Why High-Waisted Jeans Are Now My Favorite Thing To Wear On My Post-Baby Body

The high-waisted jean is a polarizing garment. People only ever seem to have very, very strong, deeply held opinions about them. Some people adore them. Everyone else hates them more than they hate Jessica Simpson, all the Kardashians, and spiders combined. As a person who came of age in the early 2000s, I was a devotee of the low-rise jean for years, but all that changed when I had a baby.

While I was pregnant, I basically lived in my maternity jeans. They were one of the few pieces of actual maternity clothes I bought because I did not want to spend money on clothes I would hopefully not be wearing for very long. But after the baby, I couldn’t wear them anymore. I couldn’t wear anything anymore.

After the baby was born I found myself in a terrible fashion limbo. My maternity clothes sagged around me like tents that had seen a few too many circuses. My pre-baby clothes were still probably five or six sizes too small, and the thought of cramming myself into my old skinny jeans and high heels was enough to make me retreat to the land of yoga pants and tears.

Even the pants I could squash myself into felt awful. Pregnancy does a number on one’s body. It changes in all manner of weird and surprising ways that I was not prepared for, even after a year of anxiously googling “post-baby bodies” on the Internet. (I was expecting bigger breasts. I was not expecting my right armpit to swell so much it looked like I had Mr. Clean in a headlock.) most distressing of all is what happened to my stomach.

Once the baby leaves the building, all that stretched-out stomach skin doesn’t snap back like elastic. In my case, all that loose skin just sort of hung there looking all deflated and empty like a fallen souffle or a popped balloon. When I tried to put pants over it, nothing fit. You know when you open a can of Pillsbury rolls by peeling the label off and it makes that satisfying “pop!” and all the dough comes bursting out of the seams? Yeah, it was basically just like that except without the cool “pop!” sound. And all the jeans I was trying just made me feel worse about it. In low-rise jeans, all that loose skin hung over the top. In mid-rise jeans, it was bisected by the waistband in a way that felt profoundly uncomfortable and made bending over weird.

Then, in a beautiful epiphany, a commenter over on our sister site recommended high-waisted jeans for a newly post-baby figure. At first, I was skeptical and entertained visions of “mom jeans” dancing through my head. But I was desperate so I tried a pair, and they were good.

I got myself a pair of ASOS Ridley high-waisted skinny jeans in acid wash. OK, the color that showed up was just a standard blue, but I didn’t care because they looked and felt fantastic. There was enough stretch to them that they were almost as comfortable as yoga pants, and the high waist was exceedingly comfortable. Rather than falling below or in the middle of my newly empty baby pocket, the waist rode well above it, at my natural waist. It was very comfortable and all that bothersome new extra skin was tucked away inside the denim, which wasn’t too tight at all.

As great as it was to find comfortable jeans, I have to admit that what I liked best about them was how flattering they were. Normally I do not give much of a shit about “flattering” clothes or how “pretty” a garment makes me look, but in that immediate post-baby period, I felt very ill at ease in my own body, which no longer felt like it belonged to me even a little bit. The high waist made my stomach look flatter, my short legs look longer, and was on-trend enough to make me feel hip and relevant again.

I liked my new high-waisted jeans so much I got two more pairs in different colors. I don’t think I wore a single thing besides high-waisted jeans and loose cotton tops until the baby was eight months old. I might never wear anything else again. This is my new mom’s uniform, and I love it.

High-Waisted Jeans For Every Body Type, So You Can Look Like A Cute Pinup Girl All Winter Long

Do you wish to wear high-waisted jeans? You absolutely can! You just need to find the perfect pair that hugs your body in all the right ways.

Once upon a time, I wore pants that I constantly had to pull up. You see, I have proportionately wide hips, and during the mid-2000s, all jeans were either mid-rise or low-rise, meaning that just after putting them on, the waistband would become slowly creepy down until I had to do a little pull-up jump…often in public. Then, I found high-waisted jeans. Suddenly there was a type of bottom that actually fit over my bottom, then stayed there. And now, it is time for me to find all of you some high-waisted pants of your own to have, hold, and wear with literally any top ever because these look great with it all.

Now that it is totally freezing outside, you may be a little perplexed about how to look great without losing some extremities in the process. High-waisted pants are a perfect way to channel the fun, pinup vibe high-waisted shorts have in the summer, but…you know, appropriate for wind chill, snow, and feeling like you’re standing in an igloo every time you’re waiting for the train.

For the record, when I say “jeans for every body type,” I don’t mean that in a “this is the style pear shapes can wear, this is the style ‘athletic’ bodies can wear,” and so on; I mean it in the sense that we all can wear this trend, we just need to find pairs that are actually going to fit. Whether you’re petite, tall, plus-size, have wide hips with skinny legs (hi), whatever, we all want to find the perfect pair that won’t need many alterations, if any.

18 Reasons To Celebrate The Reemergence Of High-Waisted Jeans

As you surely know, high-waisted jeans (and shorts and skirts and dresses and bathing suits) have been enjoying a comeback over the last few years, and retail analysts are finally starting to notice. According to several fashion experts, the trend is here to stay– and we couldn’t be more thrilled. Here are 18 reasons why we want high-waisted everything to rule the world.

1. I’m staunchly in favor of wearing anything that makes me feel closer, spiritually, to Kelly Kapowski.
2. You don’t have to keep a thumb in one of the belt loops when you lean over to prevent your buttcrack from showing. They stay up ON THEIR OWN.
3. Whether or not you wear thong underwear can remain private information.
4. They’ll cause “muffin tops” to go extinct, and we can peacefully return to only using those words to refer to delicious Panera pastries.
5. They have room for pockets that can actually, like, hold objects.
6. They’re much more flattering on bodies with long legs and wider hips (ahem, mine).
7. They help expand the list of places where you can rock a crop top.
8. Lots of dumb dudes have written articles about how much they hate them, so they must be a good thing.
9. You’ll save yourself the trouble of hiking your jeggings back over your hips every time you stand up.
10. They make your butt look like it can take over the world.
11. You can find thousands of old pairs at thrift stores– and then you get to feel superior and clever and artsy for wearing vintage items.
12. Put them on for two seconds, and you’ve basically transformed into edgy, end-of-the-movie Olivia Newton-John. Tell me about it, stud.
13. They’ll provide more fodder for hilarious quotes about Jennifer Lawrence’s fascination with camel toes.
14. They make you look like Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman knew what she was doing.
15. As the president of VF recently pointed out, the trend “hits the millennials because it’s cool and new, and it hits the little bit older customer who just needs more coverage.”
16. You’ll never again have to pry skinny jeans off of sweaty calves.
17. You’ll never again have to pull your waistband over your stomach roll when you sit down.
18. If you have a shorter torso, the tops of your jeans will provide a comfortable little shelf for the bottoms of your boobs.

So hit up your local Goodwill (or, you know, your grandma’s closet) and get ready for the most comfortable jeans you’ve worn in forever. You’re already halfway to becoming a Saved by the Bell cast member, you high-waisted vixen.

Photo: ASOS