We all know how hard it is to buy the perfect pair of jeans. Sure, there may be a limited number of colours you are realistically going to want to wear, but the number of different ways your jeans can fit is really spiralling out of control.
Sometimes the best thing to do is buy a pair that looks good and put in the extra effort to get the perfect fit when you get them home by stretching them out yourself. So how do you stretch your jeans the right way?
Forget about jeans stretching out on their own
As shoe salespeople have told many an uncomfortable patron, sometimes you just have to wear things a few times before they fit comfortably. If you’ve ever worn a pair of jeans before, you will know that there’s some truth to this. Denim will stretch and soften on its own, but only to a certain extent.
If you want to make a pair of jeans fit perfectly, it takes a lot more than just wearing them. Stretching jeans properly requires a whole process involving water and a whole lot of stretching…
Ask the experts: how should you stretch your jeans?
Raw denim authority Mr Black give a detailed jean-stretching method on their how to stretch denim jeans page. The process begins with getting your jeans wet by spraying or splashing them with water. This will loosen the threading, making it more pliable. Then, you put the wet jeans on and wear them around the house, doing some gentle lunges if you want to speed up the process. After that, you can take off your jeans and leave them to dry in their new shape.
Other expert tips are similar to this in principle. Getting the jeans wet, wearing them and leaving them to dry is the universally agreed stretching technique. There are, however, some disagreements as to how to make your jeans wet. One of which involves wearing them in the bath…
Do I need to wear my jeans in the bath?
In a GQ article on the perfect way to stretch out a pair of jeans, one of the experts they interviewed offered up this advice: “Wear them for a few days before climbing into a warm bath in them and soak for 20 minutes.”
This is not unheard of in the jean stretching world. Wearing jeans in the bath is just the most intense way to get them wet, but simply splashing them or spraying them with water will work fine too.
What size jeans should I buy if I am going to stretch them?
If you want to stretch jeans to perfectly fit your body shape, it does make sense to buy jeans that are one or two sizes too small. This way, when your jeans stretch out they will snugly fit your lower body.
Paul O’Neill, the GQ jean bather mentioned above, recommends buying jeans that are too long rather than too thin at the waist, which makes sense if you are going to wear them before they are the right size.
Are there any other ways to make jeans fit better?
If you’ve had a drastic change of shape involving, say, a foetus, but you have a favourite pair of jeans you just have to keep wearing, there is another way to fit your jeans to your size: Cutting the waistband and sewing in another piece of denim can help make your favourite jeans wider, and it can look great too. Check out this guide on how to do it here.
