How to Choose the Best Jeans for Your Body Shape

Women's Fair Fashion
Written By By Virginia

So you want a pair of jeans that look great, fit beautifully, are made ethically and don't have a leather tag?

Well so do we, so we got hunting and found the perfect cut of jeans for each body type, & examples of fairly-made jeans to prove our point that there's an exciting new world of ethical fashion on our doorsteps...

And at the bottom of this post, there's a list of ethically made jeans brands which don't use leather labels, as a handy reference. 

vegan jeans dr denim nora.jpg

Hour Glass Figure:

Nora Light Retro Ripped
(Dr Denim)

Hour Glass Figure

The Marilyn Monroe body type - you're looking for jeans which show off your curvy curves, but don't make your legs look short in the process.

Try a straight or wide leg jean, with a flat front and high or mid rise fitting. Ankle length cropped jeans also work well for this body type. A bootcut style creates too much in the way of curves (out, in, out, in, out - exhausting!) so it's better avoided. 

  • BEST CUT: wide leg, straight, cropped ankle length, boyfriend

  • BEST RISE: mid or high.

  • AVOID: tapered, bootcut

beija jeans.png

PEAR SHAPED FIGURE

Nicole Bootcut
(Beija Flor)

Pear Shape Figure

The flared jean in a dark denim is your new best friend. Skinny or tapered jeans will generally emphasise the thighs - so what you want is something that is the reverse, creating balance at the base/hem. Especially if tall, the flared jean can look like legs for days on a pear shape figure, but looks great on petite pear shapes too.
Low or mid rise work well. Choose jeans with large back pockets so they are in proportion (ie small back pockets can make your butt look big). 

  • BEST CUT: flared, bootcut, stretch denim.

  • BEST RISE: high or mid.

  • AVOID: tapered and skinny jeans.

RECTANGULAR FIGURE

Black Jet Organic Flex Skinny
(Monkee Genes)

Rectangle or Boyish Figure

This is the figure with straighter hips, often long legs and without a really defined waist. Most jeans pulled off the shelves simply won't sit in all the right places - to get the length they'll often be baggy at the waist and hips. Instead, create the curves with a flared leg or boot cut, which will make your waist look more defined as a contrast. Skinny stretch jeans also work well - especially with a front pocket zipper detail like our example above. 

  • BEST CUT: flared, boot cut, boyfriend, skinny stretch.

  • BEST RISE: mid or high, but if very tall a low rise creates better proportions

  • AVOID: tapered and flared jeans.

TALL, LEAN FIGURE

Nopa Skinny
(Sonas Denim)

Tall, lean Figure

Ok, so you're gonna look good in pretty much any style of jean, and rock a white jean better than any other body type.
But to emphasise those long legs, a skinny or fitted straight leg will sit very well. You can also wear flared jeans with style. Just about the only style to avoid is the cropped ankle jean - as they can look like you're wearing a size too small or the fabric run out! 

  • BEST CUT: flared, straight, boot cut

  • BEST RISE: low, high or mid.

  • AVOID: cropped ankle jeans

PETITE FIGURE:

Cropped Mimi Sun Stone
(Mud Jeans)

Petite Figure

If you're petite, cropped skinnies work beautifully. Worn with a ballet flat or a heel, the proportions sit well. Add some flares to the cropped silhouette, and you're really talking style! Alternatively, the classic boot cut in a slim fit works too. 

  • BEST CUT: skinnies, cropped skinnies, boot cut, slim cut, ankle flares

  • BEST RISE: high or mid.

  • AVOID: baggy boyfriend style

JEANS BRANDS WITHOUT LEATHER LABELS

  • DR DENIM (also offer organic cotton & recycled fibre varieties)
  • MUD JEANS (innovative recycling program, GOTS certified cotton, big focus on sustainability
  • NAKED & FAMOUS (Japanese milled denim, jeans cut & sewn in Canada)
  • MONKEE GENES (patches made from coated, recycled card. Offer organic jeans made in Indonesia & jeans made in England. Focus on fairly made jeans with an increasingly large range of eco-friendly options)
  • SONAS DENIM (named after the Irish word for "happiness", there's so much to love about this denim brand. Vegan, with most of the range made from recycled or re-purposed materials, Sonas also donate a portion of their profits to their planned animal sanctuary in California.) 
  • BEIJA-FLOR (with an emphasis on working with women's curves rather than against them, if you are curvaceous this is a great brand. Offering echochic jeans made from 100% Repreve recycled fibres, as well as a range of jeans made from cutting edge fibre technology to create flattering lines. Made in Brazil.)

Keeping Things Transparent:

We weren't paid to write this review, nor to mention these brands in this post. 
As always, we are keen to support small businesses with ethics & great products, who are providing fabulous vegan options.

the final word:

A special shout-out to these divine jeans from Sonas Denim. Made from over 50 pieces of leftover fabric, they literally turn recycled fashion into cool chic dressing. 

By Virginia

As the "mother" half of the Future King & Queen mother-daughter duo, Virginia is a Melbourne based designer who firmly believes that living kindly is a series of daily choices that we can each make in order to touch the earth more lightly. At the age of 11, she wrote a passionate English essay about the practice of animal testing in the cosmetics industry, as part of a school assignment - and as an adult, has strived to encourage her 3 children to become compassionate, thinking young adults who care for both others around them and the world in which they live.

Virginia has been vegan for more than 2 years, after attending a talk by Phillip Wollen (OAM) when all the lightbulbs suddenly went on! Here was a way to live that touched the earth more lightly, didn't involve harm to animals, and opened the door to a much more healthy lifestyle. 

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