Thanks, Lisa! Some good ones there. I will investigate further.
I’m not in a rush, just collecting info at the moment, thinking ahead, since I’m expecting to wear my jeans a lot in the coming months. I am not in bad shape for jeans right now — I managed to get a weird sticky stain out of my old Lucky straight legs (which have a slightly boyfriend-ish fit and a DIY released hem, so they are decidedly relaxed in appearance), and the two pairs of DL1961 jeans I got in early 2019 (which have a similar easy fit but a little narrower in the leg) are still going strong. I like the wash on the Mott & Bow’s that I linked to — dark but not that flat overly-uniform dark wash. I love the look of the faded wash on those Citizen jeans, but I have a very hard time finding the right light wash with that appealing slightly loose fit, like those look on the model. Too many jeans fit my legs like sausage casings.
A lot of jeans now have rises of 10”+ which makes them a more difficult fit for me — if I size up for some ease, they are often baggy in the crotch in a bad way. And of course it’s hard to find any inseams of 32” or more these days — so much is cropped!
I love flares and bootcuts and I’ll still wear them this winter, but I am thinking ahead to styles that work well with a little roll or cuff to wear around the house without the hems dragging on the floor.