MADEWELL EX-BOYFRIEND SHORT

I'm off to New York in a few days and I hope these look as good in person as they do in this picture. Madewell 1937 ex-boyfriend shorts.

HOT DARK WASH

Just caught sight of these Lee jeans on asos. Don't normally go for a bootcut, or a standard dark jean, but the wash on these looks stunning.

FRIDAY'S OUTFIT

I succumbed to the lure of the shops yesterday, and bought my first pair of jeans since i started writing about denim. I also bought a fine blue oxford smock shirt from the Steven Alan range at Uniqlo, which looks very nice with my new jeans. (It also looks a darn sight better than the picture of it. Very Margaret Howell, especially the white plastic buttons.) I am proudly wearing the spoils today. I shall be looking very dashing in the pub this evening in this attire as well. The jeans are not made from Japanese denim, and they are not long-lasting, investment-denim beauties. But they were £34.99 and they have seams down the front and back legs, which, along with visible button flies and elasticated hems, is my personal denim heroin. They are also printed, fasten at the back (a little strange to get used to, especially without the aid of a mirror), and have a very cheap wash effect on them that Australian friend pointed out when I triumphantly tried them on last night, somewhat bursting my bubble. I shall be addressing with recourse to sandpaper. River Island has named these beauties 'treggings'.
If you too think I'm super stylish and would like to know more, I will be pairing the jeans with my ankle height cowboy/vintage boots, still available on sale from Office. Oh don't worry, they were on sale when I bought them too, and had an extra £5 off because they had a mark on them. I don't have posh denim smugness, but I definitely have British high street smugness. Familiar to all of us with access to the shops, this results in any compliment on your outfit being greeted by 'thanks. Fifteen quid. New Look.' in the absolute certainty that the complimenter wanted to know price and shop, rather than just telling you that you looked nice.

DENIM DRESS

The longer I have been writing and posting about denim, the more denim I find myself wearing. Given that I wore denim most days anyway, that's a lot. I was at a party last summer, dressed as a hippie (fancy dress), and someone said 'I don't mean to be rude, but do you actually have that much denim in your wardrobe'. I was in flares, a denim shirt and a denim waistcoat at the time. I took the bus to Clapton dressed like this you understand.
It's got to the stage where pretty much the only things I contemplate buying are denim-based, and my planned summer purchases are no exception. What I really want is a denim dress. I have been mooning over the girl in the picture from The Sartorialist in that great full-skirted, button through dress. This Diesel one is the closest thing I can find at the moment, but it's not totally there. And although I want everything from the Imogene + Willie collection (shirt, dry jeans, amazing washed jeans), I want the adorable chambray smock the most. I am picturing myself at the festival I'm going to in July (I'm forward planning), and I'm clearly in top to toe denim again. And the answer is yes, I really do have that much denim in my wardrobe.

SHOPPING

Siwy tie-dyed crop & Gio Goi bleached acid wash skinny

Asos own-brand track pant jean & Levi faded cuffed skinny slouchMcQueen capri & Wrangler bell-bottom
Siwy sequin jeans & Asos own-brand jegging


So I haven't been doing as much work today as maybe I should, because I have been looking at pictures of jeans on asos. (I like how that sounds like I've never looked at jeans on websites before. I do it practically every day.)

I'm pretty happy with my jeans at the moment. I've just ripped the knee of a pair of faded black ankle skimmers, and I'm wearing them with a small cuff. I've got a great pair of black dropped crotch Levi's Blue trouser jeans and I'm forcing myself to wear my high rise, wide leg 18th Amendment jeans because they were very expensive and I'm going to get good wear out of them if it kills me. They make me feel a bit mumsy, but that's my general problem with wide leg and flared jeans. However, I think they look pretty cool with a denim shirt. When it finally gets warm, I will be wearing my Current/Elliott Chambray bloomers, and trying not to look like I've just escaped from a women's prison.

But there's happy, and then there's lots of exciting new jeans out there. There's a calibration that goes on whenever I look at pictures of people in jeans on websites. Firstly of course I figure out whether I like the jean, but there are styles and washes that I won't even notice, let alone linger over, before rejecting them. It's the magic shopping equation of 'do I like it + will it fit me + will I look totally ridiculous and/or fat + is it the right version of this jean + does it look cool or dated + is it going to transform my wardrobe and my life in some mystical way'. Yeah, it's a tough qualification process. These are the winners that made it through.

1. Definitely need some bleached/tie-dyed/acid washed affair. Mentally checking if I have a pair of jeans I could attempt this with rather than buying a pair. I think these Siwy's are my favourite.
2. Love a track-pant jean with an elasticated hem. There's a great Diesel pair on asos as well. I think the slim-slouch shape is actually nicer than the boyfriend shape, and I love the pale washes. I might be alone in this though - you can't move for pictures of people in boyfriend jeans, althgouh I haven't seen any out and about on the street yet.
3. Having said that my dark wide leg jeans make me feel mumsy, I can't resist a vintage look. Either of these jeans would make me feel like I was in a movie with Steve McQueen or Paul Newman, and I think that always tells you you're looking at something with exudes class and style.
4. I'm not going to buy a pair of jeggings. But I'm pretty sure that by October I will have some form of shiny legwear. This, unlike #3, will not be an item that exudes class and style, but I will buy it anyway.

