Talking about dyeing my black jeans last week got me to thinking about how many pairs of jeans is a reasonable amount to own. I have 5 pairs of jeans. That number may sound high. However, I keep my jeans until they can no longer be repaired.
I even hang on to jeans that I've outgrown, because I know my body. I may be too big for a pair one year, then 5 years later that same pair is the right fit, until they aren't. My body size goes up and down, and I'm comfortable with that. So my jeans are in a couple of sizes. I have jeans that I bought when I was slightly larger and jeans that I bought when I was slightly smaller.
And (a big and) I don't buy really trendy styles in jeans. As you can see, these jeans go back more than a dozen years. I never did go in for the skinny jeans. I didn't think they would look good on me. I pretty much avoided low-rise jeans, as well, when they were "in" 20 years ago. I stick with cuts and styles that are flattering to me. That means that jeans that I bought 15 years ago are not so extreme that their fashionableness or unfashionableness is obvious. And at my age, no one is expecting me to look trendy, one of the gifts of aging.
I have both work and good jeans. When I'm at home working in the house or yard, I put on the work jeans. When I go anywhere, I put on one of the good jeans.
The two pairs on the left are my work jeans. The far left pair used to be my son's when he was in high school. The second ones over used to be my "good" jeans in 2012. They're now my go-to jeans for gardening. By always wearing these jeans when doing physical work, I keep my good jeans looking nice for longer. I patch and mend these jeans as needed.
For slit type of holes, I use the zig zag on my sewing machine to go over the hole multiple times, adding a scrap of fabric on the underside.
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| an inside patch in a hole in the crotch of my work jeans |
reinforcing the patch on the top side as needed.
The three pairs on the right side of the pile are my now "good" jeans, one dark blue, the other two black. I take good care of these jeans to keep them looking as new as possible for as long as possible. Some of the things I do to keep them looking nice: 1) I hang these jeans on hangers in the closet; 2) I launder them inside out in cold water; 3) I hang them on a rack indoors to dry; 4) I never kneel in these jeans; 5) I never wear these jeans for physical work; 6) you already know this, I over-dye these jeans when they begin to fade.
So that's my number. I seem to need about 5 pairs of jeans, some larger, some smaller, some older, some newer.
How about you? How many pairs of jeans do you own? Do you separate your jeans into work jeans vs nice jeans? Do you tend to hang onto jeans that you outgrow, or do you pass those on to someone else? At what point do you retire a pair of jeans?
