A Micro Review: Spier & Mackay Denim

My whole thing is to wear tailoring that works well with jeans.

So when Spier & Mackay—my favorite affordable menswear brand—released their first run of 5-pocket jeans in various denim washes, I for sure wanted to give them a try. So I asked Rick, the owner, and he sent me two pairs on loan to try on and photograph.

Inverted Pyramid of Important Information in This Review

1- They’re un-hemmed by default, but the hemming option Spier offers is chain-stitched (which is a must for jeans for the hem to look right after wear). That’s great because finding anybody who will do a chain-stitch is difficult in my experience, without sending them across the country.

2- They’re 100% cotton (no stretch)

3- The dark, “rinse” version fits big so size one down.

4- For the washed pairs, take the size you wear in Spier’s normal trousers

5- For $68, I think they’re a great value.

Some Follow-Up Points

1- On the rinse wash, if you hem them with their hemming option, it’ll look great.

However, if you buy the pre-washed ones and hem them, it is going to look cheesy at first. It will look just like a plain hem, which on jeans looks cheesy. After a few washes and additional wearing in on your own, the chain-stitched hem will probably look OK, but I honestly can’t say for sure whether it will or not.

So, you can specify that they “leave original hem”, which means they cut the hem off very close to the seam, then shorten the legs however many inches you specified, then re-sew the old hem back on; when done right, this method leaves the most important part intact, and is mostly invisible. Check out this YouTube video that shows you visually how it’s done.

2- Some denim has natural ‘stretch’ or ‘give’ to it, and some is very rigid and never stretches. This feels comfortable, with enough give that it’ll be comfortable to wear, but not so much they feel like they’ll stretch out a full size and look big.

3- If you like the fit of Spier’s jeans, the dark rinse ones are an outstanding value IMO. Who else makes good rinse denim for less than $100 these days?

4- I prefer contemporary fit for the higher rise. Easier to wear with a sportcoat. More on that in this post.

5- ’nuff said.

Photos and Conclusion

No sexy stylized photos for this post, sorry, just boring robo-poses for you to see.

For comparison, I also photographed four of my own jeans. Note: I ordered size 35 contemporary in the Spier jeans.

• my favorite go-to pair of dark rinse jeans, a decade-old pair from Rugby Ralph Lauren (their ‘vintage slim’ in size 34/32)

• my off-white Sid Mashburn five-pockets (size 35/32)

• my current go-to faded jeans from American Eagle (which are a medium-weight jean with 1% elastane in their ‘original straight’ fit, size 33/32)

• a second pair of Rugby Ralph Lauren jeans that’s been seeing more wear on account of some weight gain lately (their ‘straight slim’ from 10 years ago, size 34/32, which are basically the same as the vintage slim except with a wider knee and maybe a tiny bit more room in the hips)

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