Most men own too many pairs of jeans that are almost right. A shade too pale, a rise too low, a cut that looked fine in the changing room and never quite worked again after that. We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what actually makes a pair of jeans worth keeping for years rather than replacing every season. Fabric weight matters more than most people realise. So does how the cut sits across the seat and thigh before it tapers, because a jean that fits well everywhere except one place fits badly. We’ve looked at selvedge and non-selvedge, raw and washed, dark indigo and faded mid-blue, because the right answer depends on what you’re pairing them with and how much you want to think about it on a Tuesday morning. These are not jeans that need an occasion. They are the ones you reach for without thinking, which is exactly the point.