Not The Right Time for a Peekaboo Crotch

January 26, 2016 12:16 PM

Please recommend me either a) a brand of pants that will not rip in the crotch after less than a year, or b) a recommendation for pants care such that I can prevent this from happening.

I've basically got a similar problem to this previously, except that my pants aren't ripping on the seam, they're ripping about half an inch down from the crotch on each leg. Also, my pants haven't been loose. I'm also a woman, so I suspect that there is a little bit of "chub rub" that's going into the equation.

But I've had this problem on all of my pants over the past five years - khakis, jeans, dress pants...I would very much like to not have to completely replace all my pants every year, and I'd CERTAINLY like to avoid what happened to me yesterday at work (discovering that there was a two-inch-long tear in the crotch of my red pants on a day when I had white underpants, and spending the rest of the day with lower torso shoved very firmly under my desk).

Please note that any suggestion that I try wearing skirts more often will be met with the request that you fund the liposuction necessary to avoid my looking pregnant in skirts.

Help.

posted by EmpressCallipygos to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (20 answers total)

I'm a man, but I have the same problem. In mass market pants, the seam joints in the crotch are too far forward for my range of motion. Net result, all the force of my walking motion is focused an inch or two buttwards of the four-way crotch seam join.

My solutions over the years:

Avoid weakling thin/fashion denim. It will last a few months, then split horribly.
Wear thicker fabrics. Levi 501s are pretty thick, for instance.
Pre-patch the trouble spot. I do this as soon as I see a wear spot. I used to do it by hand, but now I darn the hell out of it with a sewing machine (if it's small) or use the darning foot to lock a patch in place (if it's big).

If I had the $, I would have custom made clothes that avoid this. But, I don't, so patching and judicious fabric choices it is.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 12:28 PM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

When you look at a pair of pants that are not yet ripped, is the fabric wearing thin? My favorite pair of jeans now has iron-on patches on the inside of the legs in approximately the location you describe, in my best attempt to postpone their death.
posted by aimedwander at 12:31 PM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Wear thicker fabrics. Levi 501s are pretty thick, for instance.

The red pants that just split on me yesterday WERE Levis. :-(
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:32 PM on January 26, 2016

This happens to all of my pants too, eventually, and I've definitely had the realize-I'm-exposing-my-inner-thigh-to-the-world moment more than once. Jeans go faster than khakis/trousers. For me, pants like Old Navy's Pixie pant work well - comfortable/stretchy, stylish/professional, relatively durable (because they hug the thigh), and cheap. There are a bunch of styling options for the pant, including plus size, on Pinterest.

For my jeans, the second they start getting thin in the thigh area, I reinforce with interfacing and this technique -- this gives them at least another 6-12 months of regular wear (infrequent washing and line drying helps too). If you carefully match the thread color, it's basically invisible.
posted by melissasaurus at 12:32 PM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Melissa: do the Pixie pants come in a "tall" length? I tried those on last night and they looked like highwaters on me.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:34 PM on January 26, 2016

Another method of pre-patching using hem tape. Do you/must you dry your pants in the dryer? Denim in particular lasts so much longer if it air dries.
posted by juliplease at 12:34 PM on January 26, 2016 [2 favorites]

Ah, the ol' crotch hole. I know him well. (Now I wear skirts.)

In my experience, there's not a whole lot you can do to avoid these, especially if you have meaty thighs, and you already said liposuction was out as an option. I've gotten crotch holes in expensive pants, crotch holes in extremely rugged no frills denim, crotch holes in pants that have never touched a machine dryer, and everything in between. So repair it is.

Tiny Fix Bike Gang had a feature on repairing crotch holes which will be of help to you.
posted by phunniemee at 12:34 PM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

What about a more stylish women's tactical pant* with a gusseted crotch?


*self link disclosure.
posted by Jacob G at 12:39 PM on January 26, 2016 [4 favorites]

Melissa: do the Pixie pants come in a "tall" length? I tried those on last night and they looked like highwaters on me.

They do (online only)! I'm 5'11" and I have a mix of regular and tall in those pants. Pants coming to just above the ankle is also fine under current trends, so it just depends on whether I'm buying in-store or online. In store, I'll buy the "long pixie" version and treat it as if it were the "ankle" version, or buy the "ankle" version and treat it as the crop version. But for full-length, below the ankle pants, I have to buy the long pixie in tall, online. I've really been quite smitten with these pants after buying a pair as an emergency/throwaway item a few years ago.
posted by melissasaurus at 12:40 PM on January 26, 2016

since this is a problem that cyclists face, maybe some cycle-specific clothes would help? rapha are the obvious example, but don't seem to have anything on their web site. maybe more commuter specific?
posted by andrewcooke at 12:55 PM on January 26, 2016

I was also going to ask if you're biking as that seems to drive chub-rub breakdown into overdrive. I have the best luck with a proactive application of iron-on mending patches. I do this when the pants are new. Mending patches tend to be thinner so they don't distort the pants, but can help the fabric last longer. I try to color match to the pants fabric as much as possible.

