Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Colored Denim

Hi, all!

I figured it was time for a long overdue update on this little blog... it's been crazy trying to get ready for the step, practicing for the real test via the school, and just having my life happen. The wedding came and went, but the trip was so brief and hectic that I had barely any time to take pictures and what not... so it's a little saddening that I was not able to capture any of the outfits and any pretty pictures of the bride. Not to mention all the wonderful food at the wedding! But all in all, I'm glad that my schedule has calmed down somewhat and I can update the blog a little more often and share new things that I was able to acquire since Christmas on!

So back onto the title of the post, colored denim. Currently the new thing in fashion is colored denim. While I have been seeing a lot of designer brands (J brand, Hudson, 7 for all mankind, etc.) have been shelling out a ton of beautifully colored denim, I didn't feel like shelling out $150+ for a single pair of jeans for the following reasons:

  1. As much as I love colorful things in my life, I don't see myself wearing these jeans in the long run... Knowing me, I will always fall back to my safety net of dark blue/black jeans.
  2. The new in colored denim are meant to be worn in skinny jeans style. I don't have skinny thighs like most models. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you see it), I played sports and danced all of my life and my thighs have accumulated its fair share of muscle and now, fat, making skinny jeans a little more difficult to wear. 
  3. I like to shop smart. If I can find good alternatives for a designer piece, I will purchase the alternate especially if it's more trendy. I will dig deep into my pockets and invest in nice classic designer pieces but I probably won't dig that deep into my pocket for trendy pieces until I'm not on student salary. 
So to complete my goal of buying trendy pieces but at fraction of the price, I shopped around. Two stores with the most vast colored denim collection were American Eagle Outfitters and Zara. 


Skinny jeans and legging from AEO                            Skinny jeans from Zara
You can find them here and here.                                 You can find them here, here, here, here, and here.

I liked jeans from both stores. As you can see above, both companies made vibrant and beautifully colored denims. Both companies also priced their jeans reasonably. AEO jeans are more consistent in style, fit, and quality. The only downfall is that their neon yellow jeans aren't really neon, but more dirty, muted neon yellow. But skinny jeans from AEO were thicker material with good stretch that fit my thick thighs well. For me, I feel like jeans that are made of thicker material help cover my crotch area and accommodate my thighs well. Since the pockets were also shallow, the pocket didn't show through.

Some of Zara jeans were similar to the ones I got from AEO. But depending on which style you got (the neon yellow and bright pink pants), they were made of material that was thinner and more papery if that makes sense. Maybe it is because it is an European company but I felt that the pants fit tighter around the thighs. Also, there were more discrepancies in sizing. The neon yellow and the pink jeans were at least one size smaller than the other jeans. But I did like that all of the jeans from Zara had zippers at the ankle.

In the pictures below, I will be comparing the colors of the jeans.

The left pair is from AEO and the right is from Zara. As you can see, the pair from AEO is a lot more muted  compared to the pair from Zara. While I loved the color from Zara, it fit at least one size smaller, which made me sad. It is also thinner and more papery, which isn't really my cup of tea when it comes to skinny jeans.

The pair from Zara is the closest in color I've seen to a true neon yellow similar to the ones from J. Crew. For a price at $79.99, it isn't bad, but just make sure to buy it at least a size bigger.


These are the two yellow denims from AEO and Zara. The left is from AEO priced at $44.50 and the right is from Zara priced at $59.90. The pair from AEO is more pastel yellow while the pair from Zara is warmer yellow. Both pairs fit similarly with similar feel. But as mentioned earlier, the pair from Zara seemed to fit a little tighter around the thighs. Since the pockets were deeper in the Zara pair, the pockets showed through the pants.

Depending on which color you prefer, you can't really go wrong.


The 1st pair on the left is from AEO and the other 3 pairs are from Zara. The pair from AEO is the most unique which is more of an old-fashioned rosy pink while the most right pair from Zara is the brightest at neon pink. For the middle pastel pink pairs from Zara, depending on which pair you purchased, it was either thicker and more stretchy, or thinner and papery. The thinner and papery pairs fit about one size smaller.

Depending on which colors you prefer, you have a pretty wide array of colors to choose from.



This picture shows 2 pairs of green jeans. The left pair is from Free People and the right is from Zara. The pair from Zara is actually more pastel mint color, but it looks more grey in the picture. But the pair from Free People is one of the most unique color green I've seen while researching for different colored denim. You can find them here. The waist on Free People seemed a little smaller and it is a stiffer pair of jeans, but with a unique color like these, I will sacrifice a little comfort.

Mind you, there are a lot of fabulous colored denim offered by many designer companies as you can find here. As a student, I just didn't feel like spending a ton of money on trendy jeans. If I were buy the pile of jeans that I bought from AEO from a designer company, I would have spent over $1,000 but via AEO using coupons (they usually have at least 15% off coupons via online shopping) and spent less than $250.

Hopefully this long review helped whoever was looking into purchasing colored denim. I still have some from Express and other companies that should be coming in soon that I will post a detailed review on.

Thanks for visiting! 


3 comments:

  1. Aww nice pants, I want them all :)
    xx
    www.clothesandcamera.blogspot.com

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    Replies
    1. Love the new neon and pastel jean trend for the spring, it's wonderful isn't it?! Thanks for visiting!

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