The Best Jeans For Bigger Legs

Marlon Brando in The Wild Ones

The classic original jean, Levi’s 501, is so popular worldwide because they FIT. They fit everybody, amazingly enough. Fat, skinny, bodybuilders, dads, cowboys, university professors. I recall as a boy walking in on my older brother sitting in a hot bath of blue water wearing his new Shrink-to-fit Levi’s 501s and his explaining that this is how you got custom-fit jeans —by molding them to your individual body type with this hot bath method.

I recall my middle brother’s rocker friends strutting around as 15 year olds in their carefully bath-shrunk 501s and black leather motorcycle jackets and their worshipful admiration for Marlon Brando who is credited with this look in the motorcycle gang film The Wild One.

I learned long ago that when trying on jeans at the store to take into the fitting room as many of the same size as possible, let’s say 32 waist and 30 length, because each one, although identically marked, fit somewhat differently. My favorite pair is from Levi’s recently-created Vintage Series in which they have brought back Levi’s 501s from different eras, accurate reproductions true in every detail, going back to the 1800s: I own the 1947 version.

In the past I’ve bought many a pair at second-hand clothing stores not only because they were cheap but because unlike the new Shrink-to-fit Levi’s, the used ones held no surprises as to how they would ultimately fit. Genuine vintage 501s can bring thousands of dollars on eBay and in certain stores in Japan. I recall owning a pair in the past, bought in a second hand store, that had a copper rivet in the crotch, a feature I recently found to have been discontinued in the 1930s. Those jeans, had I not lost track of them, would be worth thousands today.

The next time you shop for jeans try on some Levi’s 501s.There are a couple of terrific documentaries on YouTube all about the mystique of the Levi’s 501 jean included here.