I love jeans. I practically live in them, even in the summertime – I’ve never been much of a shorts girl. I have always liked nice jeans, but am much too practical to spend too much on them, so I would categorize myself as a “fashionable, but not HIGH fashion” jeans girl. I’ll spend $50 on a pair of good jeans, but usually no more than that.

Back in December, I received an unexpected gift card in the mail for Saks Fifth Avenue. It was for $25 off a $100 purchase. On a whim, I thought it would be fun to go there and see if I could find a pair of designer jeans on sale for $100, then use the $25 off, and splurge a bit to get a pair of designer jeans for $75 (for the men out there who read my post – ahem, Dad – designer jeans usually run from $150 – $600). It just seemed like it would be fun to have ONE pair of designer jeans in my life.

So Chris and I went one night on a date and scoured all of the racks of overpriced jeans, looking for one pair that was waaay marked down. Chris was the one who found them – (don’t I have a nice husband??) – a pair of “Genetic Denim” jeans (which, of course, I had never heard of), originally marked at $220, and marked down to $68, plus 30% off of that!!! I couldn’t believe it. After my $25 gift card, they were $22!!! And, miraculously, they didn’t make me spend $100 to use my gift card. What a deal! A pair of designer jeans for 90% off!!

I was so proud. They looked awesome!! Of course I’m sure that I thought that they looked more awesome because I knew how much they were “worth”. They were way too long, so I spent the $22 over again to get them hemmed. Then they were just awesome. For about two months. The denim was really thin and cottony feeling, which was great, except that it took no time at all for it to develop tears and holes. It started out around the hem, which was fine – that’s stylish anyway, right? Then I started getting a pull on the leg. I went to Hancock and bought stuff to patch it from underneath to reinforce it. That didn’t work so well. Then it started to develop more weak spots, so I quit wearing them hardly at all.

We were getting pictures made last Thursday, and since I thought they were so much more flattering than all of my other jeans, I decided to wear them. Plus, my shirt was really long, so I knew it would cover all of the weak spots.

We took our family pictures first, and then after that all of the ones of just Ali. One of the times I was bending over to try to get Ali to stay still AND smile at the same time for at least half a second, I heard a loud and long “R-I-I-I-I-I-P”. Good thing I had a super long shirt on!! My designer jeans are definitely done for.

Yet I have another pair of jeans, which I bought at Lerner for $40 around the same time I bought my designer jeans (and have worn them much more since my designer jeans were so fragile), and they are not the slightest bit “worn”, and certainly not ripped!!

The moral of this story: Just because something costs $220 doesn’t mean it is worth $220. Although it was nice to feel “special” in a pair of designer jeans (that lasted all of 7 months), I wouldn’t pay more than $22 for the experience.

OK – maybe I’d pay a little more than $22. I do love jeans.

9 thoughts on “Designer Jeans

  1. I love my blue jeans as well! I have two designer pair, one that I did pay full price for (after going into the Seven store at least 4 times over a two month period and trying them on and kicking myself for even considering paying that much for a piece of clothing!) and a pair of Joe’s that I “borrowed” from my mom. Don’t worry, she borrowed a pair of my J crew’s that I bought on sale for 20! They have both held up for numerous washings and wearings.

  2. Oh stop it! Now you’re just tempting me!! I had gone and convinced myself that they weren’t worth the money, and there you are dangling them in front of my eyes and saying that they are!! ;)

  3. Have you checked out Plato’s Coset? They have a ton of “gently used” designer jeans at great prices (at least the one in Gainesville did). I’m all about the good bargain. I got a great pair of jeans there for $10! (can’t remember the brand and they’re currently put away in my “skinny clothes” storage bin. so sad :(…). There’s one in Trussville and one in Hoover across from the Galleria.

  4. I buy one pair a year at the yucky full price, but I find them always worth it because I wear them EVERYDAY AND NIGHT, as you know!!! Next time try Seven or Citizen (made by Seven, I think). They are the best and I have never had a problem with them wearing out or tearing…well, except for the time Jeremy and I were driving around the farm with the dogs running behind and I fell out of the back and caught my pocket on the trailer hitch and was dragged until my favorites FINALLY ripped right off of me!!! I was more upset about not having anymore jeans than I was about my awful injuries;-)

  5. I buy one pair a year at the yucky full price, but I find them always worth it because I wear them EVERYDAY AND NIGHT, as you know!!! Next time try Seven or Citizen (made by Seven, I think). They are the best and I have never had a problem with them wearing out or tearing…well, except for the time Jeremy and I were driving around the farm with the dogs running behind and I fell out of the back and caught my pocket on the trailer hitch and was dragged until my favorites FINALLY ripped right off of me!!! I was more upset about not having anymore jeans than I was about my awful injuries;-)

  6. I buy one pair a year at the yucky full price, but I find them always worth it because I wear them EVERYDAY AND NIGHT, as you know!!! Next time try Seven or Citizen (made by Seven, I think). They are the best and I have never had a problem with them wearing out or tearing…well, except for the time Jeremy and I were driving around the farm with the dogs running behind and I fell out of the back and caught my pocket on the trailer hitch and was dragged until my favorites FINALLY ripped right off of me!!! I was more upset about not having anymore jeans than I was about my awful injuries;-)

  7. I buy one pair a year at the yucky full price, but I find them always worth it because I wear them EVERYDAY AND NIGHT, as you know!!! Next time try Seven or Citizen (made by Seven, I think). They are the best and I have never had a problem with them wearing out or tearing…well, except for the time Jeremy and I were driving around the farm with the dogs running behind and I fell out of the back and caught my pocket on the trailer hitch and was dragged until my favorites FINALLY ripped right off of me!!! I was more upset about not having anymore jeans than I was about my awful injuries;-)

  8. Wow what a great bargain even if they didn’t last as long as you wanted. I once got a dress from JC penney for $1 after all the discounts and I think it was like a $50 dress. Which $50 is about what I spend on my jeans since I buy most of my clothes at Lane Bryant. Otherwise it is hard to find nice plus size (I hate that term) clothes.

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