my life in blue

I was tidying my wardrobe over the weekend when I found a pair of jeans I haven't worn in ages. Back in the day before skinny and straight leg jeans became the rage, I too, wore boot-cut jeans, haha. I wore them around the house, trying to remember what it felt like to wear these daily, and whether I could wear them out again. They feel tighter now!

But first, my denim history.

I got my my pair of "grown-up" jeans at 10, when my sister handed down to me her Guess jeans (I was tall enough at 10 to wear adult sizes). This was the 90s', before Guess moved into their "Paris Hilton" era, and I felt quite cool even though I think today we would refer to them as "mom jeans". I wore them with T-shirts and vests and felt insanely fashionable (I wore bicycle shorts and Body-Glove T-shirts too, the little hipster raver I was).

When I was 13, I saved up and bought my first pair of jeans from Calvin Klein'Jeans, because ckOne was the fragrance and and Jenny Shimizu and Kate Moss were the girls to be in the 90s, and it was probably my first big "brand" obsession - the day I officially became a victim of marketing. I wore these jeans so much that they wore out at the butt and knees and I had to patch them and chop them into shorts.

If anyone is wondering why Levi's wasn't a part of my life, when I claim to be a denim fan, it's because I've never found a Levi's cut for girls that fit. Nor did men's 501s do anything for me. Maybe today I could find a way to rock them, but back them I just felt spectacularly gawky in them.

When I was 17, I bought my second pair of jeans, from Mango - the only pair of jeans I could find then that did not have a huge flare - it was the reign of boot-cuts in 2001. I'm 5'11, and a US 8, or French 40, and until these high street brands from Europe came to Singapore, I could hardly find clothes that fit me well - Singaporean and Asian labels are made for smaller girls. Mango was also the beginning of "fast fashion" for me - chic clothes I could afford on a student's allowance and my part-time tutor wages.

I outgrew the Mango jeans when I decided I wanted real denim, not stretchy cotton made to look like denim. Around this time, my dad would also buy Levi's for me when he went to the US, but everything then was a boot-cut that didn't go with the Chucks permanently on my feet.

I started working at Diesel in 2004 as a part-time sales assistant while I was in university, and this was the beginning of my affair with "premium" denim. It coincided with the boom of brands like Seven for All Mankind, Rock and Republic, Hudson, etc, but I was obsessed with Replay, Diesel, Evisu.Unlike Seven et al, I liked the solid denim these brands used, and I was convinced they were the better deal than what Topshop, Zara, and Mango were offering me, even though I would paying through my nose for them. Around this time I started aspiring to better-made clothing too - I remember falling in love with A.P.C. when I did a summer programme in Paris. Buying better jeans was part of it all.

Working at Diesel gave me a great employee discount, and my very first pair are the ones you see me wearing. They looked comfortable with my sneakers. They were made of a yummy hefty denim that cried out to be weathered. The slight flare felt slacker cool and a little breezy So Cal, not fashion-y and crying to be worn with stilettos. The style was the right fit for my look at that time - I lived in cotton t-shirts, denim skirts, shorts, flip-flops, sneakers.

I wore these constantly for two years before I moved on to straight-leg jeans in 2005 (Diesel started making them) and then before long I bought my first skinny jeans in 2006, and basically, the narrow leg has reigned. I find them to be the best style for a flats girl like me, and I like the elegant, gamine touch of a narrow ankle. It took me a while to adjust my style to fit the new cut of my jeans - I see now that my jeans have always strongly influenced my style.

Trying on my boot-cut jeans again threw my current idea of myself for a loop, but I also felt strangely right. We never leave our selves behind, entirely, it seems.

Are there any style flashbacks sitting in your wardrobe? Would you resurrect them?