I wish the traditional jeans came in dark denim blue. I wish the waists were bigger, too. This purchase was for a smaller size than previous purchases due to weight loss, but even at size 4 my waist is not what it was when I was 20 and weighed the same as now. No young person wears these jeans, so I think LLBean could reasonably make the waists a bit larger in all the sizes. As before, I buy these jeans because there really are no alternatives for me, but why must I settle for less than ideal jeans? With all that, these are almost perfect jeans - good pockets, nicely made, launder well, and feel comfortable.
I guess "Traditional" means "they fit," because these do, very nicely. I'm 5'5", with a little more weight than I'd like around the waist and belly, and so-called "modern fit" jeans are far too short in the rise for me -- the button-waistband apparatus sticks out from my widest point most unappealingly. These Traddies (you don't mind if I nickname them, do you?) button above the bulge, feel comfortably snug (but I can breathe, which is a good thing) and look quite trim. No need for the extra bulk of an elastic waist. They are a bit long but I expect they'll shrink a but little in length with washing, as most jeans seem to. The only thing I'm not wild about are the legs, which I wish were somewhat narrower. They do have a slight taper, but more would be better. But overall -- nice classic workhorse jeans with clean lines and no junky embellishment.
The jeans are wonderful. One of the features I like are the large, deep pockets. Unfortunately, I ordered the wrong size, so they were too small. I think they might run small because I ordered a size I wear in most pants but they were way too tight. I probably need two sizes larger. The regular was too long for me, although that's my usual length.
