Amazon Essentials: The Undercover Jeans
I wanted a certain kind of grey jeans that would remind me of heavily washed black, the kind I recall from childhood, when originally jet-black unwashed denim would gradually acquire its grey. Seeing it on the street made me long for the Levis I wore as a teen. As I’m no longer a kid, I didn’t want to wait years for it to fade to grey. But as I shopped around, I discovered that black-fade jeans often had high polyester content, making them too sweat-inducing for anything but outdoor winter wear. Barring one pair of beloved pale blue Wranglers with seven percent polyester, the only synthetic I want to see on the label is one or two percent elastane (for stretch).
Not until I found the Amazon Essentials Men’s Slim-Fit Stretch Jean in washed grey, usually selling for less than $30, did I see a potential mate for my hot, sweaty legs. The cotton-elastane mix was 99–1, and that totaled 100, so no polyester. The jeans were available in a size 36 waist and 29 length, a sometimes hard to find combination. Amazon’s return policy for its clothing line (and many other things) is customer-friendly, so I knew there was no risk in trying on a pair.
Essentials Jeans are a standard five-pocket design. The ones I have seen generally use the 99–1 cotton-elastane blend mentioned above, and are made in India, except for the blue overdye (98–2, Bangladesh). Rivets are in a muted grey that I prefer to the bright copper of Levis, kinda garish until it tarnishes. Available fits are described as:
Athletic-Fit: “Extra room in the hip and thigh, tapered calf and ankle. Sits at the waist. Built to fit like a straight jean on an athletic body.” I have a feeling not all men wearing these are athletic, though they might appreciate the extra leg room.
Straight-Fit: “Fitted through the hip and thigh with a straight leg. Sits at the waist.” Possibly a good choice if a tapered leg doesn’t work for you.
Boot-cut: “Fitted through the hip and thigh with a straight leg. Sits at the waist… Cut with a bootcut flare.” When footwear so demands. Or maybe you’re nostalgic for bell-bottoms.
Slim-Fit: “Fitted through hip and thigh, with tapered leg. Sits below the waist.” Bingo. For me, anyway.
Skinny-fit: “Snug fit through hip, thigh, and leg. Sits below the waist.” Available in sizes up to 42, though, if that combination works for you.
When you wear these jeans, you go undercover. There is no brand tag or distinctive stitch across the back pockets. I like not providing free advertising to a clothing company — if they want their brand on my ass, they should pay me, or at least give me free stuff. Only inside the waist will you find the large white lettering identifying brand, size, and fit. Mine were labeled “slim/mince,” the French word for thin. I wonder if Essentials jeans are on the hips of men in fashionable areas of Montreal or Quebec City?
They came. The fabric was beautiful, as with a lot of Amazon Essentials clothes, and exactly what I had in mind. It was not a uniform slate grey but a true black that has apparently been washed or treated enough to go grey while leaving some dark spots around the stitching as well as paler dove grey highlights here and there.
The jeans did fit, though they sat lower on the hips than the Levis 511 (also billed as slim) and 512 (slim tapered) jeans that have become my new normal. However, size 36 Levis are actually loose when my weight is at its usual 157 pounds — I can get them on or off without unfastening them — so the Essentials fit more flatteringly. When I sit down, the fly folds in the right places. I hate pants with a crotch that’s concave when it should be convex. My boys aren’t huge but they need to breathe a little.
I have a wide pelvis — as I tell people, you can negotiate with your belly, but not with your pelvis — and I grew up wearing what are now called high-rise jeans. As I put on weight, mid-rise jeans became more popular, but as my waistline edged toward 40 I found them a bad look and uncomfortable to wear. However, now that I’m somewhere between a snug 34 and a loose 36, my hips have suddenly made friends with the mid-rise look.
I’m not sure if the Essentials slim-fit jeans qualify as mid- or low-rise but I suspect they are somewhere in between and closer to the latter (see Lee guidelines). They generally sit 1.5 inches below my navel. The beltline is just above the widest part of my pelvis and I let out my size 36 belt from L.L. Bean a full notch. (It is solid leather, not bonded, and offers a reliable state-of-the-waistline report.). Essentials are less forgiving than same-size Levis, but unless I am more than three pounds overweight and anticipate sitting with a friend for several hours over an extremely heavy meal, they fit just right.
The only thing I have had to be careful of, as I’ve started collecting Essentials jeans, is size variation among fabrics. As I’ve tried more colors, a few have been just a little too snug and needed to go back. So long, vintage wash and dark wash. But hello light wash, medium wash, and especially blue overdye.
The latter, loaded with what is probably a double dose of indigo denim dye, is an unorthodox deep blue, not on the spectrum of blues that you’d expect in standard blue denim washes, but more of a blend of blue and black. It is a noble companion to the washed grey. I am going to wash both of them as rarely and carefully as possible — they might age interestingly, but I can’t imagine improving either of them. I also like the subtly paler blue dawn that is breaking over the thighs of the medium wash. They are going to age gracefully (and I aspire to do the same).
Whether I will deepen my Essentials jeans collection is uncertain at presstime. Washed black, a darker companion to my original washed grey, is a possibility, and I’m open to indigo wash and dark blue. I might even try the higher-rise Straight-Fit. But the four I’ve bought and kept so far are doing wonders for my self-image. And at a fluctuating price of less than thirty bucks at presstime, they are a bargain.
