Jeggings are they leggings or jeans!

By Andrea Michelle for Rockmans

Having been on our fashion radar for about six years, Jeggings are well and truly here to stay. They’ve been embraced from the girl who works at the newsagent to Beyoncé – and we know Beyoncé can do no wrong.

And in the past, we’ve all obediently followed the rules “Think of jeggings as leggings, and style them accordingly” Specifically, that they are not pants.

But as the years have rolled on, more manufacturers are naming items of clothing jeggings. These days if you hit the shops you can find jeans with a whole lot of stretch in them called jeggings. You’ll be able to spot leggings with a denim look that are calling themselves jeggings. You may even spot tights in the hosiery section that have been dyed a shade of blue to look like jeans and with the word ‘jegging’ on it’s little cardboard package.

As such, the ‘rules’ for wearing jeggings need to be reassessed and updated in 2016.

Here’s a simple checklist to help you figure out where your jeggings sit on the jeans to leggings spectrum, and therefore learn whether to style them as you would a pair of leggings – ie. don’t wear them as pants – or as your favourite pair of skinny jeans ie. wear them with whatever the hell you are comfortable in.

Simply answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to these 5 questions:

Are they made of a woven fabric?

Do they have a waistband and zippered fly?

Can you see folds of fabric creasing horizontally around the crotch?

Do they have pockets (in particular on the back)?

Are the seams stitched on?

If you’ve answered yes to each of these questions about your jeggings, it’s likely you can style them as you would a pair of skinny jeans.

Conversely, if your jeggings have an elasticized waistband, are showing any glimpse of camel-toe or bottom crackage, don’t have any pockets (or the pockets are faux), are made from a knit fabric, and have painted on seams, it’s more likely you’ve got a pair of jeggings that are more of the legging variety. Specifically, they are not pants, and should be worn accordingly.

Given how many variations of jeggings there are around though, you’ll find some pairs that sit in the middle of the jean to legging spectrum. And this type of jegging is the one to look out for.

This pair from Rockmans is a great case in point. They have an elasticized waist and no pockets, yet the heavy Cotton/Poly fabric feels exactly like denim with stretch. The seams are well stitched – and even feature stitched biker style panels around the knees. And importantly, there is no evidence of downstairs front cleavage.

So I chose to style these as I would a pair of skinny jeans with a classic stiped t-shirt, a denim vest, and my favourite biker style boots.

The Ultimate Jegging Rockmans Fox in Flats

The bonus with this type of jegging is they’ve got all the polish of a jean, with the comfort of a legging – The Ultimate Jegging. So they’ll take me from a day at work, running errands, school pick-up, to the boys soccer training, and even out to dinner with a few tweaks to my outfit.

These Jeggings take you from day to night Fox in Flats Rockmans