I’m the Pickiest Denim Shopper—These Are the Only Brands I Trust

For the longest time, I thought I just wasn’t a jeans kind of girl. Crazy, I know. But for most of my life, the only jeans I encountered were the kind that stretched out much like leggings do or worse, were so thin that they revealed everything that lies beneath. While some of those styles are comfy as hell, they just didn’t do it for me. So I kind of lost faith in denim altogether for a while, opting instead for trousers and skirts. One day, though, I picked up a pair of vintage jeans and quickly became obsessed with their rigidity and shape. Here were jeans that held everything in place and kept their shape throughout the day. Oh, and they fit so, so well.

I thought it was impossible to find the same vintage-inspired material shopping brand-new, but I was wrong. It took searching far and wide, but I’ve finally narrowed in on six of the only denim brands I’ll trust for rigid jeans. Thanks to how picky I am when denim-shopping, I’ve learned how to tell the good from the bad and the rigid from the stretchy.

It’s all about the fabric breakdown, so check those labels. One hundred percent cotton (aka zero stretch) is like denim gold in my book, but I’ve also found that anything 95% cotton makes the cut. I always buy true to size, too, since jeans with a high cotton content are almost guaranteed to stretch out a tad and mold to your body after a few wears.

Ahead, I’m breaking down which brands I can count on and exactly what makes their jeans so rigid.