Thinking that she is slim enough for a skinny, Syida Lizta Amirul Ihsan decides to give the super popular cut a try
SKINNY jeans is not for the slim but for the skinny.
I consider myself thin. I wear size S and I can fit into any free size clothes. But in the jeans universe, ruled by skinny queens with stick-thin long legs that stretch forever, I am chubby.
At 158cm, with a long torso and what my friends and I call “thunder thighs”, I am definitely not the right size for skinny jeans.
But I really wanted to try this cut.
Zarina Rahim, 25, who works at Bread & Butter, store du jour for designer American jeans with four-figure price tags, studies my shape and says: “You are not skinny. Thin maybe but a bit fleshy... so maybe you want to try a slim cut instead.”
She’s not being impolite. I had asked her to be frank. Turns out, in a designer jeans shop, I am on the heavier side.
“Well, if you want to wear skinny, choose a darker shade. A lighter shade will...”
“Make my thighs look bigger?”
She sheepishly nods.
LEG ISSUE
With over five years experience, Zarina is well-versed with customers’ demands. “Some want skinny jeans even though their body shape isn’t suitable. They will try it on but will give it up eventually.
“Frankly, skinny looks best on those who are skinny and tall. It elongates your legs. If you are short, well, you can wear them but the impact isn’t that great,” she says.
Bread & Butter, which stocks True Religion, Evisu, 7 For All Mankind, Paige and a host of other designer jeans is a favourite among the city’s stylish set.
“For those who can afford it, a good pair of jeans is the ultimate clothing to get. It accentuates your curves and the high-quality denim makes wearing them super comfortable,” she says.
About my height but thinner, Zarina “prefers slim cut because I am not tall enough for the skinny.”
Skinny jeans look best on women with 61-66cm waist. That automatically excludes, I believe, more than 80 per cent of the local population.
“It is so popular, especially in the past three years, because it’s a trend on the runways. That’s why people aspire to wear them,” she says.
THE ONE
So my search begins for a perfect pair of jeans and hopefully, a skinny. A Paige skinny (RM1,259) in indigo looks good on me.
But where the thigh fits, the waist is loose. If I go down one size, the side seams will show. Brimming at the seams is not a flattering look.
A greyish-blue 7 For All Mankind skinny jeans (RM1,399) amplifies my thighs so badly I could not wait to take it off. A straight cut True Religion pair (RM1,299) is made of coarse cotton and feels abrasive against my skin.
After 20 minutes, I find the perfect pair — a straight cut by 7 For All Mankind (RM1,399) which gives me ample space for my hips.
But don’t be fooled. It is only straight cut by name. It looks like a skinny, which means my thighs still look big.
So now I know. I am too fleshy for a pair of skinny. And while you may have money to spend on designer denim, without the perfect figure (think Miranda, Gisele and Kate) one is better off investing in a personal trainer for trimmer thighs.
Now, if only something can be done about my height.
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