What I’m Wearing…
Disclaimer: I feel like I’m still in my ultra-casual-still-figuring-out-my-style-now-that-I’m-not-living-in-a-twilight-zone era… although I did have a moment of clarity and fun on NYE, I’m still not quite there yet otherwise, but having fun with what are now vintage denim trends/styles, nonetheless 🙃
* Vintage ca. 1997 Juicy Couture dark wash, straight leg (with a hint of a boot cut) jeans (these look like a similar fit, and these and these and these but high rise and more in the shopping widget below)
* Light camo sweatshirt
* Army green bomber jacket
* Marc Jacobs pillow bag
* Phillip Lim sunglasses (I thought I lost these when I moved, but I just found them recently – although they now feel utterly outdated, but they’re so comfortable, I still have them in my rotation)
* Checkered Vans (also feeling like these aren’t “it” right now, but I love the way these jeans look with them, the way they bunch at the ankle, while also adding a hint of a unisex vibe, if that makes sense – or maybe I’m just used to seeing guys wearing similarly cut jeans with Vans 😆 – this is a possibility actually)
* Title: Marcy Playground – Sex & Candy… I randomly googled “hit songs from 1997”, the year I bought these jeans, (for irony’s sake) and this popped up, which made me giggle since I JUST referenced it last week on THREADS: What do the ’90s smell like? (a close second to Teen Spirit 😂 ). So of course it came full circle and made its way to my post’s title.
I bought these jeans in NYC when I was 19 years old. It was 1997 and I was there with my then-boyfriend, who was part of an upcoming “designer” exhibition or showcase, which now I cannot FOR THE LIFE OF ME, remember the name of. It was pretty big, and we worked tirelessly to create a booth/room to show off his designs. It was the one and only time I’ve been to NYC as of yet, but it was incredibly memorable and surprisingly, feels like just yesterday, to be honest.
I did A LOT of shopping when I was there (enough to also have to buy ANOTHER suitcase to fly home with everything 🤣)… mostly thrift shopping, but I also visited the Pat Fields store (mind you, this was PRE-Sex and The City, so it was just “cool store” I randomly found and loved) and a few other random stores I cannot remember the names of, and I believe I still have most of the items I purchased when I was there. At the time I had no idea what Juicy Couture was. This was pre-velour-sweatsuit days, and I’m not sure if the store I was in was an actual “Juicy” store, or if it was another random shop that just happened to carry Juicy, but I bought two t-shirts that I wore FOR YEARS, and ended up donating eventually, because I don’t have them anymore, and these jeans, which I obviously DO still have. I worked at Tracey Ross on Sunset Plaza at the time and remember wearing them to work often – a random memory that just popped into my mind.
In the late ’80s, I remember ONLY WEARING Guess jeans and then in the ’90s, we ONLY WORE Levi’s men’s 501s, mostly thrifted (of which I still have one remaining pair that I loved and now wear as well AND a pair of cut-offs I thrifted from the same time I started wearing again last summer), but then for a while, jeans were completely OUT. Levi’s weren’t IT anymore and stretch denim hadn’t arrived on the scene yet and the look was more about flat front, Chino-style pants, cropped or baggy, suiting pants and/or men’s suit pants, thrifted (for my age demographic anyway) and worn with tiny baby-tees, also thrifted from the boy’s section of thrift shops, and well, bomber jackets (I had a black one back then that was puffier than this one and thrifted and I’m not sure what happened to it… but I think I gave it to my brother at some point through the years).
Then suddenly, in the late ’90s, “designer” jeans started popping up here and there, and cost more than I ever thought I’d ever be able to afford at the ripe age of 19. But when I was in NYC, I felt that it would be sacriligious if I DIDN’T splurge on a pair that I loved, and I just so happened to find these Juicy Couture “LOW WAIST” straight leg (with a slight boot cut) jeans, which I think were $98, which was A LOT at the time for jeans.
I wore them only with heeled boots, which gave them a completely different look that what you see here, also, I was a little heavier then, so they fit a bit tighter everywhere, but I love the way they hang loosely now and look with my vans. Even if I had no memory of only wearing them with boots, I’d know for sure based on the fact that the hem is completely intact, unlike many of my other pairs of “favorites” from the past that I still have, which are shredded along the bottoms, IYKYK 🤣. The dark wash was trending at the time, and I have another pair of dark wash rare vintage Levi’s from the same time I wore recently, but are much thinner denim. Again, none of these have stretch in them yet… and the “low rise” on these was nothing in comparison to the actual low rise jeans of the early ’00s. But I am loving how these are fitting right now. A bit classic, a bit baggy, comfy but still not sloppy, so I’m excited to have another pair of of the moment jeans that are actually about 30 years old now, but feel brand new. The denim is thick and still in amazing condition.
It’s crazy that the memories from that trip are so vivid in my mind, it’s as if I was there yesterday, yet I have zero photos, which is insane because if I went today, I’d have hundreds. And honestly, even through the years and files of photos in my mind, I don’t even think I have one past photo of me wearing these 🤔 …because I’d love to include it here just for shits and gigs.
Happy Tuesday Lovecats!
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