Dear Levi Strauss

Dear Levi Strauss:

I understand that frayed jeans are all the rage right now.  I understand that all of the cool people wear jeans with tiny frayed patches on them.

What I need you to understand is that I will wear each pair of jeans that I purchase a minimum of four to five years.  The pair that I finally resigned to house cleaning and yard work only has been worn since 2004, and they were my absolute favorite jeans.  They are a pair of 515 size 10L.  While I could reasonably wear them for a while and no one would know that the crotch was in danger of disintegrating at any moment, I would hate for that disintegration to happen as I was climbing out of the car at the grocery store!  The pair of jeans I bought before that were also a 515 size 10L.  I bought them between the birth of my girls...They have paint stains in three different colors, from two different houses, the right pocket is torn loose from catching it on the tomato cage in the garden (not sure how I managed that), and sadly both knees are blown out.  They are so thin that if I run my fingernail down them, a series of small snags is left behind...

Dear Levi designers, do you understand the level of bliss my body felt each time I slipped into those perfectly shaped to fit, soft from countless washings pair of denim jeans?  Apparently you do.  That must be the reason for selling flimsy thin denim that will block no cold Oklahoma wind that comes my way. Surely your understanding of our love for broken in jeans is what spurns your current weave and fabric makeup. 

What you don't seem to understand is that the level of comfort that I found in that pair of jeans can only be achieved with multiple wearings.  No manufactured method of breaking in denim is as effective as wearing a pair for six years two to three times per week.  No amount of stretch that you cleverly sneak into each pair of jeans can equal the comfort found in a pair of well loved and well worn jeans.  The stretch is not my friend.  That tiny bit of stretch simply means that by the end of the day I will be required to wear a belt to keep them in place. 

Sadly, I conceded defeat to your machinations of selling shoddy workmanship as high fashion when I bought a forty dollar pair of jeans with a frayed spot on the right thigh and the back pocket.  They were the only pair I could find that fit in length, hip and waist and were flattering to me...

And, gleefully, they are a size 8L.  I realize that this is not a reflection of weight loss, or inches lost, as my other jeans still fit the same.  I am on to your clever schemes of making clothing larger so that we will feel better about the ever increasing waist line of our society.

Oh yes! I understand your trickery.  And, yet I succumbed.  I did a little happy dance as I zipped them into place.


So you win denim fashion industry.  You win.

But I am not happy about it.

Aside from the downsizing.  The downsizing is working out just fine for me thank you very much.

However, you can rest assured that I will wear this pair, like every other pair of jeans I've ever owned, until they are falling apart and risk causing me public embarrassment.

Sincerely,

A Loyal Yet Disgruntled Customer.