“I have often said that I wish I had invented blue jeans: the most spectacular, the most practical, the most relaxed and nonchalant.” – Yves Saint-Laurent
For the longest time, jeans were just… jeans. However, over the past few years, there has been a newfound craze with denim. Sure they’ve always been the go-to for weekends, errands, or even for dads doing yard work in the Spring, but it feels like the last decade has seen a popularization of jeans in a way that feels more pronounced and obsessive than before.
Raw, selvedge denim that used to be reserved for a enthusiasts has been recreated by fast fashion brands and high end designers alike, while the surge of vintage curation has fixates on all manner of old school Levi’s denim — especially the 501, which is the fit that have essentially become the model for every designer and clothes maker since. People from all corners of the fashion spectrum are thinking not just about the quality of denim they’re wearing, but also when they were made, where the pockets sit on the butt, how they’ll fade over time, or how they were faded in the past.
Not just that, but how your jeans fit also identify you — whether you know it or not — with a certain style of clothing, or where you stand in the spectrum of trend cycle jumping we all find ourselves being party to. If you’re wearing super baggy, low-rise jeans, you’re probably a Gen Z’er who’s embracing Y2K-core, and if you’re wearing skinnies you may be out of the loop, while wearing simple, mid-rise straight leg jeans may mean you lean a bit preppy in your style choices — either way, we can confidently say that no one wearing carpenter jeans has every whittled anything before. These days, where the jeans hit on your hips and fall at your ankles communicate something about you in a way that’s never been true before!
Still, regardless of trends, people have emotional attachments to their denim—everyone has a type of jean that they love, somewhat like, or utterly despise. And we all seem to be on a persistent journey of trying to complete the same objective: find the perfect pair of jeans. We have all worn a pair of stiff, boxy, and uncomfortable jeans that make that search all the more urgent. We’ve all experimented with nearly every jean style: flare, straight, baggy, skinny, oversized, bootcut, oversized—the list goes on and on. We’ve all been there. And when you find a pair—you hold onto them for dear life.
The search can be exhausting and seem never ending. One pair fits great in the legs, but provides a gap between your lower back and the jeans that not even a belt could fix. The other pair fits fantastic in the waist, providing that shape you’ve always been looking for; although, the bottoms are too long and you put your DIY skills to the test to cut the bottoms with a pair of scissors and—oop—yep, you’ve destroyed yet another pair of jeans. And the second you like a pair that are at least 65% wearable and likable, the trend cycle shifts onto something else. You feel that you cannot keep up and have accepted your fate that no jeans will ever fit you perfectly.
Well at least, that’s what we thought.
We are happy to announce that we have, finally, found the perfect pair of jeans—courtesy of Alex Mill.
“The designer shares that they focused on very classic, vintage fits, much like the ones they used in their campaigns—no trends, no studs, crazy washes, silhouettes, or anything of that sort,” says ELLE journalist, Dale Arden Chong.
We love the idea of reinventing timeless, vintage pieces for today—we love the classic feel of 50s appliances turned modern by Smeg products, or how record players have had their (very much deserved) resurgence in the past decade, and how car companies are remaking vintage cars with modern luxuries. With the rise of popularity in vintage Levi’s 501s, it is so awesome to see a brand that makes such high quality clothes put their spin on their interpretation of an all time classic.
Alex Mill has three different fits for women: The Carla High Rise, The Amber-Mid Rise, and The Bev Relaxed. The Carla High Rise is a straight leg fit that is the ultimate pair for a self-proclaimed denim perfectionist as they break in with time. The Amber Mid-Rise is a slimmer fit that appears to be a pair of flawless jeans that are broken in, yet still refined. And The Bev Relaxed is a more straight leg that hugs your hips if you buy true to size (and they suggest sizing up for a more hip-slung look!) All three of these fits come in two different washes: Vintage Light Indigo and Vintage Dark Indigo. And for men, they have one fit, AM Original, with three different washes: Vintage Light Indigo, Vintage Medium Indigo, and Raw Indigo. They dub them as a “cool, casual, and a comfortable” fit.
With the aforementioned struggle to find quality vintage denim that fits just the way you want, it’s really nice that they have free returns, which means you could give a few options a try without that fear of losing out on your money.
While we all find ourselves attracted to certain trends and nabbing the occasion great deal, we have generally been trying to invest in items that are made of high-quality materials and will last us years and years. Trends come and go, but finding a timeless piece that fits you perfectly is as good as gold. Vintage jeans may be a TikTok trend right now, but they’re also classics that you could’ve worn 40 years ago as easily as you can wear them today. Investing in something that may cost more at face value is almost always worth it due to the longevity of the product, the quality of the material, and the absolute essentiality that is a good pair of jeans.
We will be taking a trip to Alex Mill’s store here on the Upper East Side (on 86th and Madison) to try these jeans ourselves, but we’re linking some of our favorites below for you to try yourself!
