Jeans & straight hips & chicken legs & fit issues - YouLookFab Forum

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Jeans & straight hips & chicken legs & fit issues

shiny

Veteran

I wish I had taken pics, but I didn't. Went clothes shopping with DD#2, back home from college for midterm break. She is 3-1/2 inches taller than I am. We wear one size different in jeans but prefer similar cut/styles/brands as we are somewhat similar in build (IT shape: she has worn same size jeans for 5 years now; though her top size has changed in that time span, as she grew). All of them looked better on her than me. And we were pondering that. (Aside from the obvious--- that I am far older than she is!).

She kept pointing out to me that the crotch fits funny on me. I've always thought this is because of my squishy mid section. But DD pin-pointed it and I think she's exactly right: I have no curve to the outside of my lower hip (where it meets the thigh). None at all. I guess you call this "saddle bags" and wish you didn't have one. But let me tell you.......... it makes ALL the difference, so bow down and say a Hail Mary to your saddlebags. I wish I had some, even a little!!

My hips go straight down. There is nothing to pull the jeans out properly at the crotch point. This means I get whiskers in jeans that otherwise are way too large and/or too small on me! I don't think this is alterable either, though I could be wrong.

Ultimately we both agreed I look a lot better in skirts and dresses, rather than pants/jeans.

Otherwise we had an awesome mother/daughter shopping day!

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35 replies

Latest reply was from HeleenH

shiny

Veteran

Oh.. and she kept saying, "Mom, you have Chicken Legs."

catgirl

Veteran

I have this issue too, not just with jeans - with skirts like the galaxy tube skirt, even in my correct size, there is a bit of extra fabric where my non-existent hips should be. Like a skin tag, only fabric. A little bit of hip would be nice!

Keix

Veteran

I too have straight hips, although my curvy rear and thighs apparently make up for it in jeans; I get "fabric tags" frequently in chinos and pencil skirts.

Carole

Veteran

Does it help to shop for straighter leg or slim styles? I'm amazed that you figured this out. Interesting!

shiny

Veteran

Carole, we were trying out slim styles-- skinny jeans. That was all we tried on today.

Una and KL - I too get the fabric tags, but this isn't what I'm talking about. In these styles, they were meant to be for slimmer frame already. There was no discernible fabric tagging going on... I don't know how to describe this in words; wish I'd taken a pic so you could see, since pic is worth a thousand words. It's like my hips go inward at the thigh, right at crotch point? It is possible my lack of/sagging rear was also playing a factor here (DD has a small but nicely perky rear).

She is more muscular build, all over, than I am (she's athletic) .. but even when I was working out all the time, I still had this same problem with pants, so it can't be that. I have zero fat on the side of my upper and lower hips and upper thighs. Zero. You can feel the bone. But on inside of upper thighs, I do have fat; if I exercise, the fat becomes muscle but it's still same general shape.

Mind you... I will continue to repeat: "it's not your body it's the clothes"... it's only that today it was startlingly obvious why the clothes just don't fit my particular body.

Gaylene

Veteran

I always called them pouches instead of "fabric tags". They are actually quite an easy alteration on skirts with back zippers, dresses, and pants unless the garment has side pockets. Jeans, unfortunately, fall into this category. My biggest problem is my non-existent hips co-exist with my athletic calves (thanks, Dad) to make finding slim pants a fitting nightmare. So I wouldn't feel too bad about chicken legs.

ETA: What you are describing sounds like a fitting issue that many women have with their tailored pants. With tailored pants, wrinkles that occur around the fly front are caused by insufficient fabric in the pant front to fit smoothly over the abdomen (especially common with women who have a more rounded tummy). If the wrinkles occur around the upper thigh, it's usually because the upper inner seam needs to be let out to provide a bit more space for the inner thigh, or the rise is sitting too low, or the crotch seam needs a bit more room at the front. Even a half an inch on a crotch seam can make an enormous difference.

If a particular manufacturer doesn't cut the jean more or less to your shape, even if the fabric stretches, you still might have fitting problems in these areas. The only real solution is to keep searching for a jean that better fits your unique shape.

