Levi's offers skin tight jeans for men

You’ve heard of the boyfriend jean.  But how about the ex-girlfriend?
Clearly eager to bring gender equality to denim, Levi’s has unleashed a new style of super-skinny jeans for men -- the "ex-girlfriend," which plays on the popularity of loose-fitting boyfriend jeans for women.
"As skinny as it gets" is how the Levi’s website describes the ex-girlfriends, denims that look dangerously similar to jeggings (leggings styled to look like jeans).
On the label’s blog, the designers of the pants wrote that the jeans were inspired by a rock band they saw at Austin’s South by Southwest music and film festival."It has never been a secret in the denim design world that guys looking to make a statement with an extra-skinny pair of jeans go straight to the girl’s section," wrote the designers, Casey Egan and JeWon Yu.

"We thought, 'Hey, we can make a pair of women’s jeans for men with a tailored and proper fit.'"

That included loosening up the hip and thigh and allowing the waist to sit low.

"They’ve been the biggest seller since we’ve got them in," says regional manager Elle Epp.
Before the new fit, guys who wanted to go skinny had the option of trying unisex jeans by Just USA or Swedish label Cheap Monday, says Epp. The ex-girlfriends, however, "actually do fit men better," she says. "They have a really skinny leg like a women’s skinny jean, but then they have a little bit more wiggle room in the top area to give guys a little more room to move around." Made with two per cent elastane for a touch of stretch, the $95 jeans "look tighter than they actually feel," says Epp. They come in black and indigo blue washes.

"They totally accentuate the chicken legs," says Joel Bojeczko, stepping gingerly out of the Decadence fitting room in a pair of ex-girlfriends. "They’re cool to walk around in. You wouldn’t run and stuff like that in them. But they’re tight," he says with a chuckle. Bojeczko, who belongs to local rock cover band the Huge Fakers, prefers his jeans slim, not skinny, but he gets why the latter are so popular. "A lot of it has to do with the ’80s comeback, right?"

Super-skinnies, he figures, can be traced back to ’80s punk. Fitted jeans, says Epp, are more flattering. "If you wear the right jean, you can look a bit more clean-cut while being casual." And in her opinion, there’s no such thing as too tight. "If they can walk and not look awkward while they’re walking, they’re good to go."

Some guys even find them — yes — more comfortable. "The tighter (the jean), the more like sweatpants they become," says Jared Sager, who wears skinny jeans every day. "They almost become a second skin." While he likes the idea of the exgirlfriend, the 27-year-old claims to never have had to cop a pair of jeans from a girl. All his skinnies are either men’s or unisex jeans."To me, it’s all about confidence," he says. "If you’re going to do it, you have to rock it."

One of the biggest problems with skinnies, notes Bojeczko, is that "you’re kind of limited to the kind of undergarments you can wear. The boxer shorts don’t fly at all with skinny jeans."
Otherwise, the look isn’t so bad, says the 26-year-old.
"I never thought I had the calf definition to pull off skinny jeans. I think I was born with a curse that makes everything look good," he jokes.

But how tight is too tight?

"Well, nobody wants to see a bulge in their face," he says, laughing."If you were on the bus and there was a bulge next to your face, that would be very uncomfortable, right? That wouldn’t be cool.
"But is there a too tight? If the person’s really comfortable and they’re rocking it out, then who cares, right?"

jfong@edmontonjournal.com