The Reinvention of Me: What Comes Next

There are three things I LOATHE trying on in my life: lipstick colors, swimsuits and jeans.  Until three days ago, I still avoided all three like the plague.  In fact, truth be told, I only own a handful of each of these: two lipsticks, three swimsuits and two pairs of jeans (according to Elle Magazine, most women own 4-5 pairs).

On Tuesday, I was invited to a press event at 7 for All Mankind to preview some of their Fall 2010 collection, as well as view a limited edition collection by Jonathan Adler.   Although I can write a whole blog on the preview collections (which might come in a later entry), I’ve decided to share an amazing customer service experience that has changed my hatred of trying on jeans.

I can’t tell you how many countless hours I’ve spent doing squats and lunges, trying to stretch out my freshly washed and dried jeans.  If you’ve ever seen Dazed and Confused, there is a scene where one of the girls is laying down on the bed and another has a pair of pliers, gripping the zipper, trying to get her jeans zipped up.  (Yes, I’ve actually used that tactic once or twice.)  But, somewhere between the ages of 28 and 31, I realized these tactics meant one of two things:  1) I needed to lose weight  or 2) I needed to accept that I am not a girl that happens to be straight up and down but rather, one that needed to learn to embrace her curves.  This left what seemed like few options, a lot of cursing in dressing rooms and finally settling on $300 pairs from True Religion because they seemed to work the best.  My motto was, why change what works?

When I got to 7 for All Mankind, my only intention was to preview the collections.  Then, like any natural reaction in a store, I started to look around and begin to wonder… it had been so long since I bought my last pair of jeans (two years ago) that maybe… it… was… time…

I took a deep breath and let the PR Manager know that I’m incredibly difficult when it comes to this shopping process.  He introduced me to Brittany – one of the sales ladies, who he promised would help me out and be incredibly patient.  She started by asking me about cut – easy enough – a little bit of flare and definitely something for women with curves.  She pulled the “A Pocket” style and then asked about waist band height.  I had never thought about it before.  Waist band is key to jeans fitting properly – height of the waist band determines fit around your mid section, as well as how it flatters the lower half of your silhouette.  (Most women buy for the best brand, what’s trendy and what everyone else is wearing, regardless of if their “muffin top” is apparent.  It’s a shame how many women stuff themselves into jeans that don’t fit properly.)  Brittany pulled a low rise, a mid rise and a high rise and in two sizes.  (Side note: You will NOT be the same size in every jean – you can’t let it freak you out, or so I was telling myself in the dressing room.) It turns out, the low rise was incredibly comfortable but the mid-rise was just a bit more flattering – Brittany even walked me through the differences I’d see with each pair.  Once that part was over (and relatively painless) she then asked about color.  Not many women think of color as a flattering technique, so much as what they just like.  A nice mid-range wash (or as I refer to it: The Goldilocks wash because it’s not too dark and not too light) was perfect for me – it slimmed down my curves but left just enough to make my backside look darn good (the tailor even made a comment about them being perfect).  Because of this painless (and very enjoyable) experience, I ended up not just buying a pair of blue jeans but also bought a pair of white ones (something that deserves a whole other blog about my fear of wearing white).

In addition to your purchase, if you need the jeans hemmed, you can take them up to Sun Park Tailoring on the 3rd floor of the Galleria  and they will hem them for free (purchases must be made at the 7 for All Mankind of Tysons Galleria for this to be valid).

I fully believe that because of this experience at 7 for All Mankind, they’ve created a new life long customer.  These days, it might be uncommon to find the perfect jean but it’s darn near rare to find that type of customer service.

A big shout out goes to Yendi Jackson for having a kick ass team!