Janet

(website)

Veteran

Just goes to show you, the grass is always greener! With my saddlebags, I always have to fit that part of me first, and see where the rest falls. I have to get a lot of alterations taking in waists and backside of pants and jeans.

I think I am over wishing I had skinny thighs and slim hips -- it's never going to happen, no matter what size I am. I've had saddelbags since i was 15 years old and 115 lbs, so it's just how I'm made. But there are times I think I'd gladly lend you a little of my excess!

shiny

Veteran

Gaylene, that makes sense to me. I have had skirts and dresses altered to perfection, without much fuss. I do have this same issue with slacks -- it's a trade off, usually: to fit the crotch right, I get fabric tags/pouches. Which, as you say, is probably easily remedied, as long as there are no side pockets.

Why then are jeans so difficult? I tried grabbing the sides today, this did not solve the crotch issue. I do have jeans that don't have this crotch issue... makes me want to analyze the "why".. I have a feeling it has less to do with the side seams, and more about the rise seams and how they are laid out? (Used to sew.. so I know a bit)...

She is right; I do have chicken legs, just the meatier part is turned inward, not outward!

shiny

Veteran

Janet - long ago, I mentally gave up on the whole idea of liposuction. For various reasons, but the vainest one was that, if they suck out the fat cells where I think I want them to, then I will just gain weight elsewhere... and trade one dilemma for another!

With my luck, I'd end up with Popeye arms, or something ridiculous.

Scarlet

Veteran

Is it possible that wearing men's jeans would solve this problem? It used to be quite en vogue for women to wear Levi's men's jeans, specifically 501s. They always looked good on the girls with slim hips.

shiny

Veteran

Scarlet, just refreshed DH's jeans.. (I still have to do a post on that one to update you all!) .. he is now in the skinny Levi's and yes i tried them on... and NO they do not work. Too big! Wayyyyy to big! Hilariously too big! I'm 5'0.

Clarissa

I have slight "saddlebags" but its strange because its not even fat, its bone. I do have fat on my inner thigh, but not on the outer thigh, but my hips still curve out at that point. Its just my bone structure I guess. I have an hourglass shape and pants gap in the waist so I have to wear a belt with most pants, but pants with stretch definitely help. I think jeans with stretch would probably help your situation too! Stretch is awesome. Its kid of a drag when pants don't fit you perfect, but keep in mind it happens no matter what shape you have, so you aren't alone

K. Period.

Veteran

Soooo, I know this is horrible to suggest, but have you considered boys' Levis rather than men's? They should be relatively straight, but cut smaller and leaner, with proportionate pockets. I know, though, that you've got a number of other lines that work well for you (hooray!). Your posts on MsKK's topics were great. And I just want to tell you, too, how much I appreciate this and every post that is made about straight hips and missing waists. I spent almost two decades ('80s and '90s) with either a painfully pinched waist or a baggy bottom. So miserable. It is nice to be one of many.

RunningSue

Shiny, since it seems that you and I are shaped somewhat similarly I can suggest some new denim styles that have worked really well for me. I tend to have extra material at the crotch with lots of jeans and pants. I love to try new jeans and have found three that work really well for my frame. One is the Hudson Nico. That does not have the flap pocket which does not flatter a round derriere. And the Rag and Bone Skinny Zip Detail (from NAS) has a higher rise and hugs my non-existent hips. Joe's Chelsea super skinny jeans fit me perfectly (I got them at the rack for $80 in black). The rise is also a little higher which I think helps to place the waist of the jeans in a better place for as I have a long waist for a short gal. Maybe you can try these on your next Mother/Daughter outing. I cannot wait until my oldest can shop with me, she is 11 so just a few more years. Lucky you!

