They're Panting After Squeezing Into These Jeans

Your butt's not getting bigger. The jeans are getting smaller.

Just ask shopper Lisa Korn, who is doing a torturous tango with a pair of skinny new jeans inside the Ron Herman boutique on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles.

She tugs at the garment, performs deep knee bends in front of the mirror, and even hoists her slender self on a display table to see whether the jeans dip too low in the back when she sits down.

"I'm dying," she groans. "Even in a [size] 28, I'm dying."

In the no-mercy world of fashion, skinny jeans are back. Some styles are essentially denim leggings -- slim all over and tapered to just 5 inches across at the ankle. They should come with a warning label: Objects in mirror are even tighter than they appear.

The factors driving the trend are practical and, well, not. With the rising popularity of "dress casual" boots, women want jeans that won't hide the $300 or more they have invested in their footwear.

Then there's pencil envy. Super-thin celebrities in super-thin britches -- Kate Moss, Nicole Kidman and Keira Knightley -- are helping to drive the trend.

"That was a lot of work," Korn says, before slamming down $150 for a pair of J Brand jeans to add to the mountain of denim she has back home in Philadelphia.

The trend is good news for manufacturers, especially in Los Angeles, the capital of premium jeans, where a pair may go for $400 or more. Jeans makers continually pray to the style gods for a new cut that will make people who are already buried in jeans want even more.

After introducing his J Brand straight-leg jeans last year, owner Jeff Rudes quickly followed with a narrower version -- the "cigarette leg." Two months later, he was pushing a still slimmer "pencil leg." And, this month his "super skinny" jeans arrived at the Ron Herman store.

When the manager heard they were coming, she asked, "How big is the knee?" Rudes recalled. "I said, 'It's tight.' She said, 'Make it hurt.' "

Melissa Fleis lusts after the denim jeans, which are laced with Lycra to ease the fit.

"I love these already," the Santa Monica resident said from inside the dressing room.

She bought two pairs. Total cost: $410.

Everyone wants a piece of the action, from high-end designers such as Dolce & Gabbana, which was on to the trend early, to Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which plans to start selling skinny jeans this summer for less than $19.