The Seven Essential Nili Lotan Jeans
Joan, Mitchell, Celia, Shon...A guide to the designer's greatest hits.
Today’s newsletter is the second installment of a two-part series supported by Nili Lotan, a company beloved for its premium denim. You can read my interview with the designer herself here. Thank you, Nili, for trusting me with your jeans.
Fact: Nili Lotan offers some of the best-fitting premium jeans on the market. Made in L.A. using Japanese denim, they’re cool. Authentic. The vintage-inspired washes are nuanced and rich; the construction is precise, the quality is tops, and – as expected – the prices are up there.
“I think by the time you discover my jeans you probably know yourself, and you understand how you want to feel in them,” Nili said when I asked her what advice she would give women about buying denim. An honest response – the designer is nothing if not true, through and through – and a clever way to evade the question, perhaps. But she’s is right. Right to want to put the decision-making power back on us, and right to want us to focus on how we feel in our jeans. It’s the most important thing (bigger than trend or brand or cost). I’ve been saying this forever.
Nili Lotan has seven key denim styles, each of which has a human name and a distinct personality – Joan is chic, Briana is boyish, Mitchell is chill, for example. In my interview with Nili last week, she talked me through each jean’s inspiration. For today’s letter, I tried all seven styles with my daily go-to’s, and – taking a hint from the designer – explored how they made me feel. The short answer: Different. Even with the most simple styling, every one has a unique vibe. Each jean’s attitude shifted mine dramatically.
Here, a guide to Nili Lotan’s 7 essential jeans and all the good feels they give me…
No.1: JOAN
Joan is the jean that Nili herself wears most days of the week. “It’s the chicest denim in my assortment,” she told me. “This is the denim I wear to work every day. This is the denim I go to dinner in. This is the denim that I pair with my beautiful blazer with gold buttons and my jewelry.” It has a straight leg that leans wide and fits nicely over boots and heeled shoes. I love that the Joan gives me length. That it gives my straight hips more body, like a good shampoo in a haircare commercial, turning limp lines into volume.
I feel as Nili says I should feel in the Joan – chic – but also leggy, which is not a feeling I am used to at all. I like it. I’m agile, like Gumby, all limbs, in a shoe that makes me extend myself even further, and a belt that reminds me to breathe. Not that I can’t breathe in the Joan, it’s just hard to remember sometimes when I feel this excited by a fit.
No.2: SHON
“Shon is my star,” Nili said about this bow-leg style that catapulted her to denim mega-fame. For many, the Shon is the first thing that comes to mind at the mention of Nili Lotan. It’s all over TikTok, and everywhere you go. “Every concert, every flea market, I see a Shon walking in front of me,” Nili explained. In fact, I’ve not featured Shon in this newsletter because, honestly, why? When every single person in the whole wide world already has a pair? (I’m exaggerating, but it feels true!)
Big, back pockets that drop way below the butt remind me of how the boys in high school wore their jeans in the 90s, hanging off their bodies to show their Calvin Kleins. It was sexy then and these jeans are sexy now. They feel anti-everything (fit, formality, convention), and ready to rebel – an authentic message for denim, any day. I don’t give a f*ck in these jeans. Is that why everyone loves them so much? Because they make us feel free?
No.3: FLORENCE
Inspired by the patch-pocket jeans worn by Serge Gainsbourg, Florence is a groovy, 70s style with a button fly and substantial bell. It surprised me! How strong and long and polished I feel in it! With a blazer, Florence is work-ready. I don’t often recommend wearing hippie tropes to the office, either.
How do I feel? Like a grown-up version of my jam-bandy younger self (who once bought deadstock jeans very similar to these at Aardvark’s on Melrose). Interestingly, my impulse was to dress the Florence up; to do the exact opposite of what teenage me would have done with a patch pocket jean (which was wear it with a concert tee). It’s nice to feel my contrarian spirit is still alive and well. And also that my style has evolved.
