This is exactly why my wife and I shop online at Lands' End and the like--to find clothes for people who aren't fashion models (Women--5' 11'', 100 pounds; Men, 6' 2'', 120 pounds).

I have the hard-to-fit problem from the other end, Rachel... I'm 6'1" and overweight.

My legs are not overly long--in fact they're a little bit shorter than average, yet I always have a problem finding pants that don't make me look like I'm waiting for a flood. I hate capri pants.

I *think* that the main reason why jeans in your size are always too damned long is that they're meant to wear with shoes with shoes which have very high heels or platforms.

Girl, those jeans are long because you're supposed wear them with 4-inch stilletos. Don't ask why a man knows this. ;o)

Me, I personally want to abuse the bastard that thought low-rise jeans for men is a good idea.

Except the sick bastard would probably enjoy the beating.

Lime Green and Orange are my two favorite colors.

The scourge of my shopping trips? CAP SLEEVES.

Also, I actually have a shape, so anything that's on the shelf right now is liable to not fit me. Shopping is a nightmare that usually reduces me to a crying mess upon my return home.

Except for those empire-waisted shirts you mention. I'm wearing one of those right now, in fact, and the only thing that bothers me about it is that I feel like I'm flashing my bra to my co-workers.

I imagine you would have been a good mom and your kids wouldn't be ungrateful little shits -- because you would have stopped that shit in its tracks. Because your mom taught you better and it sounds like it stuck.

Problem is, kids are, in point of fact, born little shits and it's parents job to train that out of them. As John Rosemond has said, it takes about 13 years to do that. And your job's a lot tougher if you don't have them well on that road by the age of 5. But not impossible.

The parents of the children you see have worked too hard at the kids' gratification being the focus of their lives rather than their training for adulthood.

This is one of the main reasons I fear for freedom's future. You don't have to be an adult to vote. You just have to be 18.

Two words: Ann Taylor

Yes, they have a petite section.

Yeah, Ann Taylor has petites, but not the right jeans! Seriously, I can't remember the last time I had a pair of goddamn jeans that weren't too long--and hell no, I don't take them to get altered, I'm too lazy.
Except! Joe's Jeans makes a couple for normal height women (they think it's for short ones, but it's normal). I wish I could remember which one it is--not the Honey jean, but something that's been around about that long. Check Revolve Clothing online or the Joe's Jeans site.

Oh yeah, once my wife discovered Anne Taylor, my wallet took a massive hit. It's worth it though. It's actually CLASSY. Something completely missing from all of these other crap stores.

I fifth the Ann Taylor notion. Or Ann Taylor Loft. I discovered these fabulous stores last year and my closet has never been the same.

I had the EXACT same thoughts wandering through Macy's on Monday. Who decided that the crap we wore in the '60s and early '70s was cool again? I hated it then, I hate it more now. Ugly colors, horrible geometric patterns, material that melts if you get too close to a lightbulb -- UGH!

Ann Taylor, Land's End, love 'em both.

Here's an interesting stat. Except for the tails of the distributions, all women have almost identical sitting heights: 24" or 60 cm. And all men are 28", or 70 cm. One interesting effect of this is that 5'9" men have exactly the same length leg as 5'5" women. Their hipbones are exactly the same distance from the floor.

Etc. Should make shopping for jeans or other pants easier; I know a few women who prefer the cut and quality and cost of men's jeans, e.g.

BTW, IMO denim is the worst fabric ever perpetrated on human clothes wearers, just above burlap. It wears poorly (breaks and tears spread rapidly along straight lines), holds water, doesn't breathe -- but despite that is cold in winter, doesn't flex, is heavy, and doesn't take colours well. It's like a brain-dead teenage fad institutionalized.

Oh, well. Chaçun à son goût. Especially the masses. ;)

Just to clarify the above, every man has the same leg length as a woman 4" shorter. Heels etc. disguise this fact on the street, but in flats or socks it works almost perfectly. :)

It's nice to see you back. I missed your 'face'.

I've always believed that women's fashions were designed by insane misogynists.

Sizing is quite possibly the worst. Not only can the same size vary between designers(even if the'designers are K-Mart and Wal-Mart), they can vary wildly in the same line. My wife found a pair of jeans that really fit her well--so she bought three pairs. Only one fits well. One is much smaller(while being the same 'size') and one appears to have been designed for a shape other than human--there's room for a prehensile tail in them.

