fashion

"I tried Khloe Kardashian's Good American jeans to find out if they live up to the hype."

 

“How are you going in there? They’ll stretch. Come out and show me.”

To all the lovely retail workers who’ve innocently uttered these words to vulnerable customers in the fitting rooms, I’m so sorry, but this is not what we want to hear when we’re trying on jeans.

For many of us, buying a pair of jeans is akin to buying a bikini.

Unflattering changing room lighting, humid conditions and squishing bits into places they don’t quite fit means jeans shopping often ends in buying something you feel OK-ish in, or with nothing at all.

Side note – this retail assistants translated video is brutally honest, but hilarious. Post continues after video.

Video by MMC

I’ve always struggled buying jeans, so when reality star turned entrepreneur Khloe Kardashian launched her denim jeans in Australia on The ICONIC at the beginning of February, I knew I needed to get my bum into a pair of Good American jeans immediately.

A quick recap on Good American: Founded in 2016 by Kardashian and fashion entrepreneur Emma Grede, Good American’s whole shtick is being an inclusive fashion brand that offers flattering, on-trend designs that don’t compromise fit or style in sizes 00 to 24 (Aus sizes 4 to 28, including size 15, which is an Aus 19).

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Right now, Aussies can get a pair of the brand’s best-selling Good American Good Legs jeans on The ICONIC.

They claim to be ‘the perfect dark blue skinny jeans’, but do they live up to the hype?

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Regardless of my size – I’ve been a size 10 right through to a size 20 in my life so far – finding the Goldilocks of jeans has always a soul destroying task. Jean shopping for me involves taking multiple sizes into the fitting room, only to leave disheartened and sweaty when none of the pairs (even the ones in larger sizes than other pairs of pants I own) make it past my thighs.

Too long in the legs. Too tight around the thighs. Gapping at the lower back. Falling down every time you move. Ripped knee detailing sitting in the middle of my shin instead of… on my knee.

So, I put my body on the line to find out if the much-hyped Good American jeans really are that good.

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My bod in the Good American Good Legs jeans in front of a door I found after five minutes of location scouting. Image: Supplied.
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Here's the jeans and I being candid. Not staged at all. Image: Supplied.
The jeans and I in our second photoshoot location for the day. Image: Supplied.
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And this is how the Good American jeans look from the back. Cute, right? Image: Supplied.
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Aside from looking half decent, the Good American jeans are comfy. The denim fabric is stretchy but still firm - I'd put it between traditional denim and a thinner jegging type material. They don't ride up, and they don't fall down... much.

The jeans are high-waisted and sat just above my belly button where my waist naturally cinches in, but I still found myself tugging on the belt holes throughout the day, but less than I have with other jeans in the past.

I also got a lot of comments about the colour - I wore the Good American Good Legs Jeans in Dark Blue and they look exactly like they do online, it's a great classic dark denim with the tiniest bit of fading.

My short legs mean I'll forever be wearing my jeans rolled up, but what really impressed me about the Good American jeans is the design.

You might not notice by looking at them, but Good American jeans feature a bunch of deliberate design features that make them fit better. As co-founder Emma Grede told me, that's kind of the whole point - for 'regular' jeans and 'plus' jeans to look the same.

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“Everything we do, in all the sizes. You can make great products available to everyone.It should just be a non-issue," Grede told Mamamia.

“Why are these women continually ignored? It should just be a non-issue. When you wake up in the morning and you want to wear a pair of jeans, you don’t think ‘I want to wear plus size jeans today’, you just want to put on a pair of jeans that fit.”

Stand out features include the stretch recovery fabric that 'recovers' after washing and wearing, a four-panelled waistband to reduce gapping at the back and double re-enforced belt loops (the things you normally hold onto to hike jeans up).

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The Good American jeans aren't cheap. $269 is a lot of money to spend on a pair of jeans.

But... jeans aren't just jeans. So much of our self esteem and identity are tied up in the ability to put on a pair of jeans, and looking good in them. I'd argue more so than any other item of clothing.

For an item of clothing that's meant to symbolise simplicity - chuck 'em on and they go with everything - buying a pair of jeans can be nightmarish. Worse, unstandardised and outdated sizing metrics can make you feel like you and your thighs and your bum and your waist are the problem.

Good American and the work they've done to make the same one style of jeans in sizes 4 to 28 proves you're not.

I'll happily give my money to a brand working hard to make jeans for me, just the way I am.

The Good American range is available on THE ICONIC now.  Shop key denim and activewear pieces by visiting www.theiconic.com.au/good-american/.