No.4: BRIANA
A new style for spring, Briana is the women’s version of Nili’s popular men’s jean, the Billie. It’s a mid-rise with a button fly and slightly tapered leg, much like a 501. The wash, Rosebowl, is named after the Pasadena flea market frequented by denimheads for its epic vintage scores. The fade on the fly and outseam lives up to its name.
Here, I’m wearing a size 27, cinched with a bandana tied through the three right-side loops. I’ve cuffed the hems, just as I do with my beloved Levi’s Big E’s. As someone who wears vintage men’s 501s most days of her life – ranging from waist size 29 - 31 – this jean feels completely me. Like my haircut. A sheer matter of fact.
No.5: MITCHELL
The Mitchell is the relaxed version of the Joan. It’s a jean that Nili likes to wear when she’s in the country on the weekends. A jean that I like to wear with a cashmere sweater and my mother’s Prada belt. Feels like home.
I shortened my Mitchells to wear with a flatter shoe (v the Joan’s which I hemmed for heels). This jean isn’t intended to be tight, and in a size 24, on me, it’s not. When I wore my Mitchells last week, my kids’ twenty-three year-old babysitter told me I looked cool and I believed her. They make me feel cool.
A note about the wash: The Simon is a tough-weathered vintage. The brand does many of their denim pieces in this wash (Joan, Mitchell, Shon…the men’s Billie…the Carly jacket). “It’s really important to me to create an authentic wash,” Nili explained. “Denim carries with it so much heritage and history, and I have a responsibility to be authentic.” So what does an authentic wash look like, you ask? It looks like the Simon. And the Rosebowl (above). Like it woke up like this (when in fact it took a hell of a lot of work to look this effortless and au naturel).
No.6: CELIA
Celia was the designer’s first jean, inspired by Jane Birkin. “It’s a little bit flare-y. Not too flare-y, but a little,” Nili explained. Usually even a teensy flare makes me crave more height, but curiously that’s not the case with Celia…hm. What is it about her?
Now. I’m not suggesting we wear Celia with a flat sneaker (readers know that flares and trainers are a major Don’t for me), but with a high heel, the curvy leg turns too male-gaze for my taste. What I love about Nili’s jeans is the line they blur between masculine and feminine. (She told me herself that women buy her guy’s jeans and guys wear her women’s jeans, and “it doesn’t really matter.”) With a pin-stripe shirt and low-heeled boot, I get the mens-y energy that makes Celia (and her muse, Jane) so sexy.
No.7: MEGAN
The last fit in the line-up is Megan, which is based off a classic sailor pant. It has no side seam or front pockets, and – what I love about it, personally, being 5’4” – is that it’s cropped for high waters. Taller women will find that the Megan rises above the ankle, but on me (without hemming) it hovers just a few inches off the ground. “It really speaks to women who are not as tall,” Nili explained. I, for one, hear Megan loud and clear.
“Pretty” is not something I generally strive to feel on a daily basis – stylish, cool, or confident are what I go for when I get dressed in the morning – but every now and then, a trim, ladylike jean like Megan, with clean hair and a soft lip, hits the spot. My sense is that Nili knows this about women. Which is why, in all her jeans, we feel seen.
That’s all for this week. Thank You, Nili, for letting me play with your beautiful jeans. It’s been so much fun and such an inspiration. Friends, if you are in New York, go see Nili’s new shop in Tribeca, it’s special, and what’s better than trying everything on? (Nothing, I’m telling you!) Thank you for reading, liking, and sharing this post with your friends. As always, Denim Forever.
Jane
Nili Lotan Denim is located at 183 Duane St, New York, NY 10013; (646) 809-8801.
I got laid off last year - when I get back to work (hopefully soon) I want to buy a pair of Nili Lotan jeans as my go back to work celebratory gift to myself! Will be referencing these posts :)
I love her clothes so much, though especially the Shon 💙