And the look--it's as if they've looked at the fashions of the 70s and 80s and decided to fuse all the worst ideas.

I don't know... I think the right pair of jeans on the right woman can look pretty sharp.

Expecially with heels.

Well, heels kick everything up a notch ;-) Even burlap.

Not that I mind other fabrics. And I am a big fan of skirts & dresses. ... On women ...

In case ... you ... might ... be getting... the wrong idea. (backs away slowly to go out to the garage and check on his power tools).

Okay, this really hit my spot today. I was in Macy's trying to find clothes just last week and thought all the same things!!

But I had a baby 9 months ago and I'm just happy to wear something that isn't *actually* a maternity shirt. With a big stain on it from who-the-hell-knows-what that probably started as one of my children's bodily fluids. Or my own. Who the hell knows. Whatever it was, it didn't belong at work with me.

In a word, Macy's SUCKS! They have NO idea how women want to dress and keep foisting upon us poor unsuspecting females the very worst clothes the world has ever seen.

Talbots, Coldwater Creek, Land's End - my faves.

And speaking as a larger sized woman with some decent junk in my trunk - jeans are my enemy.

(Oh, got here in a very roundabout way but glad you are back.)

I have been searching this page since you returned, doing a search with each new post just in case I have missed it; but so far i have not.

What this blog needs, what it must have, instead of fashion advice, is More Asshat. In fact, let me put it to you this way:I’ve got a fever, and the only prescription is more Asshat.

I miss hearing you say that.

Just sayin, is all.

Sadly, I'll not comment on fashion but on the state of child rearing in the US. Most parents have their lives dictated by their children, have no control over their kids and still spoil them crazy.

The fact alone that kids get to talk to their parents in that way is despicable... the fact that the parents reward that behavior with clothes and prodcuts... really scary!

I thought I'd come back and comment on child-rearing.

I'll come right out and say that I was spanked as a child. It wasn't just short swats on the butt, either - it was full-out, I'm-gonna-get-you-for-that spanking and swatting with objects.

Although my case is a tad extreme, there are definitely things I learned VERY quickly not to do.

The problem today is that if a parent hits their child as punishment (or hell...takes away their TV, to hear some accounts), it's viewed as child abuse, and DCS will come and stick their noses into the mix. A kid can get away with a LOT nowadays simply because parents are too well-trained to be absolute pussies about punishment, and kids are trained to think that the world really does revolve around them. Above a certain age, spanking your child as punishment becomes a little weird (I'd say age 5), and it really should just be the THREAT of punishment that's enough to keep kids sidelined from acting like assholes, but younger kids are trained to learn right from wrong by very direct signals, and while smacking a child around isn't a great thing to do by any stretch of the imagination, a swat on the behind (and no coddling when they cry...that's another one that's counter-productive) can go a looooong way toward teaching a kid not to sass if talking to them just isn't getting anywhere.

The BEST thing to do, though, IMHO, is teach by example. I know several people who are just as nice as they can be, and their parents never laid a hand on them. It's not their religion, their race, the area they live in, or anything like that...it's the fact that their parents treated them like people from a young age, and treated them with the sort of respect you treat another adult. In turn, they expected respect, and if the kids smarted off, they were simply not given what they'd requested. The parents said that if the request couldn't be given in a nice way, then a positive respose wasn't necessarily deserved.

Being a teacher, I can tell you it's 99.9% of the time the PARENTS' fault. It started with the damn hippie/flower children. When they had kids, at least the grandparents were still from the 'old school' in regards to respect. Then those kids had kids, who had a little bit of the trickle down. Now the kids today have not had anyone to provide guidance, so we have these whiney-butt brats who only know immediate gratification. Because their parents would rather let $$ and video games raise their kids than take the times themselves.

Thank you, Brian, for providing a reasonable explanation for why I've been wearing men's jeans for the last five years. (All the loose cuts, though. I suffer from the Have An Actual Figure jeans-buying problem.)

Now, if only I could shorten the crotch, I'd be perfectly set.

I don't know if you are interested in doing this or not but you could always make your own clothes. It'll let you pick your own fabrics and styles, and it's actually a LOT cheaper.

It's not that hard, either.

I came here via cold fury... great blog, welcome back :)

You'll prolly hate me for being a progressive and for being a fat guy, But I'm a good listener. so, nyah!

I bookmarked ya...

-Chuck

I've always believed that women's fashions were designed by insane misogynists.