Caro in Oz

Veteran

Tea & sympathy from me. I'm another one with this problem - lack of hip, flat bottom & proportionally large waist. I found some skinny jeans that actually work (local Australian label) & I bought x3 pairs. They are out there but I think being petite must add to the problem. I wore Levis 501s when I was younger - maybe boy's jeans are worth a try.

lyn67

Veteran

OMG, Shinny never thought on this! So enlightenning! I always thought it's only my apple tendencies and flat bottoms, but now I see I have one more issue...the lack of saddlebags:-)). YESSS! Now I got it, too. This is so important, for the crotch point for the jeans looks... (I have wide thights, and hips, but not there where it shoud-much lower or higher and not on the crotch point!:-(()
And mee, too- I look ever better in skirts and dresses!!!

amiable

Veteran

Yes, me too. There's a whole club of us with flat bottoms, and straight-to-indented hips and proportionally large waists. I haven't found a solution yet. (But I did deal slightly with the bottom issue by doing squats).

krishnidoux

Veteran

Shiny, what you need are not saddlebags. What you need is a derrière. I'm the same. believe me, a developed rear end pulls everything up and in the right place.

In the advent of a natural tendency towards a lack of derrière (like me), two choices :

1 - Make yourself one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq1HnakX5C8

2 - Get a shape-wear butt booster pantie http://www.spanx.com/product/i.....cale=en_US. It works!

shiny

Veteran

I don't *think* it's lack of derriere.. when my derriere has been perkier (running, lifting heavy weights, step aerobics etc, shapely enough you could bounce a coin off it), I still had this very same problem.

I'm still analyzing but I think it is all about the width/shape of the outer and inner thigh right at the crotch point. A perky derriere is above that point, is it not? (Maybe when mine sags a bit more this will be a moot point!! HA!). My inner thigh seems a little more copious than outer, so it's possibly pulling things in the wrong direction.

I'd be quite interested in doing a survey of people's measurements at this lower hip/top of thigh/crotch point dimension, vs waist. To calculate a ratio. If anyone is interested? And see what is going on here. Derriere may indeed still play a role... or perhaps it's lack of hamstrings, because this is where they start?

ETA: what may be a factor is that I was born pigeon toed -- feet pointed inwards. Had to wear a brace as a baby to turn them outwards. I have wonky hips as a result - and lifelong issues because of that (repeated sports injuries, pain etc).

Janet

(website)

Veteran

Shiny, how funny. I had a brace for my hips as a baby as well. I was born almost a month early, and my hip joints were not quite fully formed, so my legs just dangled and had to be supported to let the joints correct. But my legs naturally turn outward slightly, and I carry my thighage on the outside of my legs, not the inside. Interesting that we both had hip issues in infancy but in different ways. I also wonder if the hip/leg pain I get is related to those issues.

Gaylene

Veteran

Shiny, I'm tending to agree with your analysis that the problem is with the inner thigh area.

If you lay a pair of jeans flat, you can see that the back of the leg is usually cut wider than the front since most women have a curvy rear end. If you have a flat rear end, the extra fabric just sags in the butt/upper thigh region so the most common solution is to grab a smaller size jean, which is easy to do with today's stretchier jeans. But sizing down also means less fabric in the front of the jean. If you have a fuller inner thigh, you needed that extra fabric at the front to avoid wrinkling and pulling in the thigh area. Even 1/4 -1/2" can make an enormous difference.

Another part of the problem is that those of us with no outside hip curve tend to gravitate to the skinnier, straighter jeans which are usually designed for a young, straight figure with thin inner thighs. "Women's" jeans, on the other hand, are designed for a fuller thigh, but most designers assume that the fullness is needed in both the outer and the inner thigh which gives us straight-hipped women those fabric pouches on the sides.

The only solution that I've ever found was to stay with the straighter "young" jean but try on zillions of different brands until I found a style that had that vital extra fabric at the front. Men's (or boy's) jeans can be an option if you have a flattish stomach, but they don't have much allowance for a rounded tummy which can be a problem for many women. And sizing up to fit a tummy usually means that the jeans end up fitting quite loosely all over which may, or may not, be a good look for some people.

Anyway, that's my analysis. I love wearing jeans and am willing to search until I find ones that fit my shape. But I can certainly see why some women just don't think it's worth the effort.

