Groovymarlin.com

A few months ago, I used this genius website Zafu to figure out what kind of jeans to buy. You answer a bunch of questions and then they recommend several brands/styles of jeans to you (they now do bras too, and are adding pants soon). I had my doubts, but they were right on the money. They recommended several styles to me, and I ended up ordering a pair from Baby Phat (that’s them, pictured to the left, and no that is not my shapely ass). I love these Baby Phat jeans. They have just the right amount of stretch, hug my butt nicely, have a slight flare opening, sit low enough on my waist, and come in a wondeful 33-inch length that’s sort of in between other brands’ “average” (always too short for me) and “tall” (usually too long for me). They weren’t cheap, but they weren’t the most expensive jeans I’ve ever bought either. I think I paid around $50 for them (they were on sale), which is (shockingly) about what you have to pay nowadays for a pair of jeans at the Gap! It was worth it though -for months now, these have been my go-to jeans when I want to feel confident and maybe a little bit sexy and sassy.

Fast forward to last weekend. I was at the mostly-icky discount store Ross, where I needed to return a Laura Ashley comforter (you really can find some oddly nice things in Ross from time to time) that just didn’t work out for us. Since it had been more than 30 days since I purchased the thing (shame on me for being lazy about returning it), they couldn’t give me a refund, just store credit. So I had like $50 to spend in Ross and only Ross! I ended up spending all but $2 of my store credit, and I got some closet organizing things, a drawer organizer for our junk drawer in the kitchen, some miscellaneous office supply type things, a blouse and a pair of jeans.

So here’s the weird thing…when I tried the jeans on they fit OK, and they were kind of a lighter weight denim, so I figured they’d be good for weekends working around the house. I was in a hurry and didn’t examine them closely. When I got home I threw them in the wash and then stowed them in my closet. Today I took them out to try them on again and ended up wearing them to work. I would swear they were made to the exact same pattern and specifications as the Baby Phat jeans. Same perfect length, same great amount of stretch (not too little, not too much), same low (but not too low) waist. Same awesome butt-hugging shape! The denim is a slightly lighter weight but it feels good (considering our temps have been averaging in the mid 90s) and the wash is really nice – dark denim that doesn’t look dirty and isn’t too distressed or “whiskered” (whose bright idea was that crap anyway?). The only differences: there is attractive, swirly stitching on the back pockets instead of the signature “cat” logo of the Baby Phat brand, the belt loops are straight vertical instead of slanted like BP, and (thankfully) there is no hard metal BP tag on the waistband.

I really have to take a side-by-side photo of these jeans and post it. The brand is called “Bubblegum” (as far as I know it is not at all related to some brand of straight-leg jeans that was popular in the 80s), and the tag proudly proclaims “Made in China.” That’s all I know about them. I can’t seem to Google up any good information either. Weird!

Oh, and the best part. While BP jeans will run you about $50 on sale, the Bubblegum jeans from Ross were $12.99.  Oh, the savings!