I Own 5 Pairs of Banana Republic Men's Jeans... But Will I Buy More In the Future?

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Update: I’ve now had my BR jeans for a couple of years and yes, I’m still wearing them. In fact, I went back and bought more. I no doubt will buy more sometime in the future. That’s how much I like these jeans.

Good news. I lost 35 lbs. over the last 10 months.

Bad news. I needed new jeans.

Good news. I fit into my suits I used to wear when I had an office job. While I don’t wear them much, it’s always good to have a few nice suits that fit.

Bad news. I spent ,000 on jeans 12 months ago. Now they’re way too big.

Good news. Banana Republic in Vancouver had a 40% store-wide sale on everything. I loaded up on 4 new pairs of jeans including the famed Traveler line.

Bad news. Now that I have new jeans that fit really well, the weight loss should stop. Actually, that’s good news. The bad news is the worry I’ll pack the 35 lbs. on again.

Since I lost 35 lbs. I had no idea what size I needed.

My last waist size was 38″ with 34″ length. I’m 6′ 3″ tall.

Something you may also enjoy – my list of the best men’s jeans (categorized by price range and style).

FYI, thanks to AI imagery software, we’re able to create very specific fashion and hairstyle examples to illustrate the points being made. In some cases, imagery is exaggerated to hammer home the point.

Trip to the Banana Republic store

I had to figure out my new size.

I grabbed a stack of 35″ and 36″ waist and 34″ and 32″ length jeans in the Banana Republic store including the skinny fit for men, slim fit for men, and a Traveler line for men.

I strolled into the fitting area. I asked if I could take over a changing room because I was basically buying a new wardrobe (shirts too since my existing shirts were way to loose around my torso).

The woman running the fitting room areas was super cool and said “go ahead”.

I set up camp in the fitting room and started trying on the jeans.

Background

I should give you a little background about myself.

I have a terrible tendency to buy pants and shirts that are too big. So you can imagine after a weight loss how big my pants and shirts were. They looked terrible.

However, even though I realize this, I have a fear of buying stuff to small, or that it’ll shrink in the wash. As a taller guy, I’m worried about pants getting too short. Terrified actually.

Fortunately, I went to the Banana Republic store midday during the week so the staff was available to give me feedback.

I desperately needed some guidance.

I paraded each pair of jeans to 2 staff persons who were awesome. They gave me their honest feedback. Fortunately, they agreed on which jeans fit well and which didn’t.

It turns out my new pant size is 35″ waist with 32″ length. I haven’t been that size since college. Actually, I’ve always bought 34″ length, so it was great that 32″ worked because there’s more inventory with 32″ length than 34″.

Here was the consensus for me.

Slim fit – yeah, looks great.
Skinny fit – yikes – way too tight.
Traveler – perfecto!!!
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At that point, I had been there for 35 minutes. Good progress indeed.

Now that I had figured out my size and which lines fit me well (really well actually), it was time to find 4 pairs in my size. 35″ waist isn’t a common waist size. In fact, a lot of stores don’t offer that size. It’s 34″ or 36″ only. I have to hand it to BR for having 35″ waist jeans because otherwise I’d be squeezed at the gut now writing this in 34″ waist or back to my usual tendency of buying too large in 36″ waist.

With the help of some staff, we found 4 pairs of 35″ W x #2″ L jeans. Here’s the breakdown:

Traveler: 1 pair – dark blue. It’s a dressier pair of jeans which is great.
Slim fit: 3 pairs – all in slightly different colors with a bit of fade on the front. These are a bit more casual than the Traveler.

Boom, I was done.

I had enough jeans to get me through to shorts-wearing season.

My Banana Republic jeans review and comments

Skinny jeans (for men)

Skinny jeans can look really great on men with the right build, which is skinny. I’m not skinny and never will be. I have large upper legs that get squeezed like lemons in the skinny jeans so it looks ridiculous on me.

Slim fit

These fit really well. They’re tight enough to avoid the dad-jeans look (I am a dad after all, but don’t want to dress like one). But not so tight that I look like an ostrich. I also really like how the denim stretches a bit making it more comfortable to sit in. Finally, there are several colors and fades to choose from.

My one complaint with the slim-fit jeans is the denim is fairly thick. The denim is thinner on the Traveler jean.

Traveler

I wish there had been more colors in my size. The Traveler line fits me perfectly. I like the thinner denim too. Had there been more color options, I would have bought more. By more color options, I mean more shades of blue. I’m not into green, brown, or black jeans.

The Traveler denim stretches a bit too, and being slightly thinner denim than the slim fit jeans, is a tad more comfortable than the slim fit.

Overall

I like how the Banana Republic doesn’t have 10 different lines of jeans. I much prefer simple. The knowledgeable staff woman directed me to 3 specific lines for men: skinny, slim fit, and Traveler. That’s it. Once I determined my size and ruled out the lines that didn’t fit, it was easy loading up all the new jeans I needed. I know they have other fits such as boot cut, straight leg, and athletic tapered (which might have been good for me – I may go back to try this as well). However, I prefer simple and fast and have found 2 lines that fit me well, it was easy to choose.

The staff was knowledgeable about how jeans should fit. One woman, in particular, had firm views on the matter which I really appreciated. As a guy who has historically bought ill-fitting apparel, it was nice to get honest feedback which served me really well in choosing the right jeans.

I saved a ton of money

I actually had no idea BR had a 40% off sale the day I went there. I was perfectly happy and prepared to pay full price ($100+ CAD per pair). With a huge discount, I saved a lot of money.