good care of them to start with, air drying them to keep the stretch fabric from breaking down and the cotton from shrinking, but this becomes tedious, and with time they’re eventually going to break down and shrink anyway.  My jeans and I had broken up months ago and were still spending time together.  We all know this is not healthy.  They were not supporting me in my positive self image, and I had nothing left but resentment for them.

There are many more options out there for us Curvies than there were ten years ago for sure, and if you’ve watched Oprah or any of the fashion what-were-you-thinking? shows you probably know some of the brand names.  Some of the first ones to hit the market were fab but a little pricey for me, like Cookie Johnson’s CJ line.  But I found a treasure at my local JCPenney: Lee Slender Secret brand and Penney’s own St. John’s Bay Secretly Slender. I was desperate and had only an hour or so to do the impossible; I had heard about the newer Lee styles and decided to do what I rarely do and enter the mall.  I shop the petites section but these brands are available in other sections as well.  I was able to find quickly two pairs that I love, and I chose the bootcut, back flap pockets styles.

The Lee brand is superior in my estimation, but St. John’s Bay runs a very close second.  I got the Lees in a dark indigo wash, and they actually do feel like pajamas or something I could work out in.  Seriously.  The SJBs are what I think they call “dark hand sand” — dark but with a little fade.  I don’t know if the wash has anything to do with the feel of the fabric, but the Lees with no fade just feel softer and stretchier. But I am still a fan of my SJBs.  And in my store they were 40% off the prices listed on the links I’ve provided.  I am going back this week to get a couple more pair, I like them so much — probably in black or grey and maybe a lighter color, too.  If I seem incommunicado, it’s because I am honeymooning with my jeans.