Pick your colour, style and accessories for the perfect pair of jeans from indiDenim.

They’re ubiquitous and, often, they’re ugly — hanging several inches off of your bum, squeezing that muffin top over the waist, long legs dragging on the ground. Jeans can be a thing of beauty, but good God, it’s hard to find the right pair. Once you do, it puts a spring in your step, but good luck ever re-creating that certain look again.

Calgarians Karen Judge and Jason Krell, along with some techno-wizards from San Francisco, are hoping to change all of that. IndiDenim has devised a way to truly customize a pair of denim. Not customizing within a set pattern, but customizing the fit, the material as well as flies, tears and stitches.

Judge, a private stylist, stumbled upon the company at just the right time, hitting it off with the three-person operation and gaining exclusive rights to market the concept in North America. “I found indi and I just went: ‘This is my turn, I’ve waited 20 years for this opportunity,’” she says.

The company owners liked her background in retail and styling, something they had no experience with. The trio also liked that she didn’t want anything to do with retail locations, preferring to host clinics and fittings for fashion-conscious jean mavens.

“It’s so customer-service oriented,” says Judge. “We didn’t want you to walk into a store and you’ve got some part-timer who really couldn’t care less say: ‘Yeah, try the jeans on, oh they look fine, or whatever.’”

When you go to a Denim Clinic, you get the full Judge treatment. She asks what you like and why. Perhaps you buy jeans based on price, or you just don’t give a shit. Where do you get them and why? “I want to get to know your style, your comfort zone,” she says. “Then I’m going to tell you what I think would suit you as a stylist.”

After the talking, women (it’s only women at this point, but not forever) can try on a sample pair of jeans and then whittle it down until the sizing is just right. After that, customers can choose pockets, zipper or button fly, wash of the denim and so on. It’s the kind of advice and customization you certainly don’t find in retail. “Thank God they don’t, because that’s what is going to create our market,” says Judge.

Once you’ve found that magic pair of jeans, it’s uploaded to a computer, produced and shipped. If they happen to be the jeans of your dreams, you’re in luck — the computer creates an ID for you to order the same pair again, or customize further.

In this day of $500 jeans, many of which look just plain stupid anyway, getting a solid pair set to your preferences isn’t so bad. Attending a Denim Clinic will cost $165 to $200 with the upper-range not likely to happen.

“I haven’t written up a $200 pair of jeans,” says Krell, who brings his public relations skills to the venture. “You would have to be customizing every single possible thing.”

So why is it that this unique little operation is starting in Calgary? “Because we live here,” says Judge. But watch out Vancouver, you’re next.