jeans shopping

So this post is about shopping for jeans...no cute little man updates. I would have posted it on FB but I knew it'd take me entirely too long to tell the story.

I recently read a post on pinterest that was written by a blogger in Birmingham Alabama, of all places. Her blog is all about showing how the right style of jean can make you look 2 sizes smaller. It was very convincing with all the photos that accompanied it. One particular post caught my eye "How Gap and Old Navy jeans are the gateway into "mom" jeans". Oh gawd, I must read more. Basically she did side by side comparisons of their jeans to these other brands. What really caught my attention was that she said these other brands were affordable, so I'm thinking cheaper (at least compared to Gap). One brand that caught my eye was a rockstar brand at Express. I thought to myself, when was the last time I shopped in Express?! Highschool?
So today we headed out the mall to see a world famous yo-yo performer, with the side intention to get a new bra, for the first time since before I was pregnant, and a pair of jeans since I lack one size to help me until I reach my old clothing size. Got the bras and left feeling fabulous.  Then I headed to Express. I located the jeans, got my size and headed to the dressing room. Sure enough, they were pretty amazing on. My butt looked awesome, material was nice and thick, no muffin top, design was current and exciting compared to what I have been wearing. So I take them off, excited to have a new fabulous pair of jeans. I look at the price expecting it to be around $50, maybe even $60. Hey, they are a nice pair of thick jeans vs all this "stretchy" crap we've all encountered. $118!!!! When in the world did Express become some high-end design fashion store?! I practically ran out of the store so I wouldn't run into the clerk who'd helped me. I mean, I want a nice pair of jeans, but the reality is that they'll have peanut butter and Teddygram smudges within the third wearing and I'll go back to thinking of them as any other pair of jeans, cause that's how life is nowadays. I'm a mom, not a fashion guru, up on the current trends and music kinda person anymore.
I tried going to H&M cause everyone seemed to be so excited about that store when it came to HSV. I narrowed it down between 2 sizes. The bigger one was too big and the size smaller was like wearing skin tight leather. I compared them waist-to-waist afterwards. There was a good 2 inch difference which would actually equal 4 inches since it was folded; that's not normal. I talked to the employees and they told me that the sizes varied on where and when they're made. Say what? Well that is entirely too difficult for me to ever find a pair when I'm not a stick and I have a toddler who I already owe some sort of bribe to for being so very very patient. So...I ended up at Old Navy and found a pair of $30 jeans that will suffice. Damn that article for wasting my time.