No, they are designed by gay men seeking to eliminate the competition.

"The BEST thing to do, though, IMHO, is teach by example."

I think this should be tried first for every kid. However, I can tell you without a doubt that it doesn't work for "spirited" children. My son doesn't listen unless there is a threat of a swat, and doesn't remember unless there has been a swat. It's administered rarely and fairly, so he knows exactly what to expect. Now he even approaches his punishments in a mature manner. He KNOWS when he deserves it. He's 4, BTW.

"I don't know if you are interested in doing this or not but you could always make your own clothes."

Not so much anymore. Fabric prices reflect the fact that most people buying fabric are hobbyists just screwing around. These inflated prices just can't compete with Chinese made clothes assembled from Chinese made fabric made from Chinese grown cotton/wool/whatever. Especially once you factor in your time.

Man! I am going to post about things like this more often because dang I get some great advice! Am definitely going to look into Ann Taylor.

The whole "petite" issue - that reminds me of another pet peeve - if the average woman is less than 5'4", and I am 5'4", why do only "petite" sizes fit my height? What the hell is going on here? I don't have particularly short legs or anything to explain it.

Oh and by the way - I am gonna have to write an entire manifesto about high heels. Those things are tools of TORTURE, am I right girls? Jesus Christ. I'd rather get a colonoscopy than run around in those things.

Geez, I came over from eject etc and you're talkin fashion. If I want my mind novocained I can listen to my wife and sister in law and their shoptalk. Just kiddin' Rachel. I do have 3 'kids'ages 37, 31 and 25. NASA's not calling them with job offers but then again the FBI isn't looking for them. I actually like them. For me, that's important. They were raised mostly by their Mom because my job kept me from home a lot. My contribution was basically, do unto others... and DON'T litter. Look forward to future visits.

I used to think the obesity epidemic was hype, until I went shopping for jeans. It had been years since I’d bought a new pair of jeans. I’ll wear a pair until the cuffs and knees are so frayed my wife won’t let me leave the house.
I’m on the small size for a guy (5’6” – 130) so my ideal size is a 28/30. I can live with a 30/30 with a belt. No early moonrise for me, thank you very much.
But in store after store the smallest waist I could find was a 40. WTF! Even Sears, where they have neat little bins for all the sizes, start at 32. I guess I’ll have to start eating more.

"Sizing is quite possibly the worst. Not only can the same size vary between designers(even if the'designers are K-Mart and Wal-Mart), they can vary wildly in the same line. My wife found a pair of jeans that really fit her well--so she bought three pairs. Only one fits well. One is much smaller(while being the same 'size') and one appears to have been designed for a shape other than human--there's room for a prehensile tail in them."

This isn't the designers' fault--it's poor quality control, and it is EVERYWHERE. I learned long ago to not buy a pair of pants unless I'd tried them on myself.

HA! Did you try on the skinny jeans with the waste that comes just above your butt crack? Those ar emy personal favorites.

I'm 5'7 and several tens of pounds overweight...those jeans don't even get over my knees. And those shirts...I don't need ANY help looking pregnant thank you very much.

Apparently, the designers have concluded that men are massive land-beasts and women are elongated creatures thin and brittle enough to snap like twigs.

Their sex lives must be interesting.

"I am gonna have to write an entire manifesto about high heels. Those things are tools of TORTURE, am I right girls? Jesus Christ. I'd rather get a colonoscopy than run around in those things."

They *can* be torture, but they also can be hella fun. Three-inch heels are my standard office wear, and they make some dance moves a little easier.

All right, as a maker of women's jeans I have to comment. I'm not in charge of fashion, though. That'd be the missus.

We do make our jeans long, on purpose in fact. This is because in order to grade these things for every body type you'd have to maintain incredible inventories - this just isn't cost efficient for us small manufacturers. I'd be stuck with equal amounts of 24 inch waist and 34 inch legs along with 34 inch waists and 26 inch legs. The average body type would end up paying more because I can't sell any of these specialty sizes - I'm forced to cut a certain amount of both larger and smaller sizes in order to minimize the amount of denim fabric wasted. So every additional size means I have to add at least one more size to match it on the other extreme end.

I've actually had a boutique owner (built like Ann Coulter if she had a tape worm) request a 23 inch waist 33 inch leg jean. I haven't gotten around to producing a line of that yet.

