The great Selfridges jean test

At 26,000 square feet, the new Selfridges denim department is the largest in the world. The store’s pioneering founder, Gordon Selfridge, frequently emphasised that ‘Selfridges is for everyone’, and that principle is certainly true here – it’s got 11,000 pairs of women’s jeans priced from £11 (for a pair of thrifty Primark skinnies) to £11,000 for a pair of Paige jeans sporting a frankly daft diamond-encrusted waistband. These were under lock and key when our we visited to seek out the perfect pair, but we were still spoilt for choice, with Selfridges aiming to cater for every conceivable shopper’s taste and budget.

The vast shopfloor houses denim boutiques from Primark, Topshop, Levi’s, Armani Jeans, Isabel Marant and Citizens of Humanity, to name but a handful. There are 18 capacious changing rooms, an alterations centre for on-the-spot tweaking, and dedicated denim specialists hovering to recommend styles and whizz them over to you. There is even a long polished bar for them to throw suitable pairs down in the interest of speed – rather like in a saloon, but with regrettably less whiskey. In short – if you can’t find a pair you like here, it’s time to resolve to stick to skirts. But if there are £11 jeans on offer, why drop £250? We donned the denim to find out…