Skinny jeans can be every fashionista’s nemesis.  You have to find just the right pair that hugs but doesn’t strangle, flatters but doesn’t draw too much unwanted attention, lifts your butt without looking like you are wearing shapers and then puddles perfectly atop whatever range of footwear is your choice of the day.  A pretty tall order.  But when you find that holy grail of jeans, look out!  They can be your best friend!

A new trend in skinnies the the ankle zip, which gives you some flexibility in your styling options when the full on skinny thing just isn’t working.  I love this (super pricey) pair from Lot78:

Lot78 Ankle Zip Jeans $315 at Net-A-Porter

Zipped at the ankle they are your expected go-to skinnies, but unzipped they turn into a completely different pair of pants with totally different styling options:

Image courtesy of Net-A-Porter

For a more economical and creative look, you can try adding a little ankle cleavage to your existing skinny jeans, a la Leandra Medine of  Man Repeller.  Back in November she put her own twist on unzipped skinny jean ankle cleavage using this image as inspiration:

Image courtesy of 5inchnandup via ManRepeller.com

and came up with this awesome look:

Image Courtesy of ManRepeller.com

Image courtesy of ManRepeller.com

Cool, right!  And totally unexpected.  The trick is using skinny jeans that are too long so you have nice draping over the top of the foot.  I tried this with a pair of $20 jeans from Old Navy and the concept worked well, but the pants weren’t long enough to get the look I wanted.  I have my eye open for a pair of extra long skinnies (I just can’t emotionally commit to cutting my favorite-perfect-awesome pair!) so I can try again for a similar look.

The added bonus of unzipped skinnies or flaunting some ankle cleavage is that it makes your legs look leaner and a draws the eye away from the widest point of the hip.

So go make friends with your skinny jeans and see what kind of unexpected styling tricks or options you can come up with.