Our women's and missy jeans (read "large" and "mid-rise", respectively) all have a 33 inch leg, regardless of waist size. This is to fit as many bodies as possible with one jean, obviously. Since we sell primarily to better boutiques, many of these stores have a seamstress on call for just these types of alterations. Nordstrom's will even hem for free.

Our contemporary (low-rise) jeans are graded, though. We take a little more risk here in fitting fewer bodies and bank on the styles to sell the jeans. We don't make as many of these jeans, as we are gearing towards the brittle and breakable with this line.

As many here have pointed out, high heels and denim is a very popular look - you need an extra three inches on the hem for that look. Couple that with a little spandex in the denim, and you've got an automatic butt-lift. By all means, this is where we must go.

To those who would berate denim, know this: not all denim is made equally. The right denim can last a lifetime, yet still can feel as soft as a cotton shirt. It is likely that you, like most of us, have only been treated to crappy quality denim.

Sizing is another issue entirely. Normal tolerance in manufacturing is up to 10% larger or smaller than the measurements specified on each and every garment. Waist sizes vary up to an inch, and if the leg comes within an inch of specified, you've done well, my son.

Each manufacturer chooses their sizes based on an arbitrary measure. For example, our contemporary size 28 is actually a 29 inch waist (pre-wash) - so if our chemical wash process doesn't shrink them that much (say if we go with a less faded wash), then the 28 may come out closer to a 29.

We created the medium size for some of our garments based on the missus' size before she had lost some weight - so I guess we're trying to fit my wife circa 2003. When she was bigger.

So long post short: In answer to the question, "Who is in charge of fashion?" I heartily answer, "It ain't me."

While we're on the subject, can anyone explain women's dress sizes to me. The ladies have so many more measurements to take into account, how can that be reduced to a single number. Boggles the mind, it does...

The BEST thing to do, though, IMHO, is teach by example. I know several people who are just as nice as they can be, and their parents never laid a hand on them. It's not their religion, their race, the area they live in, or anything like that...it's the fact that their parents treated them like people from a young age, and treated them with the sort of respect you treat another adult. In turn, they expected respect, and if the kids smarted off, they were simply not given what they'd requested. The parents said that if the request couldn't be given in a nice way, then a positive respose wasn't necessarily deserved.

I'm glad you said this. I was about to reply to what you wrote before this (about hitting kids).

I've got 3 daughters. 18,16,16 (twins).
Unlike my peers, I've raised them properly (values, discipline, etc). Never had to hit them. Put the fear of God in them a number of times. Intersting though...recently got divorced, and all 3 chose to live with me - the by far stricter parent. When they were younger, it was a difficult thing to stick to my guns, because the ex-wife was so permissive, so I frequently looked like "the bad guy" - a position I hated to be in, but realized was in the best interest of my kids. But trust me, it paid off in spades. Any other parent going through a similar situation, bear in mind that most kids will eventually come to understand and respect you for being responsible and teaching them right from wrong.

ScottS: If you've been frequently hitting your FOUR (!) year old toddler, so that he is already USED TO IT... YOU have a serious problem. No matter how you justify it, you are HARMING your child (psychologically). Sure, it will bring about the desired behavior - but at what price? You said: "However, I can tell you without a doubt that it doesn't work for "spirited" children. ". This is nonsense. A copout. You need to learn to use effective and less harmful ways of teaching your kid. There are many HEALTHY methods and techniques.

"doesn't remember unless there has been a swat".

Nonsense. He has a brain. He can remember without a swat.

"It's administered rarely and fairly, so he knows exactly what to expect."

Illogical. If it was so rare (and fair), how would he know what to expect? It's become ROUTINE - that's how.

"Now he even approaches his punishments in a mature manner."

A mature manner? A 4-year old approaching punishment in a "mature manner". Good grief.

You might get defensive and angry at what I'm trying to point out to you. So be it. You probably are very well-intentioned, and love your kid very much. I'm just trying to show you that you are making a mistake. Getting the desired behavior out of the child is NOT the only measuring stick. Please consider what I've said. Thank you.

Thank GOD for the newer style in women's jeans that are "meant to be worn with heels". Me and my 35" inseam appreciate no longer being forced to buy men's Levi's because nothing else was long enough. Some of us look lousy in capris--especially when they aren't meant to be capris.

BNueva - that is very interesting, I'm glad you posted it! It gives me an idea, too - since we have "boot-cut" jeans and all kinds of other specific kinds, why don't they make one called "high-heels" jeans or "flats" jeans? You know what I mean? The heels ones could be a standard 3-5"longer and the flats ones would be just the straight inseam measurement, crotch to heel.

