Most women find jean shopping a painful and discouraging experience, an experience when diets begin, frustration arises and store clerks become enemies. Ladies who have encountered such afternoons are unaware of the suited jean styles for their particular body type. This upcoming season, malls will hold several denim styles varying from straight-legs, skinny jeans, boot-cuts, trousers and the boyfriend fit.

Straight-leg:

The straight-leg style has identical width at the thigh, knee and leg with an emphasis on elongating short legs.

Pattie Hofland, a junior in fashion and textile management, said straight-leg jeans usually follow the leg line and are not tight, but definitely do not have flare.

‘This style is usually good for someone who has a smaller booty because they tend to accentuate the butt area,’ Hofland said.

Skinny:

‘Skinny jeans definitely have stretch in them and they fit really tight at the thigh and all the way down to the ankle. They are perfect for the slender girl,’ Hofland said.

Ashley Thornton, a junior in fashion and textile management, said thin people of all heights should sport the straight and skinny leg styles to show off their slimming features.

‘Narrow hips are important when choosing the skinny leg jeans,’ Thornton said.

‘They will definitely accentuate the hips, so if you don’t like your hips, do not wear them,’ Hofland said.

Thornton said skinny jeans are one of the most popular styles worn worldwide this year and are versatile with most shoes.

Boot Cut:

Hofland said boot-cut, or boot-leg, jeans are fitted tight through the thighs and widen throughout the ankles.

Kristin Anderson, a junior in fashion and textile management, said, ‘Boot-leg jeans have a slight flare and help even out curvy dimensions.’

‘Short people should not wear boot-legs because it only emphasizes their height,’ Anderson said.

‘Boot-legs balance out the curvy booty without being too rounded like a flare would be,’ Hofland said.

Trouser/Wide-leg:

Thornton said those with wide hips should avoid the skinny cut and look for the flared trouser, which will hide most physical flaws from the hips down.

‘With trousers, the leg falls straight from the hip giving you a looser thigh and leg fit. This is good to camouflage bigger thighs,’ Hofland said. ‘It’s great for most body types but especially the curvier ladies. They are also an easy jean to dress up for evenings.’

Thornton said curvy figures should also stand clear of jeans with no pockets and jeans with extra pockets, which are designed to add volume to one’s butt.

The Boyfriend:

‘The boyfriend jean is supposed to fit like your ‘boyfriend’s jeans,’ Hofland said, ‘meaning it is looser in the hips and legs and sometimes even in the butt. Usually they are very low rise and a straighter leg. It all depends on where you buy them.’

Thornton said she believes the boyfriend style is most flattering on tall, slender figures.

‘People who are slender with a big butt need to search for the boyfriend jeans which help to play down the unwanted bottom-curve,’ Anderson said.

Hofland said they are not really going to accentuate or camouflage anything in particular.

‘They’re mainly for the trendy factor,’ Hofland said.