7 Jean-Shopping Mistakes We All Make (and How to Avoid Them)

Paige Adams-Geller is—and has—an inimitable figure. She’s the instantly recognisable blonde-bombshell founder of her namesake brand. She is also the owner of the perfectly proportioned super-neat body that has launched a thousand-and-one perfect cuts thanks to her tenure as a denim fit model and consultant. It’s no surprise that her expertise developed into branching out with a line of her own in 2005—this is a woman who, quite literally, knows the business (and your jeans) inside and out. And as such, it’s also no great wonder that she has A-list fans and regular girls alike flocking to her Paige creations—whether classic denim or from a growing lifestyle range of ready-to-wear. No doubt you watched our exclusive behind-the-scenes video on the set of her latest campaign, fronted by Paige’s new girl, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.

So when Paige crossed the pond from L.A. to London for a brief pit-stop, we knew we had to tap into her talents. Nothing wardrobe-related can be quite as frustrating as never locating the perfect jeans for YOU—and that’s before we even talk about the process of trying them on. So here’s her sage advice on the topic at hand. Comfortable? Listening? Good.

Keep reading to find out the most common pitfalls you can avoid when denim shopping—and how to resolve them in a flash.

"I think that the biggest mistake is that girls get stuck in a rut, afraid to take a risk and try something new. And so they might just keep going to the same style they know and love and not think out of the box. I think it’s so much fun to bring in a bunch of different shapes, things that you’d never thought you’d try on before." — Paige Adams-Geller

"There are so many different sizing regulations with different brands, so if you’re looking at Paige and you’re looking at other brands I really think you need to get the number out of your head and not get obsessed with what the jeans say. Pretend there are no labels in there, grab a couple of sizes of the jeans you're obsessed with and just have a fun try-on-a-thon—see what you actually look and feel best in." — Paige Adams-Geller

"I always recommend that you need to walk around in them, sit in them, do yoga stretches in them, see how the jean moulds to your body and see how comfortable you really are by sitting down and doing all those things. It will really make a difference—you���ll see if the jeans are going to bag-out too quickly, and therefore you'll need a smaller size, or [if you need to] go up a size because the stretch isn't going anywhere." — Paige Adams-Geller

"Go into the changing room with the rest of the wardrobe that you would want to wear with that jean. Because sometimes you’ll put on a jean and think Oh, this does not look good on me, and the minute you put the right shoe on, or the right boot along with the the right top—tucked in, half tucked in, or whatever—it’s like everything comes to life. I think people don’t think it through as they’re just totally looking at their bodies, staring at their bodies, and seeing how they look in that one particular jean, not accessorised. You can get a little bit uncomfortable about it." — Paige Adams-Geller

"The bottom of the pocket needs to sit right where you’re cheek and your thigh meet and go up from there. I think that makes your bum look higher and more flattering—but the other part of our process is making sure that the pocket sizes grade according to the size of the jean. It’s really expensive to buy the machines that do this, so some other brands will sometimes will only buy a few sizes. This means they’ll have big pockets on little-sized jeans and then they’ll have little pockets on the bigger jeans—neither option is flattering." — Paige Adams-Geller

"It’s all about side-seam placement—if you’re looking at yourself in the mirror, you think everything should be perfectly on the side, but actually it can make your butt look a little weird at the back and make your hips look a little fuller. So if you move the side seam in a little bit, you can move the belt loops in, making everything more central, and it looks slimmer on the body." — Paige Adams-Geller

"I think a woman’s shape is so beautiful, and I feel like the higher the [waist] rises I think it looks so nice to tuck a blouse all the way in and have a belt. Belts are so happening right now, and sometimes it’s a lot easier to tuck everything in, but there is a rule for that: If your blouse is too long and you have way too much fabric to be tucking in, it rumples, crumples and creates dodgy-looking lines in your body, so then the half-tuck is more flattering." — Paige Adams-Geller

Shop some of our favourite new Paige pieces below.