I see a crap-ton of guys wearing jeans that don’t fit properly. I often wonder who would date or marry these schulbs. The fit guide below applies to you no matter your age or body type, so don’t read this and pull the “Yeah, but I’m not…” routine that some of my clients like to do. It’s a bullshit excuse and this is how your jeans should fit if you’re young, older, short, tall, thin or larger. There’s no excuse for looking like crap in any clothing, even jeans.

Legs

how long should jeans be?

A large portion of my clients, when we start working together, think the length of their jeans (AKA their inseam) is something completely different than what it should be. They’re almost always a smaller inseam size than they thought.

Your jeans should be long enough to have a slight/half or full break. It looks much more polished and all around sharper. If you have the perfect pair of jeans, but they’re too long, get them hemmed by a tailor to the proper length. It’s usually no more than a couple of bucks and totally worth it.

The model from my Men’s Wardrobe Essentials: The Dark Wash Jean story has a slight or full break in every image:

I see a lot of guys wearing jeans with stacking like the images below. You want to avoid this at all costs.

If you’re not familiar with the different type of pant breaks, PrimerMag has some great images to help you understand:

Thighs

They shouldn’t fit too tight, but lie comfortably close without feeling like it’s pulling at the knees when you walk or bend down. You should be able to pinch a minimum of 0.5 inch of fabric, but no more than 1 inch on either side of your thigh. If you can pinch more than that, try a different style of jeans based on your body type or, if possible, go down a size. As a last resort, you can get a tailor to slim the legs to this size, but it’ll be costly.

Waist and Seat

Like all your pants, they should fit perfectly around your waist with no need for a belt to hold them up. For jeans, the waist will sit a little lower than suit pants, so anywhere from mid to upper hips is where the waist of the jeans should be – definitely nothing below that. The goal is to ensure the waist sits where it doesn’t look droopy in the seat – so pull up those pants!

The butt area, AKA the seat, should lightly hug your butt and not be saggy or very tight. If it feels like you’ll split your pants when you sit or bend down, they’re too tight. If it looks like you’re carrying a full load, you should probably try a different fit, and if that doesn’t work you need get the upper thighs taken in by a tailor to compensate for the extra room in the seat.

Or

You could also start doing some squats and get that area firmed up a bit. I don’t know a single woman that’d complain about that. 🙂

The Best Dark Wash Jeans For Men

See my Men’s Wardrobe Essentials: The Dark Wash Jeans for my favorite pairs of jeans you should own for your body type.