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What is it about white jeans that has made that perfect fit—read: not too short, not too flared, definitely not too tight, and free of unnecessary pockets, grommets, and fraying—so elusive? Over the years, I’ve searched high and low for such streamlined styles, only to turn up empty-handed. Of course, the piece isn’t just a figment of my imagination: Jackie Kennedy flitted about Mediterranean islands in seemingly countless iterations, while Love Story’s Ali MacGraw, outfitted in a relaxed pair and flip-flops, continues to pop up on my Instagram feed 50 years after the film’s release. If only I hadn’t still been shopping in the kid’s section when Gap carried perhaps the quintessential style, which were modeled by 10 of the world’s top supermodels on Vogue’s 100th anniversary cover, I’d perhaps own the greatest white jeans ever made.
“It’s harder [to find] than you think,” says Vogue’s impeccably uniformed sustainability editor Tonne Goodman, who first began wearing her now signature stark white stovepipes as a time-strapped new mother. She confirmed that the ideal silhouette is a “straight, straight leg and a normal fit: not a high-rise, not a low-rise”—and comes with zero stretch. “I find it to be totally unappealing,” she continues. “I once said to Michael Kors, a friend, ‘Can you please make me a pair of white jeans that don’t have any stretch in them?’ And he said, ‘I hear you, but everybody wants a little bit of stretch in their jeans,’ so that was that.” Naturally, however, Goodman kept up with her hunt, and encourages mine: “Have you tried Levi’s?” she asks me when I turn to her for help, adding that the brand’s classic 501s, which she purchases in bulk from the men’s aisle, are her go-to. “In the search for pure cotton denim, it is really the best one.”
As soon as we hang up, I order two pairs and hold my breath until they arrive. Alas, even the smallest men’s size is too big on my five-foot-three frame, while the women’s fit, ringing in at less than $100, is nearly faultless, save for the unfortunate fact that it only comes cropped. And so, I continue on with my market research, zipping myself into denim by Frame (too flared), Acne (too slim), and Isabel Marant (too ’80s). Much to my surprise, even a structured design by The Row, the ultimate purveyor of chic classics, doesn’t tick all the boxes.
Just as I am about to give up once and for all, I receive a shipment from The Feel Studio Inc. containing the two-year-old brand’s Genuine Jean. Cut from thick Italian stretch-free denim and entirely devoid of bells and whistles, it is promising from the get-go, but I know that my denim dilemma has at long last been solved when I look in the mirror: The meticulously simple fit is hugging my behind, while falling long and straight down my leg—a near impossible feat! At $295, it is an investment, but today the “buy less, buy better” mentality seems more apt than ever.
“White jeans are such a wonderful go-to if you want a pick-me-up, but it’s about getting it right,” founder and stylist Stevie Dance tells me when I phone her to find out the secret to her winning formula. Her cardinal rule? Order them one, or even two, sizes up. “When they are too tight, they can look uncomfortable, but if you wear them like slacks—no tapering, not too cropped—they look effortless,” she says. (For proof, just look at images of Dance, backstage at Off-White, wearing hers with shrunken Petit Bateau tees and navy pullovers.)
Of course, now that one battle has been won, there’s another to fight: How exactly to keep my whites, well, white? While Goodman promises that a touch of bleach in the wash cycle works wonders, Dance is of the belief that the best denim is intimate, and entirely irreplaceable. “Don’t worry about it too much,” she assures me. “It’s good to feel fresh, but just live in them and let life breathe into them and let them be imperfect. That’s charming.”
Below, Goodman shares more of her top tips for buying and wearing white jeans, from how to style them to her secret hack for dressing them up.
Shop Men’s, If You Can
“I have a very boyish figure, so I always buy men’s jeans,” Goodman says, noting that Levi’s 501s, which are available in an array of both waist and length measurements, offer “more of a straight line.”
Buy in Bulk
In order to avoid getting stuck wearing a dirty pair of whites—or, worse, having to find something else to wear—Goodman, who sports her bleached 501s “every single day,” suggests stocking up on pairs: “I buy them in a couple of different sizes because sometimes you feel bigger than other times,” she adds.
Bleach and Press
“When I started at Vogue, I was wearing pencil skirts, fishnet stockings, and kitten heels,” Goodman recalls. But, as she puts it, “the ease of a pair of jeans” converted her to denim once and for all. “Just put them in the wash with a little tiny bit of bleach and that’s the end of that,” she says of her fail-proof cleaning technique. (It’s proven to be such a reliable process that she even covered her couch slipcovers in white denim.) When she has to look more pulled together, whether out and about in New York City or upon touchdown in foreign cities, she first drops them off at the dry cleaner to be pressed “to look a little neater.”
Dress Them Up; Dress Them Down
“White jeans are so versatile,” Goodman insists. “You can wear them with a pair of sneakers or you can wear them with a pair of flip-flops. You can even wear them with a pair of velvet slippers and a velvet shirt and they can take you to a dinner party, if you have a good fit and they’re even pressed.”
Wear Them Year-Round
To those who declare that white needs to be stashed come Labor Day, Goodman has just one retort: “Why?” she asks. “I wear white jeans year-round,” she continues, adding that she styles them with Marimekko’s cotton shirts in the summertime and with a black sweater and her signature Charvet scarf in the winter. “They’re such a saving grace because they’re just so easy.”
Below, 11 pairs of white jeans to shop now.
