Paige jeans and designer denim, and whether they bag out

Will they bag out

This is the most-asked denim question and the one nobody answers, because answering it means printing the elastane percentage next to the price.

Here is the mechanism. Elastane, sometimes labelled Lycra, gives denim its stretch. The more of it there is, the more comfortable the jeans are on day one and the more they relax through the day, typically at the knee and the seat. Most of that comes back in the wash, but not all of it, and recovery gets worse as the garment ages.

Rigid denim, with no elastane, does the opposite. Uncomfortable for a fortnight, then it moulds to you and stays where you put it.

Paige's own marketing for its Transcend fabric claims plenty of stretch and a flawless fit, and publishes no recovery figure, no elastane percentage and no shape-retention claim. That is not unusual, it is the industry norm, and it is why a shopper looking at a premium pair has nothing to go on.

What we can do is read the label. Ask for the elastane percentage of any pair here and we will give you the actual number off the garment, along with whether it is the kind that recovers or the kind that relaxes.

As a rough guide: 1 to 2% elastane gives comfort with good recovery. Three to 4% is noticeably stretchy and will relax through the day. Above that you are into jegging territory, where the fabric behaves more like a knit than a denim.

Rise and fit names

Paige's published womens denim fits are wide leg, straight, flare and bootcut, barrel leg and skinny. High rise is the only rise designation appearing on their womens denim page; other rises appear inside individual product names rather than as a category.

Rise is measured from the top of the waistband to the crotch seam. In womenswear it changes the fit at the waist and the seat more than anything else, and it is the usual cause of the gap at the back of the waistband.

That gap, when it happens, is a proportion issue rather than a size issue: your waist-to-hip difference is larger than the pattern assumes. Going up a size makes the gap bigger, not smaller. Going down makes the hip too tight. The fix is either a different cut with a higher rise and more shaping, or a tailor taking in the centre back seam, which is a quick and cheap alteration.

Do jeans shrink

Less than people think, and it depends on the denim.

Sanforized denim is pre-shrunk and moves no more than about 5%. Unsanforized can move up to 10%. Denim with meaningful elastane in it does not really shrink, it relaxes and recovers.

Most womenswear denim, including almost everything here, is sanforized and stretch-blended, so shrinkage is not usually the issue. Bagging is.

We have not published shrinkage percentages for individual pairs because no authoritative figures exist for them.

Washing denim so it lasts

Cold water, inside out, and as rarely as you can stand. Heat is what kills elastane, so tumble drying stretch denim is the fastest way to ruin it: the fibre degrades and the jeans stop recovering.

Air dry, and if a pair has relaxed through the day, a wash will bring most of it back.

Which brands are here

Paige is the premium denim in the collection and the reason this page exists. Rails, Munthe, Seventy & Mochi and Skall Studio all do denim alongside their main lines. Skall Studio's denim is organic and GOTS certified cotton made in Turkey using Jeanologia laundry technology, which cuts water use substantially against conventional finishing.