As mentioned in last week’s Petite Fashion Challenge post, my newest mission is to find non-jean casual pants. I live in denim, and even then, I only own about 3 different styles, with multiples of the styles I really like (like those darn bootcut Paige jeans you see me in almost every day in the Week in Outfits posts. I own more than one pair, I swear!). Even I’m getting bored with my lack of options, which means I’m sure you are too.
I believe my denim addiction grew for a few reasons:
1. I’m born and raised in Los Angeles, California, the denim capital of the world. With such a heavy film industry influence on fashion, designer denim is our uniform. The power suit comprises of a pair of Rock and Republic’s and a black blazer.
2. Up until recently, I worked in the research side of the biotech industry. When working with dangerous, corrosive, or acidic materials on a daily basis, the last thing you want to do is wear nice clothes.
3. Bottoms are really hard to find for my body type. Jeans, with their low-rise fits and stretchy fabric content, are the best fitting bottoms I can find without major and costly alterations, so I tend to stick to what’s easier and available to find. Some reasons bottoms are so hard to fit on me:
Now, I know you must be thinking by now…”just wear skirts! Duh!“…being the tomboy that I am, skirts are something I get the occasional itch to wear, but are NOT my everyday staple. In skirts, I find myself fidgeting, pulling, adjusting, smoothing, and just overall being aware of the fact I’m wearing a skirt. Often, the most pleasant part of my day is slipping out of a skirt, and back into a pair of pants…ahhhhh….that’s better!
So here is my latest attempt at casual non-denim pants, which just so happens to be a marvelous example of the fit problems I usually find with bottoms. I chose to try this particular pair after seeing them look fabulous on another petite blogger.
Take a look at how much extra fabric is folding and poofing at the crotch. I can literally grab a handful of extra fabric there. These pants are sitting on my high hip, which is where I like pants to hit, but are obviously supposed to sit much higher. The rise on these pants are too high for me, and without alterations, are giving me “man-crotch”.
Hiking the waist up to where the rise begins to flatten out results in “mom-pant” (no offense to all the stylish mom’s out there who do not wear mom-pants!):
The rise on these pants are far too high for me, swallowing up almost half of my torso. To sit at this height, the waist would need to be altered, and even after hiking the waist up, the crotch is still not very flattering.
Now let’s take a look at the rear:
Those are some sad looking legs! There is nothing good-looking about that rear view. If it weren’t for my ankles dangling out the bottom, you’d never guess there were any legs in there at all! These would need some major slimming if I were to alter.
To sum things up, I need:
- A much shorter rise.
- A much slimmer leg silhouette.
- or…a bazillion dollars for alteration costs.
The search continues!
Do any similarly sized ladies have casual-pant recommendations for me to try?
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