# Wear jeans at waist or hip?



## Liquidus (Mar 2, 2009)

Does it look better to wear your jeans at the waist or the hip? I intend to wear them with untucked button-down shirts, but I imagine I might tuck in the shirt when wearing a blazer/sport coat.

P.S. Is there a way to search for threads that contain all of your keywords? For example, if I search for "shoe care," it'll search for all threads with shoe OR care. I want shoe AND care.


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## Blueboy1938 (Aug 17, 2008)

*Hip . . .*

. . . fer sure! Otherwise, you might as well put a pocket protector into a short-sleeved dress shirt to wear with them and go totally geek:icon_smile_big:


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## Bartolo (Mar 2, 2009)

With an untucked shirt, people won't notice that your jeans are up around your waist akin to a character out of _Green Acres._


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## vinliny (Oct 20, 2006)

_Hip..._


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## Dhaller (Jan 20, 2008)

Hip, UNLESS you have really short legs, in which case wearing them at the waist might visually lengthen you.

It would still look silly/outdated, but you'd look longer-legged, at least 

DH


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## rgrossicone (Jan 27, 2008)

For me it depends. I have some jeans that I wear a little more dressy than others. For any shirt without a tie, whether tucked or not, hips are where they go.

If I wear a tie, to make the line look cleaner (tie reaching the belt buckle) I wear them higher.


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## Beau (Oct 4, 2007)

Hip, but you'll have to try on 50 different pairs of jeans before you will get used to the feeling. Also, if you have a bit or a lot of belly, this will only accentuate that belly.


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## rmcnabb (Feb 25, 2009)

It depends how the jeans are cut. For my money, the Levi's 501 is a timeless American classic. I know there are many denim detractors here, and I fully respect their position and opinion, but you can wear these jeans whether you're 8 or 80. They have a cut that requires you to wear them around the hip. There are many other, more modern, cuts of jeans that are intended to be worn higher on the hips. Notice the next time you see someone wearing Wrangler jeans, how big it makes their butt look with that high rise and big pockets. It's just the way they're cut. (Maybe they really are cut for riding horseback after all...?)

You have to decide what "style statement" you're making (that seems pretentious, but it's the truth) and choose jeans that make it. Then wear them the way they're made to be worn. 

Many jeans have a ho-hum middle of the road, generic look, and for this reason I never buy "other brand" (not off-brand) jeans like those from LL Bean, or Orvis, or Bills, or whatever. For me, jeans are Levis 501s, and that simplifies things a lot. YMMV.


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

^^Since I wear only Levi 501's, I guess I must wear them close to the hip...but, I do yank those bad-boys up just as far as they will go!  They don't call it the waistband of the trousers for nothing, do they?


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## Gurdon (Feb 7, 2005)

*Hip*

Hip.

Gurdon


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## Jovan (Mar 7, 2006)

In defence of jeans worn at the waist...


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## SOhp101 (Apr 3, 2009)

It all depends on the type of jean, but most modern styles fit at the hip. older ones fit at the waist.


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## GreenPlastic (Jan 27, 2009)

Indeed. Most modern jeans are designed to be worn at the hip. Hike them up too high and, ummm, you risk strangling "the boys."


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## Jovan (Mar 7, 2006)

Say what you will about "dated" because I have jeans from 1999 and they are worn at the waist. I noticed in a lot of our family's home movies from the '90s that even my trendy cousins in their late teens wore jeans that sat at the waist. "Hip huggers" hadn't quite taken hold of everything yet. A decade later and that's the only thing available, even in the form of Levi's 501.

Trousers worn at the waist are more comfortable, period.


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## Bartolo (Mar 2, 2009)

Beau said:


> Hip, but you'll have to try on 50 different pairs of jeans before you will get used to the feeling. Also, if you have a bit or a lot of belly, this will only accentuate that belly.


This is why gentlemen with even a modest belly don't look good in jeans unfortunately. Up around the belly and they look silly . . . down below the belly just accentuates the _rotundness_. Jeans are for the relatively thin IMHO


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## Cardcaptor Charlie (Jul 7, 2008)

Surely, they should be worn almost falling off your hips to the point of near risk of exposing yourself, ne? :icon_smile_big:


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## rmcnabb (Feb 25, 2009)

I saw a commercial one time - don't remember the product, but one line was memorable: "The wind used to get up in the morning just to blow through James Dean's hair." Pretty cool. 

