Why Has My Jeans-Buying Formula Broken?

January 24, 2025 10:19 AM

I buy my jeans on ebay: same brand, same style, same size: 30"x30". I own 3 pairs, each bought on ebay, each of which say "30" on the label. I can currently find these same jeans in my size on ebay, and many sellers include pics with a tape measure showing the inseam is 30", and the waist - flat - is 15". But if I measure my current jeans flat, the waist on all 3 is 16.75" - an extra 3.5"! What am I missing/ why is this happening? My jeans-buying formula is broken!
posted by my log does not judge to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (12 answers total)

Denim stretches, so a pair that has been worn for a while will be larger than a pair that is brand new. Similarly, a pair that is fresh out of the wash will be smaller than a pair that has been worn for a few days.

When are you measuring your current jeans?
posted by ssg at 10:37 AM on January 24 [5 favorites]

Mass-produced clothes have their pattern pieces cut out in big stacks all at once, sometimes with a powered rotary cutter, sometimes with a thing that looks like a big cookie cutter. Often there is a little bit of stretch that skews the pattern enough that the finished garment is not true to size. So within the batch of all the same garment, you'll have a few wild variations. Their quality control may also have slipped.

Also, many brands change up the fit model or do some "vanity sizing" in response to what they perceive as consumer trends. So you want the same fit as you've always had, but someone in the C-suite thinks you want a different fit, so the same jeans get some ease in the waist without any advertisement of that fact.

Also, yes, denim can stretch out over time. It's also possible to steam it and stretch it which sometimes a drycleaner will do for you and maybe that's what happened.
posted by blnkfrnk at 11:08 AM on January 24 [10 favorites]

Yeah, the "vanity sizing" thing is real. I've been ordering the same Wranglers in 30x29 for a while now, and suddenly my last two pairs were closer to 32 in the waist. It's stupid, renders the whole sizing system meaningless, and produces so much more waste in returns and extra trips.
posted by xedrik at 11:10 AM on January 24 [5 favorites]

Response by poster: OK: so if sizing changes, and label inaccuracy makes labels redundant, then it makes sense that sellers would include tape measure pics to cut down on returns - thank you!

With regard to stretching though, could my jeans have started out as 30" and stretched to 33.5"? That seems a *lot*! (@ssg: I measured them both out of the washer - I don't put them in the dryer - and after some use, and the size is the same).
posted by my log does not judge at 12:20 PM on January 24

Think of the waist as a circle. If you flatten it you're getting diameter x 2, but what you really want is the circumference, which is the diameter times pi. So, if you want to use their stupid way of measuring divide 32 by pi.
posted by mareli at 12:24 PM on January 24

The jeans could be counterfeit, too
posted by scruss at 12:24 PM on January 24

Or something, I think I forgot the geometry I learned way too long ago. 2 Pi R is the formula for circumference.
posted by mareli at 12:48 PM on January 24

Is it possible that the seller measured the jeans fresh out of the dryer? As @ssg said, denim will shrink a bit in the dryer (not so much in the washer) and stretch out as you wear it. You might try putting a pair through the dryer as an experiment.
posted by homodachi at 1:25 PM on January 24 [1 favorite]

If you flatten it you're getting diameter x 2
That is not the case. You do get roughly half the circumference when you flatten a waistband. I'd allow at least a 1/4 inch in ease for the folds, so I could see the actual waist being 30.25 if the ruler shows 15.

A lot of denim has stretchy material included in nowdays. Are these 100 percent cotton, preshrunk?
posted by soelo at 1:31 PM on January 24 [4 favorites]

If your waist is thirty inches, the waistband will be bigger than that. It's called ease. Without it, they would be too tight. It's what allows you to sit and bend in your jeans. There is wearing ease and design ease. A waistband that is three inches bigger is more than wearing ease, though.
posted by XtineHutch at 1:35 PM on January 24 [5 favorites]

Are they men's or women's jeans? Men's sizes date from the era when we wore high waisted pants/trousers with a belt at about navel level.That is the "waist size". Men don't wear high waisted jeans anymore so the highest point you can measure is the "hip size" which is larger.

It's crazy, but they are sold by a "waist size" which is purely theoretical since the don't go up to your natural waist.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 5:27 AM on January 25 [3 favorites]

>If you flatten it you're getting diameter x 2

No. No no no no. This is very very wrong.
posted by Area Control at 2:11 PM on February 2