I just threw out my favorite pair of jeans. Loose, but tight in all the right places, they’ve been fraying in an unfortunate location so my wife has forced them into retirement. I look through my closet at candidates to take their place but find none quite up to the challenge. Can I get away with the wide flare pair, or is it too soon for them to be back in style?

With temperatures settling in the fifties, this is an important decision. My daily attire is coffee shop casual—jeans, t-shirt, and ball cap; so you can understand how my world hangs on these jean auditions.

What is it about a pair of jeans that helps us work, think, play, and relax like no other uniform? Slacks can’t match the power or versatility of jeans. Other than having a funny name that grows stranger as you say it, slacks tug at respect, dignity, and decorum, stretching for sharp angles when you’re trying to crumple on the couch. Why name them “slacks” when they won’t let you slacken?

I always did better work—even in an office—while wearing a pair of jeans. There must be a chemical in the denim that releases toxins of competent productivity, helping you to balance the need to work with the need to play. Never was the business world as fun, vibrant, and hopeful as when I was wearing jeans. Someone should do a study. There must be something to that intersection between jeans and Fridays.

Somehow jeans give the wearer power to be in and over their environment. They make us comfortable in our skin, break down our defenses, provide an outlet for personal expression, and they center us. When I wear jeans I’m at home regardless of the situation, or near enough to home to fake it.