ShopEatSleep

No doubt you’ve noticed the Gap 1969 “Born to Fit” jeans (named for the company’s founding year) ads around town or in the latest fashion magazine touting the pants as “America’s Best Fitting Premium Jeans.” When something is described as the “best” anything, I’m immediately skeptical. Maybe they’re the best for some, but certainly not for all, and most likely not for me.

Finding a good-fitting jean is not an easy task, as many of you, dear readers, can probably attest to. There’s gaping in the back of the waistband, or the length is too short or too long, or the crotch area bunches, or your butt looks too fat or too flat. And for someone with curves, like me, fitting into any jean that’s too skinny is pretty much a no-go.

So Gap comes along proclaiming its jeans as the “best fitting,” and naturally I said to myself, “Yeah, right!” Well, Gap may have proved me wrong.

Tara of When Tara Met Blog threw a Gap Born to Fit jeans party last week, meaning as a Gap Brand Enthusiast she got to invite a bunch of her friends to try on the new jeans and choose a pair to take home compliments of Gap. I was one of those friends, having served next to Tara on the Blogger Prom 2009 committee. Despite my skepticism, I figured I could at least try a few pairs on, and if I didn’t find any that were my “best fitting,” I wouldn’t take a pair home.

So I showed up to the party, which was held at the Gap 1969 pop-up store on Robertson Boulevard in West Hollywood (directly across the street from The Ivy, no less), and commenced looking at the myriad piles of denim while sipping on white sangria and nibbling on passed appetizers. Not a bad way to shop, right? Anyway, I decided to try on a pair of each style that was available, which means I tried on no less than six styles: Perfect Boot, Sexy Boot, Curvy, Long & Lean, Always Skinny and Real Straight. Gap also offers a Boyfriend cut, but I didn’t see that one at the store, nor would I have chosen that one for myself anyway.

So which ones did I like?

The Perfect Boot fit pretty nicely, with a mid-rise waist and good fit through the thighs. The double button closure is cute, too. I also liked the Long & Lean, but the bottoms were too wide for my taste. Ironically, after proclaiming myself too curvy to fit into any skinny jean, I really liked the Always Skinny. So much so that I ended up taking a pair home!

Let me tell you a little bit about my experience with these skinny pants. At first I was drawn to this gray pair with snap-button details at the bottom:

I usually fall somewhere between a size 6 and a size 8, so I tried on the last pair of size 8 I could find. Amazingly, the jeans fit perfectly through the thigh, but the waist was way too big. Then I found a size 6 in this dark gray pair:

I neglected to take a photo of the jeans I actually bought, so here's a pic from Gap's Web site

This pant fit much better in the waist, but it was tough getting it all the way on. However, I’ve always been told to get jeans a size smaller because denim stretches with wear. So I figured that as long as I could get the pants on and they looked good and not like I was busting out of them I could work with the smaller size. (I went with a size 6.) And I was right. I took home this dark gray pair and after wearing them for a few hours, the denim had stretched enough that the waist was almost loose again. They’re made with 99 percent cotton and 1 percent Spandex, so that explains how I even got them on in the first place.

So in the end, Gap, a brand that I rarely buy for myself, proved to be the only brand whose skinny jean I could actually wear. And at $69.50, it’s not cheap but won’t break the bank, either. And for a limited time all these jeans are $20 off (check the Gap Web site). So if you’ve never been able to find a skinny jean that will fit you, try these out. The other styles didn’t stand out to me, but none of them were awful, either. I didn’t experience any waist gaping in the back with any of them, so that’s usually a good sign.