A Jeans Lover's Guide to Great Gifts

Various celebrities in denim outfits.
(Image credit: Getty Images; Backgrid; Alamy)
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Let's face it: Jeans don't make great gifts. They're too fit-specific, too tricky to size, and too hard to get right for others. But let's say you have some real jeans girls in your life…

What's a jeans girl, you ask? To me, she's someone whose wardrobe stands firmly on a foundation of denim. This doesn't mean she wears jeans every day or that she's a snob about vintage, stretch content, et cetera. No, a jeans girl is someone who, when asked to name what makes her feel like the best and most natural version of herself, says a pair of jeans every time.

If you know a jeans girl, chances are you know what jeans she loves because she talks about them a lot and wears them repeatedly. If you are a jeans girl, well, you know a jeans girl when you see one. I, without a doubt, am a jeans girl, and the thing I have in common with some of the most iconic jeans girls ever—Jane Birkin, Lauren Hutton, Alexa Chung, and Zoë Kravitz, to name a few—is that I do not subscribe to a single way of wearing denim. Vintage, dressy, skinny, stretch, it's never about a specific brand, fit, or look. For the jeans girls, it's a vibe, and vibes, I believe, are the hardest things to shop for.

What does one get a jeans girl for the holidays? There are things that go so well with any jeans—belts and bags and berry-colored lip stains—that you could give them to anyone who wears jeans at all, which is everyone, no? As a jeans girl myself, I'd be thrilled to receive something from any one of these buckets. The Miu Miu Plaid Wool Pouch is at the top of my list, as it can be carried on its own or inside the larger Kule tote when I need to lug my work stuff around. Plaid on plaid is cute right now. Any jeans girl would agree.

The Best Gifts for Jeans Girls

Woman in white shirt, jeans, and a black belt.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

I love pairing silver hardware with a vintage wash. The only thing that goes better than silver with denim is diamonds.

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Woman in a coat, jeans, and red bag.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

None of these bags are too big a color commitment.

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Woman putting on berry lipstick.

(Image credit: @mimixn)

Chilly weather inspires rosy lips. What luscious little things to try.

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Woman in black jeans, gray tee, and red sweater.

(Image credit: @smythsisters)

Wrap it around your shoulders à la Lauren Hutton and you're set.

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Woman in jeans, a plaid shirt, and a tan suede jacket.

(Image credit: @_jessicaskye)

We’ve been talking about plaid shirts so much lately. Why stop there? 

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Woman in a denim outfit and a long pendant necklace.

(Image credit: @cocoschiffer)

This is my favorite way to polish up a simple jeans-and-sweater workday outfit.

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Jane Herman
Jane Herman
Editor in Residence

Jane Herman is a writer and designer with 20+ years of experience in the fashion industry. As an editor, she's worked at New York magazine, Elle, Vogue, T: The New York Times Style Magazine, and Travel + Leisure. She's also worked on the creative teams at classic American clothing companies like Gap and Theory. For years, she was the cofounder and creative director of JeanStories.com, a fashion site about everything denim. Today, she pens the denim-heavy Substack, Jane on Jeans.

She started her clothing company, The Only Jane, in 2020. An independent collection of denim essentials made in Los Angeles, it is the culmination of everything she's learned about the best jeans and how we live in them. 

She currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their two kids, Georgia and Walter.

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