One other thing I didn't bitch about but that drives me nuts is what some of the other women have mentioned - some of us have a FIGURE. My waist is a hell of a lot smaller than my hips, so most jeans that fit around my butt are huge around my waist, so I have to wear a belt, which creates this big lump of scrunched-in waistband. AGHGHGH. The need to make a "chicks with hourglass figures" jean. Not that my whole body is hourglass, I don't have big boobs, but still. We're just talkin about pants here.

Cybrludite- don't even get me started on dresses. I might have to write a whole post about that.

For anyone at the extremes of size, buying clothes is a pain in the neck. I'm 6'1" and heavy now, but still...

When I'd go into the tall shops, everything was made for a stringbean.

When I'd go into the fat ladies' shops, everything was too short, in both leg and sleeve length--and also too short-waisted. Plus, I have wide shoulders but am small in the boob department.

I like men's sweaters and knit shirts... they fit better and are longer in the body too. Men's clothing also seems to be more durable.

Plus, if you prefer cotton to synthetic fabrics, you're more likely to find that in men's clothing too. I'm more or less allergic to stuff like polyester--just too hot and it makes me break out. Men's cotton sweaters are nice.

Men's jeans don't really fit me either.

I guess the real answer to all of these clothing fit problems is to get rich enough to be able to have all clothes custom made. Hah! Don't I wish.

"don't even get me started on dresses. I might have to write a whole post about that."

Ah, I don't have a gripe with dresses or skirts. They let me avoid that challenge you mentioned with a waist being smaller than hips... and they have other benefits.

Men under 5'9" have similar problems. Good luck finding mens pants in lengths under 30", which is about the ideal length for a typical 5'9" male.

Well, I would guess that 5'9" is about the mean for distribution for male adult height, meaning half the men out there are 5'9" or LESS, and about 1/6 the mean are at least one standard deviation (4 inches maybe) shorter.

As a 5'7" male who would like to wear 29" length, or possibly 28" length depending on the cut, I am pissed.

And no, saying "you can hem them" is not an answer. A) when you hem pants cut for a taller man, you don't end up with the right proportions as the area above the thighs is still made for a taller man, and B) it adds to the cost.

And yes, kids in public suck.

Hooray for mail order. Sizes I want, no dealing with the public. I'm never wasting time in a mall again.

I have to speak in defense of the silent daughter.

My daughter (now 20) and I have had those one-sided conversations. She's not eye-rolling or anything - she just doesn't talk sometimes. (Other times I have had to ask her to rest her voice a while.) Trying on clothes is one of those times, don't know why. It can make things a bit difficult. My husband and I were talking once about the kind of man she will need when she looks for a life-partner and he blurted out, "He'll have to be a goddam telepath!"

But really she's a very sweet girl, respectful and so forth, tender conscience, so easy to hurt her feelings that I have to think about what I say. I don't know what is up with the silence and the sighing and so forth, but it beats certain alternatives.

"Fabric prices reflect the fact that most people buying fabric are hobbyists just screwing around. These inflated prices just can't compete with Chinese made clothes assembled from Chinese made fabric made from Chinese grown cotton/wool/whatever."

That's really too bad.

What a thread. High heels are TORTURE but hitting children is just FINE. You guys kill me.

First time reader, first post.
While I find the fashion comments very interesting I feel compelled to comment on child rearing. As a single father raising 2 teen boys (14 & 15), my 14 year old has recently "discovered" girls. In my house it has always been the rule that no friends are allowed in when I am not home, and certainly not any females. My 14 year old broke that rule last week and both he & the girl were given a stern lecture and were notifyed it was not to happen again. As could be expected it DID happen again this week. I requested my 14 yr old follow me out to my car where upon I sudenly and decisively bent him over the back of my car and proceeded to squarely kick him in the butt (with the side of my foot) with some intensity 3 or 4 times. Needless to say an object lesson was learned quite rapidly and I believe my son will cease & desist from this objectionable behavior (at least at my house). To those who object to this type of punishment I suggest "try it", I think you'll be amazed at the results.

I seemed to have touched a couple of nerves here.

I'll clarify with something: I was a REALLY "spirited" child. I had undiagnosed ADHD, was precocious, and was always testing limits (and lying, if we're being honest). While sometimes extreme punishments would cause me to just try to get around the rules more elaborately (again, while we're being honest), most of the time I would avoid doing whatever it was I'd done wrong to begin with when the threat of spanking was involved.

