Lady M.
Yelp
BF and I went to this store on a Saturday afternoon. The last time my BF had purchased jeans, Sk8ter Bois were in (yes, it's been that long) and the last I had purchased new jeans, I was XXlbs lighter (too afraid to step on a scale to quantify it- sorrynotsorry). For men's clothes, in a store with an intimidating selection, I find the best dressed male employee who is doing his job (and not just standing around ignoring you). For my BF, I found Frederick. I waited patiently for him to finish with a svelte male customer and then asked if he was free. He nodded and then I explained the problem and waved a hand over my BF. "Please help." He took one look at him and said "34 Short Athletic". He brought us over to the correct display and dug out a pair of the aforementioned jeans. He pointed in the direction of the fitting room and asked if we needed anything else. I said that we wanted to purchase at least 2 pairs so would need more help as soon as we confirmed his size. Frederck announced that he needed to go on his break but that he was going to leave us in very capable hands. When we were in the fitting room, Matthew(?) came over and introduced himself. Frederick's pick was spot on! Matthew was very nice and when my BF cautiously identified that men seemed to be wearing skinny legs, nowadays, he helped the BF find a second pair of very nice fitting skinnier leg jeans. While they were in the fitting room, I spied a wonderful courier jacket that I knew would be awesomesauce for the BF's build and I brought it over. Matthew looked at the jacket in my hand and said "very nice! That just came in and I have one, too! That's going to be great on him!" We coaxed the BF to try it on, and even he had to admit it was great when he looked in the mirror. BF bought the 2 pairs of jeans and the jacket.
I asked Matthew if he could help with the women's jeans, as I only needed to get 1 pair. Perhaps the desperation and hopelessness of my feelings about getting a pair of jeans for my new fat a$$ triggered flight in him but lucky for me he said "I don't think I'm the person to help you with that but I know who can." He led me over to a woman (Darlene) surrounded by a flock of European customers and spouting sizes and cuts to her assistant(?). He caught her eye, and pointed to me. She met my eyes and said "I will help you in 1 minute. Let me just finish up with these ladies. I got you, hon." I expected dealing with 7 customers would take a while but was astounded when she proceeded to address each one's issues within about 20 seconds a piece. A few didn't have English but she seemed telepathic in her ability to know exactly what each woman needed. 1 such customer, Darlene asked her to lift her shirt and when the customer didn't understand, she pantomimed it and as soon as the customer did, she waved the customer over to a new section. "You want a 26 long." pulling a pair off the shelf, pointing to the size sticker. I was seriously impressed and intimidated. She asked me how she could help. I explained that I had gained so much weight even my current pants didn't fit (BDUs with the waist folded down). She asked if I knew what style of jean I liked and all I could reply is "not too skinny, I have freakishly large calves" She laughed, squinted at my waist (which was buried under 2 layers of sweater + hoody) and selected a pair for me and said, "ok, try these on. If they don't fit, come back to me, because I got you." I tried them on and while I was able to get them on, my heart sank because I was pinched at the waist but I could sit. I was unsure, do jeans with so much stretch need to be purchased too tight? I came back out and found her. When she asked how they were I said "I like the leg and the rinse of this 1 pair but how much muffin top is too much muffin top?" She laughed and said "I got you. We can do better than that." She explained that while I have a short inseam, if I tried one of the same waist size with a longer inseam, there would be more room in the waist. My legs are so short I'd have to hem short jeans anyway so hemming extra longs would make no difference to me. I tried on a same size waist with an extra long leg and HALLELUJAH!! Darlene is amazing. I had to hug her or cry over my new jeans and so she let me hug her while we were flush with this victory. They fit and look great. Levis should give Darlene a raise (hopefully they are already paying her a lot) and she should have at least 5 assistants during peak shopping hours. People leave jeans stores because they are overwhelmed with the choices and get cranky tired after blindly trying on a few pairs. The only thing limiting her ability to move even more merchandise is the fact that there is only 1of her but salespeople like her are VERY rare and do so much more for the brand than just push a pair of jeans. I used to buy DL1961s but you can be damn sure I'm going to this Levis first, next time, because of Darlene.