I impulsively purchased these Madewell Balloon Jeans because I was just so thrilled to be trying on clothes again in the store after over a year of not being able to. And I forgot how angled mirrors in fitting rooms can be deceptive because in the store, these jeans looked awesome. And 62% of you guys thought so too:

But then when I tried them on at home and took pictures of them straight on. Well…they didn’t look nearly as flattering. I thought I could get away with the regular length of these jeans, but I think it needs to be slightly cropped (at ankle length) to make the silhouette more flattering. I’m 5’4” but have short legs. I’m wearing a 28 here and I think they fit a tad larger than size (since that pandemic I’m about a 29 in jeans now). These are an oversized fit so I would probably size down one from your regular size. I might try out the petite version of these Balloon jeans and see if it might be a tad more flattering.

I do like that these Balloon jeans are made with 1% elastane so there’s a bit of stretch in them. Compared to the Agolde 90’s jeans (my only other pair of baggy mom jeans), these are a lot more comfortable because of the slight stretch. I compared them in the picture below and the Agolde 90’s jeans are much more flattering imo. Though I do have to say that at least the Madewell jeans don’t have that annoying v-crotch problem that the Agolde ones do (which I talk about in my Agolde 90’s jeans review).

Anyway I’m glad to have tried them out, but I ended up returning the Madewell balloon jeans. I’ll probably stick with my Agolde 90’s jeans if I want that mom jeans look since the straight leg is a more flattering look than the balloon one. I may still try it out in the petite size and if I do, I’ll update my review here. If you want to see how the Balloon Jeans fit on someone who’s 5’8 (5’9”?) Brianna rocks them really well here.