I will say, however, that my family took it a bit overboard. Yardsticks met my backside and broke. Belts, books...whatever was handy was used. And it was out of frustration most of the time rather than an actual last-ditch attempt.

I'm not condoning hitting a child for a regular punishment. In fact, the less you can hit a kid, the better. If your child continues doing something wrong, and no amount of reasoning, threatening, talking, and heart-to-heart can stop it, however, I think you can safely say that a quick swat to the butt will get your message across.

Obviously, every parent's choice for how to raise their kids is going to be different. And I don't know how I'm going to react to a child misbehaving until I have my own.

A good place to start, though, is by not over-indulging your kids to begin with. If they don't think you're going to give them everything they want, they'll be less likely to try to take advantage of you. 'Tis a fact.

I'm with you on the patterns. I can't find anything these days without hearts or stars or whatever on it (that, combined with the green thing makes me think that the Lucky Charms leprechaun is running the fashion industry). As for the maternity wear- oy! I'm kinda top-heavy, and it makes it look like my waist is the same size as my boobs!

But as far as the jeans go- at least you can hem or cuff. I'm 5'8" and insanely high waisted (I have no torso)- my inseam is like, 36 inches and jeans are always too short for me. I've got nowhere to go. And I hate, hate hate the fact that everything has to be ultra-low rise. Regular rise is low rise on me- I try to wear the ones with the inch long zippers and I have to worry about my hoo-ha popping out, not just my ass. That and the fact that they give everyone, no matter how skinny, that lovely muffin top look. Which is probably what those maternity tops are trying to hide.

I have spent the last few days looking for a dress for my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary dinner, and I have also had a terrible time. The dressy clothes that are available all come down to two options. The clothes either shout "OLD WOMAN" or "HEY, EVERYBODY, LOOK AT MY TITS!!!"

It doesn't help that I'm breastfeeding my infant son, so I absolutely MUST be able to wear one of my usual bras (spontaneous milk leakage is so not what I want everyone to remember about this gathering) in this dressed-up outfit that my grandfather insists I wear... and yet halter tops are the most prevalent kind of neckline out there in the not-old-woman styles. Whose idea was that?!?

The dresses for juniors are often cute and fun and pretty, but they are also much too revealing for my comfort at a family gathering. But the styles and colors of dresses I've found for grown women are so... grandmotherly.

So I am left scouring the racks for a dress that doesn't require a special bra and/or show so much boob that I'll have to spend the evening fending off both my husband and my son. I may have no choice but to buy something that covers me from neck to wrist to below-the-knee. Why is there no middle ground of modesty? Why is it feast or famine in the realm of breast coverage?

It's all very disappointing.

Rachel, find a local tailor and have the jeans hemmed. I have to do that for my daughter. Once you acknowledge that you'll have to do it with every pair, it's easy to find jeans. You just look for ones with the right styling and waist. The legs will be too long, but that's easily overcome. At least that's what works for me.

All this talk about Ann Taylor made me check out their stock price.

B Nueva -- holy Christmas, a 33" leg on all your jeans? What label is it?

And, erm...are you taking other suggestions?
:)

I really sympathize on the cap sleeves. I truly hate them, and everything has them at the moment. I also hate those maternity-like tops. I'm not thin, but I am hourglass shaped and that cut makes me look like a cow.

I also hate flares, but that's because I have embarrassing childhood pictures that feature me wearing flares, and I don't want that to happen again!

I do sew, and I can tell you that the fabric selection generally sucks unless you are a quilter.

Kate Q -

The label for our missy and contemporary jeans is Julie Nueva (my wife's name). The women's jeans are under the label J Nueva Rica.

I'm sure it does seem odd to do all of our missy and women's with a 33 inch inseam, but if we can count on most of our boutiques to offer hemming services - we can fit a lot more bodies. The 5% spandex in our jeans also has a lot of stretch, so we can fit women with bigger thighs in smaller jeans (women bodybuilders - get your jeans here!) We've thought about even offering a "manufacturer's coupon" to get the jeans hemmed through the boutique (hemming jeans usually costs only about $5 to $10).

Our contemporary line does go longer - we're thinking about making these all one long length (like a 35") too, but so far we've been grading them from short to long depending on the waist size.

And yes, we do take suggestions!