Jeans
March 20, 2024
Writer: Claudia Hurst
Editor: Jules Alfieri
Jeans are my favorite article of clothing. In every store I walk into, I gravitate towards the aisle that houses various denim washes and shapes. Jeans are the focal point of the outfits I plan out in my head, and the only item in my closet that never goes out of season. While many aspects of our wardrobes evolve and change as we grow physically and adopt new styles, the best pairs of jeans know no shelf life.
My favorite is a deep blue, wide-leg pair of Mother jeans. I remember buying them with my mom before the fall of my junior year of high school. I grew five inches the summer before and my wardrobe needed an urgent update. Unfamiliar with fitting into adult clothing, my mom found the miscellaneous pair hanging all alone on the sale rack in the back of the store. I loved the boot-cut ends and the way the material shaped my brand-new long legs. This is the pair that made me fall in love with jeans.
I still wear my favorite pair of jeans to this day. Since their purchase over four years ago, they have hung in many different closets and followed me through many changes in my physical location and appearance. They now sit at ankle level instead of grazing the top of the ground, but somehow they remain continuously molding to what I need them to be. Perhaps that is the beauty of a dependable pair of jeans.
More than just their treasured place in the closets of most women, I believe that jeans are also a metaphor for analyzing young women as people.
In a lot of ways, jeans have many similarities. When I pick up a new pair, I can visualize a related color or cut I already have in my closet. But they each have a unique feel; a composition specific to themselves.
Similarly, as young women, I believe that we are more alike than we are different. This thought has circled in my head all year, as I brushed my teeth alongside a different resident of my sorority house each night, or engaged in random conversations with new friends; I discovered that, while we too have our own distinct composition, our dreams and questions about the world are universal. Each of our paths seems parallel to one another.
I also believe that young women are constantly searching for the “perfect fit.” Whether that is in our career aspirations, romantic and platonic relationships, or a pair of jeans; we search for the things that check all of our boxes with the hope that the result will make us feel our best.
However, as I sit here writing in my deep blue, wide-leg pair of Mother jeans, I am forced to consider that perhaps the best things are those that grow with us. The dreams that we construct over time, the long-term relationships that we continue to pursue, and the pair of jeans that weathers through all of our different eras.