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When did you buy-

(51 Posts)
trisher Mon 25-May-15 10:59:40

Your first pair of jeans? I was looking at the seven or so pairs of jeans in my wardrobe and suddenly remembered the first pair I ever bought. I was 17 and had to go to the Army and Navy surplus store-no-one else stocked them. My mother wouldn't let me have ones that zipped up the front-they were mens and no respectable girl would wear trousers with a fly front!!! I had to have womens with a zip at the side. They were too baggy. I narrowed the legs then sat in a hot bath wearing them so they shrunk to size. I wore them with a big black polo necked jumper and thought I was very cool!

shysal Mon 25-May-15 11:42:46

I don't know why, but I never wore jeans when young, bought my first pair (NYDJs) at the age of about 55! It may have been because I had an 18inch waist with 36inch hips as a teenager, so trousers never fit properly unless I made my own.

grannyactivist Mon 25-May-15 11:43:59

I was thirty when I got my first pair of jeans (a gift from one of my sisters). I lay on the bed and had to wriggle to put them on; they were a size eight.

ninathenana Mon 25-May-15 11:45:37

Not until my thirties. I'm apple shaped and have short legs so jeans were a no, no !
Then they started making jeans in different shapes and the fashion for longer tops came along. So I do have some but unfortunately I have never been able to wear them with a jumper envy

grannyactivist Mon 25-May-15 11:46:59

I've just realised that I've never in my life actually bought a pair of new jeans! Initially all my jeans came from my sisters who gave me their cast offs and more recently I've bought every pair of jeans from charity shops.
shock

nightowl Mon 25-May-15 11:49:38

I was 12 and bought them for a holiday in Great Yarmouth (or I should say my mum bought them for me). My friend came on holiday with us and we bought identical pairs. I can't remember where they came from but I still have a photo of us wearing them and they were big and baggy with turn ups. Probably not the image we had in our heads!

kittylester Mon 25-May-15 11:52:44

I bought my first pair with saved up babysitting money when I was 15. My mum wouldn't buy them for me so I got them myself. They were bellbottoms shock and my best friend bought some at the same time. We were so excited that we couldn't wait to go home and change so went into the toilets on Derby market to change. The attendant was horrified when we came out of the cubicle and threw us out. Mum wasn't too chuffed either especially when I sewed lampshade trim bobbles round the hem! Oh, I was trendy!

vampirequeen Mon 25-May-15 11:53:28

About four years ago when I was 52

AshTree Mon 25-May-15 11:59:56

Sometime in my teens, but it's not one of those stand out moments so I don't remember. I do remember buying my first pair of very fashionable hipster trousers at the age of 12. They were cinnamon coloured chunky corduroy with a very wide leather belt. I got them in the New Year sales in Romford. I remember feeling sooooo trendy and grown up!

trisher Mon 25-May-15 12:15:18

Oh thank you - so many memories. I remember the bed/floor shuffle- you could get into a size smaller! And hipsters I had a grey pair one summer and wore them constantly, pulling them on over my swimming costume at the beach.

janeainsworth Mon 25-May-15 12:33:11

I bought some Levi's when I was a student. They were £5 and therefore a mad, unjustifiable extravagance.
I had read that you were supposed to do that shrinking to fit thing and sat in the bath for hours in them. It didn't work, the jeans were most unflattering and I gave them away to one of the larger boys on my course.

The first pair of really trendy trousers I had were a pair of loon pants that I got the following year. They were purple with very wide bell bottoms and suited me much better. I had a purple t-shirt to go with them and thought I was the bees' knees.

loopylou Mon 25-May-15 14:08:37

Mine were loons, bought in Basingstoke in about 1973, age 20, dark green and the wide flares would trip me up by wrapping themselves around your legs.....what on earth must I have looked like blush

tanith Mon 25-May-15 14:16:32

I have no clue I'm afraid grin I just counted and I have 6 blue denim 2 black one each white, tan and maroon.. yikes!!

hildajenniJ Mon 25-May-15 14:21:34

I bought Lee Cooper jeans from a tiny boutique round the corner from where I worked. I must have been 17 or 18. It was the only place that kept them. I liked Lee Coopers because they fitted me really well. I was a skinny kid with no backside to speak of. I also liked their cords.

rosesarered Mon 25-May-15 14:23:46

When I was about 13.pale blue denim and I loved them.

Bellanonna Mon 25-May-15 15:07:28

I'm probably older than most posters. I think in my youth only men wore jeans and that was for work. My father disapproved of women in trousers but I did eventually buy my first "slacks" when I was in my twenties. Zip at the side of course. I now have about 6 pairs of jeans, bought since my sixties!! I practically live in them. i also wear leggings with very long tops and feel liberated and comfortable.

trisher Mon 25-May-15 15:32:41

Bellanonna so pleased you remember the side zips, I was trying to explain this to a younger friend the other day. She thought front zips had always been the norm. I don't think she understood any of the prejudice against women in trousers, and women wearing trousers with fly fronts. My mother thought I might be arrested in jeans with a zip at the front, for wearing men's clothing.

FarNorth Mon 25-May-15 16:41:07

My mother used to wear 'slacks'.
My first pair of denims were hipster flares in a lightweight denim in navy, fastened with 3 large gilt buttons at the front. I was probably 14 or 15.
I got them mail order from a place that sent things in a large flattish pink box. I got a few things from there as there wasn't much scope for trendy gear around our way!

grandma60 Mon 25-May-15 17:11:20

I think I wore Levi cords more than denim.in the 60s. They were £5 a pair (very extravagant!) from.the same shop.that my mum.bought her gor-ray skirts. Does anyone else remember splitting jeans up the seams and sewing in.large triangles of different fabric to make them even more flared?
By the 70s it was different coloured loons from.the Freemans catalogue.

annodomini Mon 25-May-15 17:31:21

I was about 20, I think. I wore them to go youth hostelling in the Trossachs with my sister and her friend. I got caught in the rain and when I took the jeans off, my legs were indigo.

FarNorth Mon 25-May-15 18:47:03

I remember the triangles g60 although I never did it. grin

janerowena Mon 25-May-15 19:58:18

I wasn't very old, but I do remember that they were flared and had a flap at the front, which buttoned up on each side. I hadn't thought about the zip thing, I can remember side zips. I used to make most of my own clothes from the age of 12 (because I wanted to) and always thought that women chose to wear trousers with side zips because they were easier to make.

suzied Mon 25-May-15 20:16:09

I had some bell bottomed cords when I was 15, and some velvet loons around the same time.Levi's a little later. I have now just bought some pale denim boyfriend jeans from Uniqlo for the summer. Super comfy!

yogagran Mon 25-May-15 20:45:01

I had to wear my brothers cast off jeans as far back as I can remember. My mother used to say that they were the only things that I couldn't wear out! I tried objecting about the zip on the front instead of on the side but that didn't make any difference. They used to be much thicker and stiffer in those days!

newist Mon 25-May-15 20:51:00

yogagran I too had to wear my brothers cast offs, it must of been about 1953, because I was a tomboy, my mother used to threaten me with "brown paper dresses" because I was always dirty, so her solution was dress me like a boy, You are right about the material being so coarse and stiff