
This is a story about lust, longing, impatience, risktaking, recklessness, and no-logic willfulness. Oh, yes, it has a happy ending.
It’s a tale about shopping online with the lights down low, finding love on the J.Jill website, captivated by a jean (on sale even, but I’d have been willing to pay twice the amount), and not available in my size.

Heartbreak. Despair. This cannot be! Every size of this high-rise, full-leg crop jean with the grosgrain stripe down the side is sold out except for a size eight tall.
It’s not my size, but I still can’t stop myself from shopping.
I’m not tall. I am so very average: 5’5″ and 135-138 pounds. In fact, I’ve purchased petite pants at times to get the right fit. But size tall? No, they’re for tall people.

For a split second, I used my head.
With the high waist style and all, they’d probably come up to the bottom of my bust. They’d be too long. I’d have to chop a few inches off the hem. I’d have to re-fray the already frayed hem.

I can’t let go.
My heart wouldn’t let go. In the dark, my hand impulsively pressed “purchase” on the tall-sized jeans. I went to bed with thoughts of receiving a package in the mail of too tall pants.
They arrived in a couple of days. I opened the box and saw them folded up in their plastic bag. Poor me, I thought. I’ve come so close to getting the jean I’ve been looking for, but they’re not going to fit.
Trying on the wrong-sized jeans
I released them from their plastic wrap and slipped them on my very average body. They came straight to my waist where I fastened them, just so. To my delight (some people wouldn’t see it this way) the extra-long rise was taken up by the fullness of my belly. It didn’t come anywhere near my bustline, it came to my waistline. What luck!
The “cropped” length was perfect. It was longer than a crop in a standard size, but it was what I wanted: a trouser jean, hitting me near my ankle. I could wear it with suede short-heeled boots until springtime when I’d wear it with my black platform sandals.
They could be dressed up or down.
The right jean in the wrong size was actually my size.
When I get compliments on these jeans I just smile real wide, like I have a secret and I’m not telling anyone. Well, no one but you.
Have you taken risks with sizes? Did it work out or were you disappointed? Your secrets are safe with us. Do share!
XO
13 Comments
Ramona Puckett
March 11, 2020 at 5:09 amI love this! Those jeans look great on you!
Cathy
March 11, 2020 at 8:58 amGood advice about trying something that is not your usual size. But I’m not surprised they fit you. I actually need a Tall/Long but most manufacturers accomplish this by lengthening the leg of pants and the skirt of skirts and dresses. They don’t make an adjustment to the rise of pants or the length of the bodice of a dress. This defeats the purpose and spoils the fit for those of us who are tall because we have longer torsos and longer legs.
Gail A Guinn
March 11, 2020 at 9:45 amLove when you post like this! It started my day off with a smile!
jodie filogomo
March 11, 2020 at 9:59 amThis is exactly why we should be more open to sizes. Especially when I’m thrifting, I will search many categories because vintage items are different and every brand is so different. Sure, it’s harder online, but that’s why I will order many different sizes and return the ones that don’t work too.
You make the best stories out of everyday events Brenda,
XOOX
Jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
Janice Nagle
March 11, 2020 at 10:10 amYou look wonderful in your jeans! I tried a different size with wonderful results. I always bought my sweaters, tee shirts and top in a regular, because I’m blessed with chest. The seams at the shoulders never fit well and the sleeves were always too long. I’m 5 feet, 4 inches tall….just at the border of petite and regular. One time the sweater I wanted was in my size, but a petite. I tried it on and voila! The shoulder seams and arm length fit perfectly and it was not too tight across the chest!! I’m not a petite in pants and skirts, but I am in tops!!
LA CONTESSA
March 11, 2020 at 4:59 pmYOU HAD ME AT TALL!!!!!!!!
Linda Weiss
March 12, 2020 at 10:40 amBrenda, I love your eyeglasses!! Any chance of you sharing the brand?
Brenda
March 13, 2020 at 11:17 amYes, Linda. They are L.A. Eyeworks. I get my glasses at Uber Optics in Petaluma. Great resource!
TJ
March 12, 2020 at 3:42 pmAhh the secret is in the word ‘crop’! Yes, all cropped pants fit me perfectly to the ankle! I buy 7/8ths all the time and they hit me at the ankle because I was blessed with short legs! They’re not that short but until the industry invented cropped pants, I would always have to take them up. Yay! Love a happy story.
BTW I became a grandmother for the first time on Tuesday night. Besotted, amazed, grateful and feeling blessed, are some of the words to describe how I feel. This is Life in motion. Xxxxx
Julia Purtill
March 12, 2020 at 9:36 pmGood problem solving on the jeans. I am in awe of ladies who succeed with shopping on line. I have tried but alas most goes back! But it doesn’t stop me from looking!
Anon
March 12, 2020 at 10:09 pmAs crop pants are very tricky — they must hit at just the right spot on the leg — I have ordered tall crop jeans from Gap to wear as regular jeans, and they were “Goldilocks”, just right. I suppose you could order the petite length for a regular in order to get cropped jeans, too.
Sandi
March 17, 2020 at 4:45 amYour article put a smile on my face this morning. Wanting something, knowing it probably wouldn’t fit, buying it anyway in hopes that it does fit, and then, lo and behold, it comes, and it’s perfect. The cropped jeans look fabulous on you Brenda!
Brenda
March 22, 2020 at 7:00 pmThanks, Sandi. What a stroke of luck! xo