I did it. I took in my brand new J. Crew toothpick jeans, which were not quite long enough on me to be regular pants, and had them hemmed to ankle length. And I felt like I was committing sacrilege. Ordinarily, when faced with ankle pants, I make the sign of the cross. You know, because I'm not six feet tall. But there is method to my madness.

The reason I bought the pants in the first place was because I had this idea that I might be able to wear them with one of my few closet orphans -- a pair of black-and-beige maryjanes that, paired with a skirt, always seem just a little too...I don't know? Dressy? Showy? But I really like them. Here they are:

http://www.fluevog.com/code/?w.....ourID=3123

I feel far less dressy in jeans, of course, but these shoes really don't look great with normal length jeans of any cut. But they do look cute with rolled-up jeans, although the roll ends up being really thick and bulky. So I thought I'd take a chance and actually hem a pair of jeans to above my ankle bones, for sleekness when wearing the orphaned shoes. And it doesn't look half bad! For one, the jeans are very tapered at the hems (with a name like "toothpick", you'd think so, eh?), and for another, the shoes have straps that blend right in with my whitey-white girl skin, giving the illusion that they're low-vamp, which helps elongate the leg line.

It's an experiment. I'm thinking that I will in fact wear the shoes if I can casualize them this way. What do you think? I've read the "Angie guidelines" for wearing ankle pants.

As a bonus, the toothpick jeans actually look really cute rolled up (a much less bulky roll, with the shortened hem) and worn with ankle boots.

To everyone: Have you ever broken one of your own "golden style rules"?