Some of you who read my posts may remember me mentioning I used to deal vintage clothing many years ago when I lived back east. Over a decade ago my friend gave me these early 1990's Chloe jeans/pants that have this fabulous sailor button styling and trim. They were new with the tags and extra buttons still attached.

I absolutely loved the color of them. Which is hard to describe. They're cotton, where the foundation color is actually this deep reddish purple color that is overdyed with a brick red/orange/pink tone and trimmed in this vibrant orchid color with matching cloth covered buttons on the front and back.

There were two problems with them. They were more of a size 8-10 or so. So they were absolutely swimming on me (I'm usually a size 00 or 0) and I really hated the wide bootcut leg, which would make even the thinnest and longest of legs look rather stumpy.

I always thought they'd look fantastic with more of a skinny/tapered cigarette style leg. So I hung onto them for "someday."

Fast forward more than a decade. I had been schlepping these pants all over the country every time I moved. Always thinking I should try and do something with them whenever I unpacked in my new location.

Last week, while I was going through my latest batch of "closet items to part with" to photograph and sell on ebay I pulled these out once again and decided to take them to my seamstress to see if there was any possibility they could be recut and re-styled to fit my small frame and be made to look more contemporary in fit. Because I really did love the sailor pant styling of the front and back and the color on them was so unique. I figured the worst that could happen was she'd say it wouldn't work or that it would cost a gazillion dollars and I'd decide not to do it and *finally* just sell them on ebay.

Well, she did it. And I think she did an amazing job. I opted to have them styled to ankle length. Which left me with the option to wear them full length or cuffed once to just above the ankle or do a full roll (where the darker purple foundation color shows) if I want to wear them with booties or flip flops.

Excuse the crease down the front. She opted to steam them to put a crease in the center leg, which I'm not a fan of since these are technically jeans. I just didn't get a chance to iron the center crease out before putting them on.

I've included photos of the before shape/size as well as after showing them uncuffed, cuffed once and rolled with different shoe styles and heel-height shoes.

All in... $30 cost. < does little snoopy dance of joy >

My only regret is not getting around to doing this sooner as I totally view this style as a classic.

What do you guys think? Would you think these pants are around 20 years old?