During the development phase, Cohen says she tried on at least a hundred different pairs of jeans to make sure there wasn’t already another brand out there doing what she intended to. As for the labels who are offering petite sizing, Cohen says Nelle Atelier’s differentiating factor is its dedication to solving the proportion issue, which goes beyond simply cropping the hem.
“The hardest thing about jeans for shorter bodies is the rise and knee placement, so we adapted all our rises to shorter torsos, and then our knee placements to shorter legs,” Cohen says. In order to strike this delicate balance, Cohen says she used fit models that were 5’2” and who wore sizes 26 and 29. To capture an even broader range of the spectrum, a lot of wear-testing took place, the results of which helped her realize just how petite her customer actually was; instead of starting at a size 24, she decided to go down to a 23. The inseams are different for each style, she adds, and based on the kind of shoes she envisions one would wear with them.
The Emily, a straight-leg jean, comes in a coal-washed black and medium-blue sapphire wash and has a 25 ¾–inch inseam. The Claire is a boyfriend style designed in a light and dark wash with a 27-inch inseam, and then you have The Lea, a bootcut flare with a 31-inch inseam in a true black and selvedge-like deep indigo.
As someone who’s always on the hunt for a great fitting jean, I was particularly keen on trying Nelle Atelier’s initial denim offerings, available in sizes 23 through 32 and ranging from $218 to $258 in price. (This in line with contemporaries like Closed and Triarchy who source similar raw materials from the same textile mill.)
I was most drawn to the straight-leg Emily, since it’s a silhouette I wear often. The 25 ¾–inch inseam, which Cohen says is meant to work with sneakers, flats, and ankle boots, hits right above my ankle bone so…
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