When I said hip regarding 501's, I didn't mean "hippers" like they're often wearing them now - down low on the hips. I meant the normal "below the belly button" position, like Mr. Dean above. Waist to me means up high like dress slacks.

And it does help, as said, to not have Dunlop's disease (where your belly done lopped over your belt) when donning denim trousers.


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## TMMKC (Aug 2, 2007)

Hip...though I do have a couple older pairs that fir closer to the waist. Oddly enough, I bought a new pair of jeans over the weekend and I whittled the choices down to two pairs...one that fit at the hip, and one that fit at the waist. The hip won out.


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## Cruiser (Jul 21, 2006)

Jovan said:


> Say what you will about "dated" because I have jeans from 1999 and they are worn at the waist. I noticed in a lot of our family's home movies from the '90s that even my trendy cousins in their late teens wore jeans that sat at the waist. "Hip huggers" hadn't quite taken hold of everything yet.


Are you sure? This is me wearing a garden variety pair of Levis (probably 505s) in the early '70's, and this is what I call hip level. Perhaps I'm defining hip incorrectly.

https://img355.imageshack.us/my.php?image=scan0034.gif

Cruiser


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## Claybuster (Aug 29, 2007)

I wear my Wranglers on the waist.

Danny


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## a tailor (May 16, 2005)

put on the jean, pull up till the crotch fits smoothly. if the waist band is at the waist then that's how you wear it. if its at the hip that's how you wear it. pick your style.


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## MarkY (Mar 24, 2005)

a tailor said:


> put on the jean, pull up till the crotch fits smoothly. if the waist band is at the waist then that's how you wear it. if its at the hip that's how you wear it. pick your style.


Exactly right. It depends on the rise of the jean. Personally, I think jeans worn at the waist look very geek. And if you have a belly, you should avoid jeans altogether.

I'm willing to bet that most of the jean hatred on this board is from people that don't look good in jeans. Well fitting jeans look great.


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## Scoundrel (Oct 30, 2007)

Liquidus said:


> Does it look better to wear your jeans at the waist or the hip? I intend to wear them with untucked button-down shirts, but I imagine I might tuck in the shirt when wearing a blazer/sport coat.
> 
> P.S. Is there a way to search for threads that contain all of your keywords? For example, if I search for "shoe care," it'll search for all threads with shoe OR care. I want shoe AND care.


Below the hip :devil:


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## bigchris1313 (Apr 16, 2009)

Scoundrel said:


> Below the hip :devil:


With a waist size so small that the pants must be worn skin-tight at the bottom of the ass, right where the glutes meet the hamstrings.


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## amplifiedheat (Jun 9, 2008)

MarkY said:


> Well fitting jeans look great.


On _women_.


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## Cruiser (Jul 21, 2006)

amplifiedheat said:


> On _women_.


Yes, well fitting jeans do look good on women.

Of course most women tend to think that well fitting jeans look good on men also. And when it comes to something like this, many of us are more interested in what the women think than what other men think. :icon_smile:

Cruiser


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## mt_spiffy (Apr 12, 2008)

Tight jeans look good on women  Women dont generally prefer tight jeans on men in my experience 

And, hip. In both cases!


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## amplifiedheat (Jun 9, 2008)

mt_spiffy said:


> Tight jeans look good on women  Women dont generally prefer tight jeans on men in my experience


My point. Thank you.


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## MarkY (Mar 24, 2005)

amplifiedheat said:


> My point. Thank you.


I said well fitting jeans. Didn't say anything about tight jeans on men. My point. Thank you.


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## Cottonshirt (Mar 15, 2009)

To understand the answer to this question you need to appreciate the difference between jeans and trousers. Trousers have darts in the back which allow the width of the hips to narrow down to the width of the waist. For this to happen you need either darts, some form of "gather" (which you would only see on a ladies garment) or the pentagonal insert seen on jeans. Jeans don't have darts, they have a separate panel that fits between the waist band and the hip line so that there is a seam going across the top of the rear pockets.

This panel is necessary only if the jeans have a waistband at the wearer's waist line. Therefore, if your jeans have this panel then you have, ipso facto, to wear the jeans at the waist. "Jeans" without this panel can be worn at the knees if you wish.


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