ACID WASH + PREPPY

This combination of acid wash and preppy is the only way I can see this type of wash crossing over into the mega seller, instead of the niche/TopShop style young fashion. It kind of makes the J.Crew style edgier, without being too scary. I adore J.Crew.

Picture courtesy of Go Fug Yourself.

TWENTY8TWELVE AW09

I secretly love Twenty8Twelve jeans. No, I have no pride. I would prefer it if people in the public eye didn't pretend that they did all the work, keeping the designers hidden in the cellar with only thread and pincushions for nourishment. (From what I hear, Victoria does more than most on her jeans, and Savannah does the knitwear for this line. Happy to pass on unsubstantiated rumours!)
But I can see the huge benefit for a company in having an immediate connection with a possible audience rather than having to establish a brand in the public imagination, and having a 'lifestyle' proposition already created for you that people can identify with and buy into. Much time saved and a direct framework to create within and speak through. Might not be right, but certainly effective.

And with Twenty8Twelve they had some really stunning detailing, feminine and classic touches and great ideas. The stud rivets were a great idea, lovely welt pockets, stand-out full leg zips & buttons, cool leather belt loops. Needless to say, I couldn't get into the jeans, as they were a long way away from stretch although the denim was lovely to look at.
Love these though. Denim with no detailing, no pockets, possibly even a jegging. Look really cute. When will we tire of skinnies?

If you're interested, full collection at coutorture.com

CHEAP TUESDAY

Courtesy of guest-posting on Denimology, I've come across this new Scando denim brand, Never Denim. They're a girly version of Cheap Monday - affordable & edgy. I'm pretty much in love with the one shoulder lightening bolt dress. Full catwalk collection pics on Denimology & the Never Denim website.

DENHAM

Denham are a pretty new jeans brand, and I heard about them last year through my friend in Hong Kong, whose factory they use for some of their stuff. I may have got the wrong end of the stick but I think that the guy behind Denham was involved in setting up Blue Blood. Anyway, the website and new collection looks pretty fancy. www.denhamthejeanmaker.com

But I have to confess it wasn't my early uptaker, cool trend ability which brought these jeans to my notice. I actually spend most of my free time on asos, www.asos.com. This is a great shape, and there's been some of it around in menswear, but I love it for summer and I think its going to carry forward in streetwear brands for next summer as well.

CURRENT/ELLIOTT RESORT 2009

New photos from the Current/Elliott Resort 09 collection, which looks totally gorgeous, and even persuades me towards cropped bootcuts (terrifying thought). Current/Elliott are so super successful at the moment that I hope their aesthetic pushes the premium market into a more exciting fashion direction.

Having worked for a premium brand, my first instinct is to be horrendously jealous of other people's success. I've spend the last 6 months grumbling about pictures of Katie Holmes in Current/Elliott cuffed ripped jeans (like no one knew how to wear jeans until celebrities showed us how). I'm also cynical about pictures of celebrities in jeans to the point where it just sucks the joy out of looking at gossip magazines for everyone within a 50 metre radius of me.

But my wizened heart has been won round by these pictures. It's lovely to have a jeans brand with a strong combination of fashion, femininity and vintage style. They obviously know who they are and to create such a beautiful bubble of images to convey that sensibility is not an easy job. They also seem to be trying to create something more than jeans which exist in the handbag/luxury flat shoes/sunglasses/make your bum look cute axis, which, thank god.

So, I'd like a pair of the Victorian bloomer style chambray jeans please!

http://www.currentelliott.com/

BUILT BY WENDY

I've been trawling the sale rails with my no money, and I found this on the Built by Wendy site (www.builtbywendy.com). BBW is one of those brands that makes me feel like its my private discovery, as I don't think you can get it anywhere in the UK, and the two stores I have found, one in Williamsburg and one in San Francisco, I stumbled upon by accident. This makes me not only love it, but also sort of trust what they do (you know, if they can manage to put themselves in the way of my stumblings not once but twice, then they must be cool...).

All of which has made me re-think my feelings towards marbled jeans. We've been talking about them a lot for the next couple of seasons - AW09, SS10 etc. Those Jil Sander marbled suits were pretty striking, and that kind of thing tends to shift people's eyes. Also, there's nothing some people won't wear to look cool. And most importantly, after years of jeans with minimal texture, achieving some kind of texture/colour/pattern on the leg looks right. Tints & acid washes combined with shorter vertical slubs are already moving into the mainstream.

But, I think this is the first time I've seen this kind of wash and thought that I actually might like to wear it...