I also regularly check the crotch/chub-rub area for fabric breakdown so that I know how much wear life I have left in a pair of pants. Holding the fabric up to light helps to visualize this. Unfortunately, I have not found magic pants that don't do this (though, to be fair, I'm pretty sure pants designed for bikers would hold up much better, but I haven't tried them). If you're someone whose body is shaped to create friction in this spot, there's not much to be done besides buy pants on sale with the knowledge that they don't last all that long.
posted by quince at 1:40 PM on January 26, 2016

I have the same problem as you, and while I find that Old Navy Pixies put up a good fight against chub-rub, I kind of prefer the Gap version. The improvement in durability outweighs the additional cost, especially if they're frequent-rotation pants for you or if you plan on tumble drying them.
posted by blerghamot at 1:45 PM on January 26, 2016

Dickie's brand pants apparently have a crotch gusset. I have not actually confirmed this in person, but it is on my list of things to check out since I have the exact same problem with pants wearing out in the crotch area.
posted by megancita at 1:50 PM on January 26, 2016

EmpressCallipygos: " a recommendation for pants care such that I can prevent this from happening."

I find that wearing a slippery and tight thin layer provided by technical base clothing under my pants greatly extends the life of pants in this area.

My theory: the pant layers don't slide by each other and instead stick together and slide over the technical layer which isn't anywhere nearly as abrasive as denim. And the technical bases are much tougher in this regard than denim so aren't abraded away either.

This works less awesome when the temperatures are above 20C.
posted by Mitheral at 1:55 PM on January 26, 2016 [3 favorites]

One of my male friends who has had a similar problem found that pants made for / marketed towards bicyclists had the appropriate construction or reinforcement to avoid ripping at the crotch, which could be worth a look.
posted by JiBB at 4:47 PM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

Levis Commuter collection. For cyclists this is a big deal. I used to take all my pants and have the crotch and thighs reinforced when I bought them, I couldn't get anything to last more than a month of commuting. Brands have finally gotten hip to this and have started marketing them to cyclists.

There are a lot of choices out there now, but the Levi's one are cheapest and come in the same cuts you're probably used to. I haven't bought any other pants in a long while and have yet to rip any of them in that region.
posted by bradbane at 7:12 PM on January 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

Levis Commuter collection.

These are cool, and i came here to recommend these, but i've heard from at least one person that the womens edition isn't reinforced the same way the mens is.

My recommendation, however, was going to be cycling specific pants in general in addition to those. I have some of these and they're SO comfortable. I've used them for everything from rock climbing to hiking to just walking around. The crotch and main leg-bits are so sturdy that the little stuff like the belt loops has started to fall apart way before the main trunk-and-legs bits have shown any wear. They DO pill up at times in that region, but they don't seem to actually... wear down noticeably?

These seem to be available from various brands in most styles now... But while i love my levis and they've lasted literally since those launched pretty much, i'm just not sure if i can recommend the womens model. Swrve gets an unrestricted thumbs up and seems to make them with identical materials and structural design for all genders however.

If you absolutely do not want cycling type pants or materials/reinforcements, look in to something like the naked and famous "elephant". They're like $150~, and they're basically drywall out of the package, but once they're broken in a bit they apparently last forever. My friend who recommended and got them was a heavy daily cyclist.

You could also employ the solution most of the messengers/couriers i know use: Buy the CHEAPEST leggings or h&m stretch jeans and just throw them out when they rip. You should get something like 4-8 pairs for the cost of one nice pair of jeans/cycling reinforced pants. I know very few who do anything else. Just wreck em n dreck em. You keep one or two nice pairs for when you absolutely have to look a bit nicer. The only thing that got me to stop doing this was getting sad that i'd break pants in and they'd get really comfortable and then explode over and over maybe every 5-6 months.
posted by emptythought at 11:22 PM on January 26, 2016

If you don't like to patch yourself, I send my jeans to Denim Therapy in NYC, and they will reinforce and/or patch. I haven't had a pair get a hole there again after sending them in, and I have had them save a few pairs that my meager patch skills wouldn't have been up to fixing.
posted by nat at 11:52 PM on January 26, 2016

Not a direct answer, but until you can find something that works - I always kept a spare outfit in my car when I went to work. Just incase there was any coffee spills, or rips, or surprise bleeding, etc. It's also a good idea to have one of those small sewing kits handy. (My husband has this problem and we just try to find inexpensive jeans, but he doesn't wear dress pants.)
posted by Crystalinne at 12:17 AM on January 27, 2016

I can unrecommend old navy jeans, but i have no experience with successful options.
posted by Ms Vegetable at 6:00 AM on January 27, 2016