Men's Straight Fit Jeans

Straight means the leg stops changing at the knee. Measure a straight jean at the knee and again at the hem and the two numbers match within about half an inch, usually landing near 16 to 17 inches of circumference. The cloth falls in a column off the thigh rather than following the calf down.

That column is what lets the cut carry heavy cloth. Rigid denim at 13 ounces per square yard or more has almost no give across its width, so a tapered pattern in the same fabric drags at the calf. An unshaped leg simply hangs and lets gravity do the work. The rise sits at the mid point of the hip and the back pockets are set wider apart than on a slim pair, matching the fuller seat the pattern assumes. Since nothing about the leg is shaped, hem length matters more here than in any other cut. An inch of excess turns the column into a pile of folds on the shoe.

A slim jean starts narrowing at the top of the thigh and keeps going, which reads sharper with low shoes and binds on a heavy leg. Relaxed fit shares a similar hem and adds two or three inches through the seat and thigh, so it stands away from the body from the waist down rather than only below the knee. Athletic taper inverts this shape completely, going wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. Selvedge and raw denim both point back to a straight leg, because that is the shape those fabrics were originally woven for and the one that fades cleanly along the thigh and knee.

Fuller thighs and larger seats find room here without the pattern advertising it. Boots work particularly well, since a 17 inch hem passes over a shaft instead of catching on it. Shorter legs get less from the cut, because an unbroken column adds no vertical line and a heavy stack at the ankle shortens the leg further. Anyone chasing a sharp outline with low profile sneakers will find the hem sits wide over the shoe and looks unfinished.

Get the inseam right before anything else and aim for one soft fold above the shoe rather than three. Inside-out inspection settles the rest: flat-felled seams down the outseam, which means raw edges folded into each other under two rows of stitching, are what heavy denim needs to last years, and plain overlocked edges are not. Spend on cloth weight rather than on stretch, because a 13 or 14 ounce straight jean outlives several lighter pairs and repays the difference in fade. Launder cold and inside out, then line dry, so the leg keeps the length you paid a tailor to set.