Mo

(website)

Veteran

Not sure it helps, as I have the opposite problem of pulling at the base of the zipper, but most of my thigh 'meat' is also on the inside. I have 36.5" hips right now and about 26.75" waist. But my waist is high and so it is not the standard 8" distance between these measurments, more like 10"! My rear is not exactly, ahem, high.

shiny

Veteran

Janet, I'm sure the early hip issues are cause of current hip/leg pain. I've been through enough PT because of it. I also have other issues too.. so called "acquired" issues.. one leg is slightly longer than the other. Creating bunions on one foot. It's acquired because of the congenital hip issue. If I keep up with the yoga, the bunions disappear. Oh, and I have had hairline hip fractures in the past. Yeah. Which is why I no longer run. But enough whining!

Gaylene, thank you so much for your detailed explanation! This is what I was looking for. I love to analyze and figure out why one garment works better than another. Then I can get better and better at picking clothes off the rack, or requesting detailed measurements for online orders. I am going to measure the jeans and pants that *do* work, compare them to those that don't, and try to figure this out. You have pointed me in the right direction to measure. As an ex-seamstress this makes total sense to me. (More and more I'm thinking I need to drag the sewing machine out and get back into it again).

Mo, we have *very* similar measurements! What do you mean by pulling at the base of the zipper? (I wish I had taken a bunch of pics, to show you all exactly what I'm talking about).

Mochi

Veteran

I'll read the comments tomorrow, but let me join you on the No Hips bench. I want some hips! If jeans can slide down my apple belly, there's no stopping them from making their way to the floor! Even a belt can hardly stop them. Just one more thing to make fitting into stuff more complicated.

Mo

(website)

Veteran

Shiny, I mean that this is where the fabric pulls on me and is usually tightest. I am 5' 4.5", so a tad taller than you, but not much.

Gaylene

Veteran

Shiny, nice to find another seamstress. I used to do a lot of sewing because both my mother and grandmother were expert seamstresses who made most of their own clothes. My mother used to create all her own tailored suits when she was a "working girl" (loved her way of referring to herself) in the forties and fifties. I'm still stunned at some of her outfits when I look through the family albums.

Fit has always fascinated me because it is so much more complex than most people realize. I took a few tailoring courses when I was younger just so I could figure out how to sew garments that I'd actually like to wear. Tailoring was an area where I could exercise my perfectionist tendencies without driving everyone around me crazy! LOL

shiny

Veteran

Ah, okay! It's actually not tight there on me at all, but it whiskers anyway. In a ... smile? I don't know how to describe it. That's the part that weirds me out... the jeans are definitely NOT tight there. There is all this loose fabric, yet it'll often also look.. shall we say... obscene? But I can usually fix it if I scrunch the waist down lower (dropping the crotch point), assuming the waist is loose enough that I can do so, which is not often the case. And when it is, it is wayyy lower than my personal comfort zone.

This whole recent exercise made me realize why Angie thinks I could wear lower rises. The problem is, they don't *stay* low. They want to inch back up again, and that may be because of more inner thigh compared to outer. And even if they did stay low, as soon as I sit down, I'm all... "yuck... pot belly over waistband." Even if I could hide that, I just do not like the way that feels AT ALL.

shiny

Veteran

Gaylene, my mom is an awesome seamstress. I grew up at the base of her sewing machine. She taught me initially by having me make little dolls out of muslin. I know quite a bit about sewing; I even worked in a fabric store as a teen. I sewed my kids' clothes when they were toddlers. Then I got frustrated with it and I gave it up. Both my kids know how to sew, because their grandma taught them. There are three sewing machines in this house. But I haven't touched mine in ... 15 years!

I am so tempted lately... but it would be to alter and tailor, not to create from scratch! And that, as you very well know, is a totally different skill. Where did you take your course? Maybe I ought to look into one.

Gaylene

Veteran

Shiny, one tip that I received in a tailoring course was that the ends of the "smile" (or "frown") usually pointed to the area where the fabric needed to be released. On a fitting muslin, that was the area that needed to be slashed open so that extra fabric could be incorporated into the garment at that point.

Just wondering if we squishy rectangles with no butt and no hips are having trouble with the front of the pants not having enough room. A lower rise would obviously eliminate this problem, but, as you point out, may end up causing other issues. And I know what you mean by the pot belly over the waistband feeling--that definitely does NOT feel fab!

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